26th May 2020 Newspage
That is over two months now since the call to lockdown came, the call to shut the hotels, restaurants and pubs in Scotland and the rest of the UK.
The Coronavirus Pandemic seems to have passed over much of the world in its first flush and we will see if there is the much vaunted second wave or not.
Sadly, many people have lost their lives to Covid-19; the UK death toll sits at 36,914 with 121 new fatalities.
“Stay home, protect the NHS, save lives”
In the main, the population seems to have done that.
“Stay alert, control the virus, save lives” has been a little bit more confusing with a UK / Scottish divide adding some confusion to the less obvious phrasing.
“Stay home” is quite clear “Stay alert” not quite so clear.
Thoughts are now turning to reopening, with much of Europe having opened up restaurants and bars or in the case of Sweden, never having shut them down.
What will the rest of the 2020 season bring? Difficult to try and say. No doubt, there will be some life and some businesses will strike up, pitch up their stall and trade. Others may choose not to. That is everyone’s prerogative.
At CIS, an office has been kept open at Sunnybrae in Moffat where I live and where CIS worked out of from 2009 upon leaving Wentworth Street in Portree and before the day to day business moved into the shop on Well Street in Moffat.
There are reduced opening hours for now.
Monday to Friday 9am to 3pm and shut 1pm on the Wednesday. No doubt, these hours will change. If you get an answer machine please leave a message and I will get back to you. As the jobs pick up, I will spend more time on the phones, a bit like the early days in Glenmhor on Skye, I have one landline and one fancyish mobile which will be used when the time comes.
The three ladies who worked at CIS have all started their notice periods of redundancy as of yesterday the 25th of May.
The main issues getting the CIS office back up and running Well Street would be BT and Caterer.com who are chasing CIS for full payments whilst there is no activity. I am loathe to pay them off.
CIS Prices for hoteliers and restaurateurs have been reduced, and CIS is keenly priced to go.
Initially, the rates for relief chefs will be down a couple of pounds also to reflect the expected supply and demand for chefs.
After 20 good years of trading, one bad year is maybe to be expected.
Hopefully, for all the decent, honest, hard-working and skilled chefs who are keen to get back to work, the work will come back.
Some- time in July?
Many of us will be ready.
Individual Iceland stores around the country have introduced an OAP's hour from 8am and 9am, some other stores have opened at different times to their preference. This was introduced to allow the elderly to shop in quieter and less stressful times. Bulk buying has became a nation wide problem and is stopping many vulnerable people getting the essentials needed to survive. I personally haven't stocked up on any essential items as I dont feel there is a need for it quite yet. Items such as toilet roll, long life milk, baby formula and pasta/rices are in high demand. Luckily where we are situated our local Co-op is well stocked and we also have an essentials shop up the high street. However, travel 15 minutes down the road to Lockerbie Tesco and the shelves are getting rather bare. We need to look after the more vulnerable in our communities and bulk buying only stops this.
Our local bakery is doing deliveries around the town to those who are more vulnerable and for the over 70's who are too scared to leave their house. We have a great community here in Moffat and it looks like the community is putting things in to place now before we are all in lock down like Spain, Italy and China. Hopefully it wont come to this but measures need to be in place.
We currently have 31 chefs out working with 11 confirmed so far this week
We have had 3 cancellations due to the coronavirus
If you are a relief chef that is booked and cannot make it to a job with symptoms of the virus please get in touch, at the moment we have excellent availability.
There are still lots of jobs being registered on a permanent basis, if you are looking for work please email over your CV which should be updated, reference details and hygiene certificate to recruitment@chefsinscotland.co.uk
Here are a few chefs we have out working just now
Kirsty Hamilton is at Thainstone House Hotel in Inverurie
Chris Wright is at The Kings Manor Hotel in Edinburgh
Peter Norrie is at Thainstone Events in Inverurie
Ross Hunter is with Stuart MacColl at Lomond Hills Hotel in Cupar
John Taylor and Ryan Williamson are at The Skeabost Hotel in Skye
Marc Taylor also in Skye he is at Kinloch Lodge Hotel
Michael Pallister is at Bishop’s House Isle of Iona
Chris Roberti is at Inn at Lathones in Fife
Philippe Alamichel is at Arnotdale House
Chris Robertson is at The Castle Hotel Huntly
Ben Mailer is at Airds Hotel in Appin
Jim Miller is at The Inverarary Inn
Brian Ferguson is at The Scores Hotel in St Andrews
Thanks all for your hard work and support 😊
Monday 9th March
As we are approaching closer to Easter the office is gradually getting busier. Relief has picked up and Johanna is getting jobs confirmed daily, permanent has also picked up significantly with jobs being registered daily. We have lots of permanent and seasonal positions available across Scotland including the Highlands and Islands such as the Isle of Harris, Isle of Skye, Fort William etc.
Jessica is currently on annual leave until Wednesday so myself and Johanna have picked up Senior recruitment for the time being. We have a good availability of chefs at the moment and we are getting lots of CV’s in daily. We are still getting chefs from outside of the EU looking for work in Scotland but we keep getting asked what is going to happen come December time. Sadly, I don’t think any of us really know the full scale yet of what is to come. We can only hope that those outside of the EU will still be given the right to work in the UK.
It has been a better week for relief chefs out with 15 so far for the week and 36 chefs out in total.
Hopefully this will continue to rise 😊
We have 3 permanent chefs placed so far this week with another offer
Adverts have been steady, we have 123 permanent / seasonal jobs currently on our website.
We are happy to meet chefs to discuss permanent or relief work here in Moffat, just get in touch to check our availability.
Here are some chefs we have out just now
Kirsty Hamilton is working today at Croft View Care Home
Martin Ewart is at Eden Court for a 4 week period starting today
Chris Wright is away to work at The Waterside Inn in Peterhead
Glenn Richards is at the Woodpecker in Lanark for this weekend
Ally Elder is at Balcary Bay Hotel
Allan Rennie is at The Red Lion in Forres
Glyn Musker is up in Perthshire at Inn on the Tay
Pat Johnstone is at Craigmonie Hotel in Inverness
Thanks to ALL our relief chefs for your patience, hard work and support we really do appreciate it 😊
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