Italian restaurants say they are struggling to cope without 'authentic' waiters ... trends now

Italian restaurants are struggling to recruit 'authentic' waiters and kitchen staff due to new Brexit rules, with bosses claiming their British replacements aren't up to scratch. 

For decades, countless young Italians have travelled to the UK each year to learn English and serve in restaurants dedicated to their homeland.

But post-Brexit rules have disrupted this ritual, meaning that foreign staff have to earn at least £38,700 for a working visa - in turn causing a huge strain on the hospitality industry.

The new rule will likely significantly reduce the number of Italian's living in London, according to local media in the European country, in turn affecting staffing at pasta and pizza restaurants in the UK. 

And for many of these restaurants, having authentic Italian workers is fundamental, with bosses claiming those native to the Roman country are much more dedicated to hospitality work than the British teenagers taking their place.

Nicola Mewitt, 35, who has been a manager at Padella in Borough High Street for a year said: 'The number of people applying from Europe in general has fallen massively. They can't come here to work anymore. 

'It has been hard to find team members. I haven't been able to hire any Italian people since I have worked here. Now all of our waiters are younger British people. It doesn't feel fair to say but they aren't as good as the Italian and Spanish staff were.

'They are all living at home, so they don't really need the money or care about hospitality. They don't have any passion for it.'

The manager said she thinks the Brexit rules have taken away opportunities from hard working people.

'Lots of the people who left during Covid weren't able to come back. People used to be able to come here and live their lives but now they can't. It is such a shame,' she added.

'I used to love working with lots of different people from across the world and different backgrounds. 

'You used to get people of different sexualities who weren't accepted in their own countries, and they would come here and be accepted. That happens a lot less now.'

Today, London alone is home to up to 500,000 Italians, more than Bologna, which would make it Italy's seventh largest city by population.

Despite the new rules, highly qualified Italians offered more than the new minimum salary will continue to arrive and workers can apply for a visa for jobs with a lower salary threshold if their role is on the UK Immigration Salary List.

But even before the new minimum salary hike, many companies were put off hiring Italian waiters and lower-paid workers , due to the high administrative costs of obtaining a work visa for them.

A family run restaurant in Borough Market called Alma's said that they have lost all their staff to the new rules and have been left to run the restaurant by themselves. 

The shortages led the owners' daughter, Arilla Mlaj, having to quit her job and come back to waitress for her parents full time.  

She said: 'We have no kitchen staff and no waiters anymore. The era of Italian workers in London restaurants has gone.

'Since Brexit there have been no Spanish or Italian workers at all. Staffing has been a really serious issue. I had to leave my job to come back and work at the family restaurant after Covid because there is no staff.

'It is just me and my parents and they are getting older. My mum is having health issues. If we go on holiday we have to close the restaurant

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