News

Availability of chefs

Availability of Chefs in Scotland 13^th February 2017

Head chefs

There are head chef candidates in central Scotland if paying in excess of £28,000 and upwards.

In other major Scottish cities such as Inverness, Aberdeen, Stirling, Perth, Dundee, there is good availability of head chefs, again suggest paying £25,000 upwards, the more money the more choice of good candidates you will have.

In rural Scotland including Skye, Shetland Islands and rural Argyll there are candidates if paying £25,000 upwards with accommodation.

2AA Rosette suggest £30,000 to £38,000 and for 3AA Rosette suggest £40,000 to £45,000.

One rural job in Argyll recently got 40 applicants.

Sous chefs

If it is a live in position for 4 star hotel suggest paying £22,000 to £30,000.

In central areas such as Glasgow, Edinburgh, Perth and Stirling can try live-out and you will get candidates. In rural Scotland, it can be harder to get candidates but there are some candidates available if there is a good package in place.

2AA Rosettes there a few available. Suggest wages of £24,000 - £28,000 upwards to £30,000 for 3AA Rosette sous chef.

A good way to attract candidates is to pay hourly rates for every hour worked by chefs. For sous chefs suggest £12 to £14 per hour this will help to attract and retain good candidates.

If paying salaried, we suggest five day week with overtime pro rata over 48 hours.

Chef de parties

Availability currently ok in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Perthshire and central belt. Quality can be mixed. In rural Scotland with accommodation there are candidates also..

There are some chefs looking for live in accommodation and may be happy to relocate.

If paying by salary £19,000 for a 45 hour week works out £8.11 an hour which is on the low side. Suggest paying up to £22,000 or hourly rate £9.50 - £12 per hour with live in accommodation at a small charge. We would hope you will get decent candidates with this.

Commis chefs

Few bodies available. Enclosed link to minimum wages.

www.minimum-wage.co.uk/

Pastry a few available happy to have a look

For perm we can look if pay “fee of interest” or advertise

Availability of Relief Chefs change daily and we can advise. Current rates are £12.50 to £16.00 per hour for full working weeks with fee to CIS on top of that of £50 plus Vat per week to 10 weeks within a 9 month period of the chef starting with you.

Out and about Friday 10th February

We still have around 20 chefs out on relief at the moment.

We have met a few chefs here in Moffat this week and still very keen to keep on meeting relief chefs and permanent chefs.

I know our relief chefs are waiting patiently for relief jobs to come in and hopefully this will be very soon.

We will start looking at taking new relief chefs on around Mid-March, all you need to do is email a copy of your updated CV along with recent contactable work references. jojo@chefsinscotland.co.uk

Relief chefs get £11 - £17 per hour paid net of tax and NI, return travelling expenses once there and once home either at 30p per mile or at cost price by public transport (bus or train) clean single accommodation at no charge (this may be in the hotel or staff accommodation) and you will get a minimum of 40 hours per week pro rata over 5 days.

Thanks for all your hard work and continued support.

Out and about Friday 3rd February

There are over 20 relief chefs out working in Scotland and the north of England.

I will be calling some of the relief chefs we have marked available to invite to Moffat to meet at our office as we would like to have met all relief chefs we are looking to get out this season.

We are free most days Monday to Friday and can be flexible on times to meet.

Michael George was down in Lockerbie at The Townhead Hotel, Jamie Atkinson and Kenny Bruce are both in Dumfries at The Caledonian Hotel, Jason Paxton is at the Links Hotel, Stuart MacColl was at The Creggans Inn, Andras Rethi is at Burts Hotel, Graham McLeish is at Drovers Inn near Loch Lomond, Vytis Baltrunas is at The Bothy Bistro, Mark Murray is at Springkell, Peter Norrie is back at The Grant Arms in Monymusk, Alan Baird was in Dollar at The Kings Seat Restaurant, Gary Imlach was back at Ardvasar Hotel in Skye, Sarah Pozzi is also back in Skye at The Duisdale Hotel, Michael Njoroge is at The Newton Hotel, Dale Paton and Jonny Lewis are helping out at The Dryfesdale along with John Taylor, Gareth Connelly is at The Kingsmills Hotel, Shaun Murray is at Cross Keys in Kelso and Jenny Quashie is back at Mackays Hotel in Wick.

Thanks to everyone for your continued support and hard work

Kitchen jokes

When I was working in kitchens there was always a lot of fun and some pranks pulled especially when I was starting out. When I was working in an Indian restaurant when I was 17 the chefs used to hide my lunch inside the tandoor oven and I used to have to go in and get it. Other times I have been locked in the walk-in fridge, and nearly set on fire also. But I must admit it was all in good banter and I never felt it was anything else.

I have also been sent to get a leg of salmon out of the freezer, covered in a bucket of water on a last shift and had chilli rubbed round the rim of my glass all day. One time the chef had asked me to ring through to the bakery for our bread order and gave me a random number for the local town. An elderly lady answered the phone and had no clue what I was on about. It wasn’t until the chef was in stitches until I realised what he had done. I have also been asked to try the salt crust but that is one that I didn’t fall for.

All of the time I thoroughly enjoyed myself travelling about Scotland.

What is the worst thing you have been asked to do when you were starting out in kitchens?