News

Working with your partner

Is working with your partner a good idea?

Working with your partner in the kitchen can sometimes cause problems in your relationship. I used to work with my partner at his parents hotel and it was not the easiest thing I have to admit. It’s not easy waking up with your partner every morning, and then heading to the same place of work and then going back home together. You don’t really get a moment to yourself. We get quite a lot of couples who enjoy working together and you often find that you will find your partner in the same industry as you.

I personally found it hard as we had nothing to talk about come the end of the day as we both worked in the same hotel and knew how each other’s day went. It can often get heated when the front of house and kitchen dispute. This happened with us quite often. It can often be hard to relay complaints from customers when your partner is the chef. We would often go home after a shift and laugh about some of the arguments we had on that shift.

Working with chefs can be tough sometimes and even more so when they are your partner. It’s hard to leave work at work and not take the problem home with you. From my own personal experience I wouldn’t work with my partner again, hats off to all of you that do! Many couples enjoy working alongside their partners and enjoy being able to share their passion with each other and it can often be a good thing. It can also be difficult when either of the partner shares different views on a subject and it can cause conflict a lot of the time.

What is your view on the subject? Is it something you have ever done or would consider?

Jade Porteous

Out and About Friday 29th March

We are now as busy as ever with 59 relief chefs out working all over Scotland, the Lakes, Cumbria and Northumberland.

We have 28 relief chefs confirmed this week, with more jobs to work on. The availability of chefs is getting tighter as expected for the time of year. So if you are a chef and have any availability please get in touch you can PM me, call 01683 222830 or email jojo@chefsinscotland.co.uk

We have 132 permanent/seasonal positions available on our website some of the jobs we actively search for and some are just apply direct. If you are looking for a new challenge then please email across your up to date CV to recruitment@chefsinscotland.co.uk

Relief chefs we have out working just now

Graham McLeish and Dmitrij Cvilij are at Duisdale Hotel on the Isle of Skye

David Bedo was as Eden Court and has taken the permanent position there (good luck David)

Steve Nye is at The Glenburn Hotel in Rothesay along with Ross Hunter

George McCallum is at The Links Hotel in Montrose

Blair Mackay is at Heathmount Hotel in Inverness

Jamie Shand is at The Mustard Seed Restaurant in Inverness

Michael George is at The Glenisla Hotel in Perthshire

Keren Tweedie and Peter Mallia are at The Old Manor Hotel in Fife

Lillian Clarkson and Frank Davie are both at The Kingshouse Hotel in Glencoe

Scott MacIntyre is at the Ben Nevis Hotel in Fort William

David Kelly is a new relief chef and is at the Mooring Hotel in Fort William

Stephen Flindall is back helping at Banff Springs Hotel

Michael Heffernan another new relief chef is a The Lovat Loch Ness in Fort Augustus

Calum Smith is at Pentonbridge Inn in Cumbria

Well there are so many more chefs I can mention but the jobs won’t fill themselves

Thanks to each and everyone of you for all your hard work and support 😊

Availability of Chefs 27th March 2019

Head chefs

If paying good money and in a central location such as Glasgow, Edinburgh, Stirling, Dundee, Aberdeen and Perth the availability of head chefs is very good, basically, the more central and the larger local population the better availability. Now is a good time in general to recruit for staff.

What is good money for a head chef? This can vary from a small pub to a large five star or 3AA Rosette Hotel and can be anything from £15 per hour for a one-man job cooking simple food to £45,000 and upwards.

For a standard hotel job, we would suggest in the region £35,000+ with overtime paid pro rata over 45 to 48 hours sanctioned by management.

Bonus schemes always help and can be based on getting a gross profit margin of over say 65 to 70% and it is always advisable stressing in advance how often the bonus is paid and what the exact criteria are. Other bonuses may be based on increase in sales. Keeping wages ratio down and helping to achieve certain net profits subject to maintaining quality of food, kitchen cleanliness and staff retention.

In more rural Scotland it is harder to get and retain chefs and often accommodation should be offered to attract suitable candidates.

Sous chefs

The availability of sous chefs in rural Scotland is average. Sometimes, a mature former head chef will be happy to take a step back to work alongside head chef.

In more central Scotland, there are candidates about if paying decent money (i.e. upwards of £28,000 or £13-14 per hour) and offering good working conditions there is no reason why you cannot keep a good sous chef with a stable track record.

In rural Scotland, there can be a need to think outside of the box to retain and attract good sous chef candidates. Its is almost essential that you will need to provide accommodation in rural areas.

Chef de parties

Availability is ok in Glasgow, Edinburgh and the central belt.

In rural Scotland with accommodation there are some candidates and you may get applicants if wages are decent, suggesting £10 to £12 per hour or a salary of between £22,000 - £24,000. The more money you can pay the better the availability there is.

Commis chefs

There are usually a few candidates available centrally or further afield if offering accommodation.

Pastry Chefs: this is quite a specialist position and there can be a couple of specialised pastry chefs looking, not always though.

Enclosed link to minimum wages which are increasing as of April 1^st 2019.

www.minimum-wage.co.uk/

Availability of Relief Chefs changes, and we can advise daily. The rates of pay are £12 to £18 per hour according to the position.

Out and about Friday 22nd March 2019

We now have just under 50 relief chefs out working this includes a few newly registered chefs who are getting on extremely well in their first job out with CIS.

We currently have 14 jobs confirmed for this week so far.

We are registering new chefs on a daily basis and are setting up meetings here in Moffat this is for relief work and permanent work, if you would like to come and discuss please just get in touch to check our availability.

Chefs we have out working are:

Frank Davie and Lillian Clarkson are both at Kingshouse Hotel in Glencoe

Peter Norrie at The Loch Melfort Hotel near Oban

Ally Elder is at Sure Hote by Best Western Lockerbie

David Maxwell is working his last shift today at Martha’s in Glasgow

Barry Owen is at The Scotland’s Hotel in Pitlochry

Chris Roberti is at Balgeddie Toll Tavern in Fife

Pawel Cimek is at The Mustard Seed in Inverness

Matthew Moorehead is at The Oyster Inn in Connell

Dale Paton and Ionel Rizea are both at The Inn on the Tay in Grandtully

Mark Bellingham is at The Drovers Inn near Loch Lomond

Thanks to all our relief chefs we have out working and to those still awaiting a job we really appreciate all your support and very hard work 😊