Culinary culture proving popular

There are now three and business is thriving – and not just with Polish customers.

Daria Biala, who owns Tadek on Gateford Road with her boyfriend Krystian Grobezny, said: “We get a variety of customers.”

“We get English but we’ve also had people from Germany, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria.”

Daria, 24, moved to Britain five years ago to study finance and accountancy at Nottingham University.

After gaining her degree, she decided to go into business with Krystian, 26, rather than get a job as an accountant.

She said: “I love working here because I meet different people every day and you can build relationships with people from many different countries.”

Krystian has lived over here for eight years and when Daria decided to leave Poland she met with some resistance from her parents.

“They weren’t happy because they wanted me close to them, but they have visited me here and they are happy for me to be here now,” she said.

Daria said English customers like the Polish sausages, particularly kabanos, and bread, which are also popular with the Poles.

She has found Worksop to be a friendly place and hasn’t struggled with the language.

“I learnt English in school and I also speak German and Spanish,” she said.

Daria, who comes from Zeszno near the German border, has found that a lot of older Polish people who came here after the Second World War like to shop at Tadek.

“It’s great to hear their stories and why they came here and what England was like back then. Their children and grandchildren come into the shop as well. Many of them don’t speak Polish but they know some of the Polish foods and it helps them to learn something about their past.”

Daria said that Polish people in Worksop have tended to integrate well, with many having British friends and even forming mixed relationships.

“We don’t tend to just stick together, we mix with other nationalities and the children go to local schools and pick up English quite quickly so they are speaking it better than their parents.” Pawel Kedziak opened Worksop’s newest Polish shop just before Christmas last year.

The 32-year-old said being in business here is much easier than in Poland, where there is more red tape.

Pawel, who lives with his wife and daughter at Kiveton Park, said: “Business is going well and I’m thinking of opening another shop somewhere else outside of Worksop.”

He said he was happy to pay his taxes here and do his VAT returns because it was so much easier than the Polish system. Pawel’s sister Magdalana Czekaj runs the shop for him and is equally enthusiastic about her life in Worksop.

The 26-year-old said: “We get English people coming in as well. They like our Polish sausage, fish in a jar, mackerel and sprats. They also like our cakes and bread.”

She moved to Britain a year ago from her home town Kamienna Gora. She said there had been some minor disturbances at the shop but that on the whole they had received a friendly welcome from Worksop people.

Kubus, also on Gateford Road, opened in 2008 and is run by Aram Abdulla and his cousin Sam Aziz, who come from Kurdistan. Originally they stocked Arabic and Asian food but gradually changed to Polish goods because of demand.

Aram, 28, said: “Now we stock 99 per cent Polish food. The most popular are the sausages. We changed to Polish food because there are more Polish people living in Worksop, it seems that every town you go in there are some Polish people so it seemed like a good idea.”

“I speak a little basic Polish, like how are you, but mainly they speak English.”