Between sunrise and sunset, Muslims around the world fast during the holy month of Ramadan, refraining from both eating and drinking – which brings us to the question, what about those observant Muslims working in the food industries?
Vice news reports on just that –
Hamid Islam is a restaurant manager in Huddersfield England and remarks, “It’s a bit like torture, to be honest. Imagine cooking and serving 40 takeaways and 80 people in the restaurant, being around starters, loads of main course dishes, without being able to eat. Plus we prepare the food every day, but we can’t taste it, so it’s difficult to know the flavors—whether a dish needs an extra bit of yogurt or salt. … It’s good for self-discipline. You’re forced to fight all your desires.”
Azeem Ali is a cook, server, and manager and says that some of his dishes makes him even hungrier, “I can tell whether a dish I’m cooking is nice because it makes me hungrier. I can eat anything, but my favorite is lamb. It takes extra effort when I’m cooking lamb.”
Amin Uddin is a waiter and says, “Busy times are much better, actually, because we’re concentrating on our jobs. You don’t have time to think about food. But, near the end of the day, when you’re not busy and there are leftovers in the kitchen, your mind responds to the food. You can’t stop it [laughs].”
