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 £32,000+ 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 good. 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 £26,000 or £12-13 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 very good in Glasgow, Edinburgh and the central belt.
In rural Scotland with accommodation there are candidates and you will get applicants if wages are decent, suggesting £10 to £12 per hour or a salary of between £20,000 - £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.
www.minimum-wage.co.uk/
Availability of Relief Chefs changes, and we can advise daily. The rates of pay are £13 to £17 per hour according to the position.
You can’t work more than 48 hours a week on average - normally averaged over 17 weeks. This law is sometimes called the ‘working time directive’ or ‘working time regulations’.
You can choose to work more by opting out of the 48-hour week.
Exceptions
You may have to work more than 48 hours a week on average if you work in a job:
· where 24-hour staffing is required
· in the armed forces, emergency services or police
· in security and surveillance
· as a domestic servant in a private household
· as a seafarer, sea-fisherman or worker on vessels on inland waterways
· where working time is not measured and you’re in control, eg you’re a managing executive with control over your decisions
What counts as work
A working week includes:
· job-related training
· time spent travelling if you travel as part of your job, eg sales rep
· working lunches, eg business lunches
· time spent working abroad
· paid overtime
· unpaid overtime you’re asked to do
· time spent on call at the workplace
· any time that is treated as ‘working time’ under a contract
· travel between home and work at the start and end of the working day (if you don’t have a fixed place of work)
What doesn’t count as work
A working week doesn’t include:
· time you spend on call away from the workplace
· breaks when no work is done, eg lunch breaks
· travelling outside of normal working hours
· unpaid overtime you’ve volunteered for, eg staying late to finish something off
· paid or unpaid holiday
· travel to and from work (if you have a fixed place of work)
You can choose to work more than 48 hours a week on average if you’re over 18. This is called ‘opting out’.
Your employer can ask you to opt out, but you can’t be sacked or treated unfairly for refusing to do so.
You can opt out for a certain period or indefinitely. It must be voluntary and in writing.
Workers who can’t opt out
You can’t opt-out of the 48 hour week if you’re:
· airline staff
· a worker on ships or boats
· a worker in the road transport industry, eg delivery drivers (except for drivers of vehicles under 3.5 tonnes using GB Domestic drivers’ hours rules)
· other staff who travel in and operate vehicles covered by EU rules on drivers’ hours, eg bus conductors
· a security guard on a vehicle carrying high-value goods
Cancelling an opt-out agreement
You can cancel your opt-out agreement whenever you want - even if it’s part of your employment contract.
You must give your employer at least 7 days’ notice. You may have to give more notice (up to 3 months) if you have a written opt-out agreement.
Your employer can’t force you to cancel your opt-out agreement.
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Should recycling be compulsory?
Seeing recent photos and news articles in the media recently it really does make you worry about the level of waste we have on a daily basis. We have been discussing in the Chefs In Scotland office the last week on whether we should be using a recycling bin or not. It makes you wonder how much of the waste we have ends up in our oceans. You think to yourself that its only 1 plastic bottle or 1 crisp packet but if you multiply that by the rest of the world’s population it is a devastating amount.
Recent research shows that around 14 billion pounds worth of rubbish is swimming around in the ocean. Majority of the marine life starve due to this as they mistake the plastic waste for real food resulting in them not being able to digest the waste. It is said that a truck dumps waste into our oceans every 2 minutes.
Recycling is becoming more and more popular with many establishments having different coloured bins for plastics, food waste, cardboard etc and the odd compost bin. Compost bins are great for scraping left overs into, fruit peel s, coffee grounds etc. It is a great way to use left overs which means the soil inside can be re used to plant flowers and crops.
I have to admit, recycling has never been something I’ve ever thought about at home but seeing the drastic effects waste has on our environment it makes you want to do your bit to help. I want to try and recycle at least 1 bag full every week. It may not seem much but if we all did our own bit then the outcome would be worth it.
Do you have recycling bins and compost bins in your establishment you work in and what are your thoughts on it? Should we make recycling compulsory?
Jade Porteous
We currently have 26 relief chefs out working all over Scotland.
The relief work we have coming in is still very patchy.
We are still meeting chefs here in Moffat and we are available Tuesday AM or PM, Wednesday AM or PM, Thursday AM or PM and Friday AM or PM. Please get in touch to set up a day and time.
We are still registering new relief chefs but the priority will go to the chefs who are well known to us, we expect relief work to start picking up mid-March.
Some chefs we have out working
Mick Kitson is helping out at the Glenisla Hotel along with Ionel Rizea
Graham Smith is at The Balmacara Hotel opening the hotel for the season ahead
Michael Njoroge and Ally Elder are both at The Onich Hotel
Keren Tweedie and Scott Bolton are at The Nethy Bridge Hotel
Mike Scotford is at The Old Manor Hotel
Bobby Ainsworth is back at East Haugh Hotel
Chris Roberti is at The Cartland bridge Hotel
Ally Brown is at Macdonald Forest Hills Hotel
Jason Paxton is at Fife Arms Braemar
Dale Paton is at Fife Arms Turriff
Jason Keenan is over in Stornoway at The County Hotel
Sean Abernethy is at the Grand Hotel in Shetland
Peter Norrie is at Baxter’s in Fochabers
Lillian Clarkson is at Grantown East Heritage Centre
Stuart Maccoll is at Drovers inn
Thanks for all your hard work and support 😊
With this cold weather we have been experiencing it feels like the perfect time of year for what I would describe as comfort food. It’s a time for warming pies, hearty stews, hot pots, spicy curries and sometimes old-fashioned puddings. When you are working in a kitchen it can be so hard to eat sensibly at the best of times. I always used to struggle when I worked the pastry section as there was always so much fresh bread and desserts around it was hard to resist.
In the office its not too hard to get into a healthy eating routine as we have set lunch breaks but when you work in a kitchen and you work split shifts its hard to get into a good routine where you aren’t just eating whatever is going and eating on the go. It was a rare occasion to have a sit-down meal when I worked in the kitchen apart from one establishment which had set meal times and a good staff area. There are more and more establishments we speak to who have areas to have staff meals at certain times which I guess would be good for staff moral although not always do-able especially on a busy Saturday night.
When I was working splits, I used to go swimming at the local gym, or I would go for a walk in the area surrounding the staff accommodation which was in the Borders at the time. I found that this was a good way to maintain good overall well-being and was a nice way to clear your head from prep-lists and evening service.
What do you do to maintain a healthy lifestyle while working in a busy kitchen?
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