News

New York

I am just back from celebrating my 21^st birthday in New York with my boyfriend Jordan. We spent 5 nights over in New York, we flew with Virgin on a Delta flight and stayed at the Wyndham New Yorker Hotel. The flight was comfortable with a complimentary bar and nice food which was a surprise as plane food isn’t always the nicest. I had creamy gnocchi and a salted caramel pudding, all meals and drinks were included in our flight. We landed at JFK after a 7-hour flight and we were in border control for around 2 hours before departing for the city.

Our first night consisted of a walk around times square and a pizza before settling in for an early night. We woke up on the Saturday which was my birthday and we headed for the 9/11 museum, a rather wet and windy day so we didn’t stay for long. We decided to go to Madame Tussauds as the weather was getting progressively worse. We really enjoyed it and we spent just over an hour in there before heading to Bubba Gumps, the famous restaurant chain featuring memorabilia from Forrest Gump, for some lunch where I was surprised by the whole restaurant singing Happy Birthday and a small cake. We headed back to the hotel before going to Keen’s Steakhouse for my birthday meal. Two fillet steaks, dessert and a few drinks later we left with full belly’s and a rather light pocket.

We spent the next few days sightseeing and attended a basketball game on the Sunday night. It was an amazing trip and a once in a lifetime opportunity! We would definitely go back but maybe in a good few years when hopefully there are some new sights to see too. Potentially at Christmas time because I’ve heard its magical.

A few highlights of the trip were the New York Knicks vs. Brooklyn Nets basketball game, where there was a lovely tribute to Kobe Bryant who sadly passed away that day and also visiting the Empire State Building. We got to try a corndog too which was surprisingly amazing, we enjoyed this as we walked through Central Park seeing some of the famous sights. One being the Lennon ‘Imagine’ memorial, just outside his apartment where he was shot.

I would recommend everyone visiting the city, we visited in the quietest month of the year and it was very busy for us so unsure about summertime! We booked through Barrhead Travel and they were brilliant, everything was so organised. Both Virgin and Delta flights were comfortable and our hotel was very central, straight across from Madison Square Garden, and the hotel was clean and comfortable and perfect for the 5 nights we were there. If you also book through Barrhead they ensure you don’t pay resort fees as you can get hit with around 50 dollar/ night fees if you book through yourself. Just a tip as they don’t tell you this until you arrive!

All in all, it was a fantastic trip! Another place ticked off the bucket list. Next stop, Australia…

Out and About 31st January 2020

It is the last day of January 2020 and it has been a quick month in the Chefs In Scotland office.

We currently have 24 relief chefs out working at the moment with 5 jobs being confirmed for this week.

There have been lots of adverts being placed on our website www.chefsinscotland.co.uk and Jessica has had a lot of interviews arranged and we have placed 14 chefs in permanent jobs so far.

Jade is now back in Scotland and will return to work on Monday after her time away in the big apple.

We have meetings with chefs booked in for next week and happy to meet chefs to discuss permanent and relief work subject to our availability.

Here are a few chefs we have out working:

Barry Owen is at the Galley of Lorne Inn

Steve Cameron is at the Red Lion in Forres

Sarah Pozzi is back at the Craig Manor Hotel

Ally Brown is at The Garret in Kirkcudbright

Ben Mailer is at Duisdale Hotel in Skye

Brian Ferguson is at The Scores Hotel in St Andrews

Michael Njoroge is at The Square Hotel in Kintore

Thank you for all your continued support and patience during this quieter time.

Recruitment trends 2020

I read an article last week in the Dumfries Courier about changing trends in the job market.

It found that in Scotland, 64% of people agreed that they no longer expected a job for life and only 15% had stayed in a job for 10 years or more. It seems it’s no longer what people strive for.

It also said that 47% of the surveyed group of people had changed careers at some point in their working life with the main reasons for this being to achieve a better work/life balance, to find a more challenging role or for a better salary. The article said there seemed to be a difference between younger and older workers with the average millennial having had as many jobs as someone in their fifties has had their entire life.

The survey found that those working in retail had changed jobs the most followed closely by hospitality. The main reasons for wanting to change jobs was found to be, more money, career progression or to work in another location.

How long have you been in your current job and if you were to change what would be the main reason?

Out and About Friday 24th January 2020

We still have 25 relief chefs out working all over Scotland, this is just 1 down from last year.

A little quieter for jobs coming in this week but this is to be expected for the time of year.

Policy on taking on new relief chefs – we are happy to get new chefs registered but the priority of work goes to the chefs who have worked all season and previous seasons. Relief work picks up from mid-March 2020. Please just email your up to date CV reference details and hygiene certificate.

We will look for ALL relief chefs to have a hygiene certificate and will ask for you all to email these over to me jojo@chefsinscotland.co.uk

You can do this online if you need to here is the link www.highspeedtraining.co.uk/food-hygiene

We have a few chefs booked in to meet in February, there is still some availability if you want to come and have a chat about relief work or permanent just get in touch with Jessica or myself to arrange a date and time.

We still have weekly meetings with Michael to go over how things are going in the CIS office and have been focusing a lot on the property we have making sure all legislations are up to date etc

Michael is kept busy at the Brewery but its good to still have the meeting so we can bounce any ideas off him and to still get direction.

We thank you all for your continued support a patience (at this time of year) we really do appreciate you all 😊