Existing strengths provide food for thought
BACK in 1994, an 18 year-old rugby player with just 11 professional appearances for Waitakere City Raiders was sat watching television at home in New Zealand, preparing to leave his family behind to move to the other side of the world.
He was about to follow in the path of his older brother, Henry, and come to England to pursue his dream of becoming a star.
On came Rita, Sue and Bob Too, a 1980s film that has been variously described as “a realistic story of working class Yorkshire life” and “Thatcher’s Britain with her knickers down”.
“It was my introduction to Bradford – let me just say I got off the plane with a piece of my mum’s skirt still held tightly in my hand,” says Robbie Paul, who would quickly become one of the first superstars of the Super League era and over the next 12 seasons go on to become one of the club’s greatest-ever players.
For the last two years, Hunter-Paul (as he has been known since his 2010 marriage) has been Bradford Bulls’ chief executive, trying to recreate his talismanic role as he seeks to lead the
club back into Super League.
While rugby league has helped to significantly boost the city’s profile, he believes its broader cultural offer can be utilised to create a strong identity and selling point.
“When I was as an outsider looking in, one of the things that always amazed me was Bradford’s cultural diversity,” he says.
“I come from a mixed race, my father is New Zealand Maori, my mother is New Zealand European, she’s English.
“The cultural diversity of the city is something I remember was high on the agenda a decade ago when it was going for the City of Culture.
“When it comes to culture, food is always part of an identity and is a great way of connecting people.
“For me, for Bradford to give itself a unique selling point, food could be the way forward.
“I can’t look across the width and breadth of the north of England and think ‘that’s a place to go for food’. I go to Leeds for a night out and shopping, but we are talking about what’s going to make Bradford unique.
“It is about what we have already got within the city that can not only make it unique but be part of its identity.”
In October, Bradford won the title of Curry Capital of Britain for the fifth time in a row. Curry is a serious business in Bradford, with renowned restaurants Mumtaz and Aagrah consistently growing.
Watson Buckle supported the World Curry Festival, which was held in Bradford this year, and director Mark Wilcock also supports making more of the city’s gastronomic heritage.He says: “There should be more than just curries but that is a positive association with the ethnic mix of Bradford, which we really should be celebrating. There’s a great opportunity in food, particularly because I think there is a need for more restaurants.”
Sovereign Healthcare chief executive and Londoner by birth Russ Piper also believes food presents a real opportunity for the city.
He adds: “In London if you want Chinese food, you go to Gerrard Street – Chinatown – because you can have every type of Chinese food there.
“There is that diversity in Bradford but it’s spaced all over the place. There are all these shops in the bottom end of town – if the opportunity was to create a food centre there, that would link both sides of the city as well.”
