Go back

An Interview with Kandiah Rajakulasingam from Babu Restaurant – Connection

An image of three food trays at a counter, from left to right: a tray with a small amount of ground beef left, a tray with a tomato-based meat and bell pepper dish, and a tray with yellow sauce and pieces of meat.

Kandiah Rajakulasingam (interviewee), Parvesh Kumar (interviewer), Jean-Francois Obregon (interviewer)

Kandiah Rajakulasingam from Babu Restaurant reflects on the power of food to bring people of different cultures and backgrounds together to connect at his restaurant.

Full Transcript

KR: In the beginning, I have only Tamil workers, but now I have Malayalese and Telangu and even Punjabis working for me. So there’s no border for the employees, anyone interested can come and work with me. The same thing the customers, too. We have, everyone, all over, multicultural customers. I have Chinese, I have Indians, and I have all of them…When it comes to lunchtime, you will see 90% is non-Tamil. Yes, it’s not a cultural based-food, I mean place, but everyone come. Yes.

PK: Do you have mostly local Agincourt customers? Or do they all over from the GTA?

KR: No, no, in the weekend you will see customers from Brampton, Pickering, and Oshawa, all over downtown.