Social affairs minister Lodewijk Asscher has relaxed his ban on Chinese restaurants bringing specialist cooks into the country in return for concessions on retraining local chefs.

Asscher stopped his officials extending work permits to foreign chefs at the beginning of this year in an effort to reduce unemployment among Dutch cooks.

Chinese restaurants went on the offensive against the plan, arguing that Chinese chefs cannot simply be replaced by Dutch staff.

Asscher has now agreed that Chinese cookery should be seen as a specialisation, on condition that wok experts also train Dutch cooks to do the job.