Where to find Chefs
Why chefs face near extinction
One of my chefs is leaving after three years of blood, sweat, burns and general verbal abuse, quite why he wants to leave Lincolnshire for the French Caribbean is beyond me but I wish him well.
Three years on and the chances of my replacing him with a young chef of similair experience are almost nil. When I was a junior chef you had to be on your toes, if you didn’t meet with the Head Chef’s approval then you knew there were plenty waiting to fill your shoes-how I miss the old days!
The majority of my chefs are French or German and have been for a few years now, trying to find a young, enthusiastic English chef who doesn’t list ‘clubbing’ as their main hobby is very difficult. In ten years I have never received a single application from a college student looking for either work experience or a full-time job.
The industry needs to take a good look at itself if the situation is ever to improve, better working hours, conditions and rates of pay which are in line with other professions are the first step with the schools and colleges offering more and better information about the trade in the first instance.
Food has never been so high profile in the media and we need to encourage more people to take an active interest in cooking. The amount of hotels and restaurants which use frozen food, ready made meals and packet soups and sauces is worryingly high, the skill levels are being increasingly downgraded to save money and the hassle of finding chefs.
I would like to see a shift in public support away from the big pub/happy eater type chains to those smaller restaurants, hotels and pubs who are cooking real food regardless of cost and staffing levels. I fail to see the point of going to eat in a restaurant which is serving microwaved lasagne when you could so easily eat it at home.
The problem is that young people are going straight into these frozen food joints thinking they will become chefs and that what they do there is ‘proper food’. They then get to the age of twenty two or three and have never butchered a joint of meat, filleted a fish or made a fresh sauce. There are now college courses designed for the quick, ready meal environment which will then qualify them as a ‘chef’. I couldn’t take a night class in DIY then call myself an engineer at the end of it so why should they?
In closing, support your local chef if you have one and if you know of a young enthusiastic chef then lock him up and call me!
Friends of mine have been telling similar stories and the owners of restaurants have often been forced into a very reduced menu or as you say buying in ready prepared food. Pubs however appear to be full at lunchtimes. Do you think that there is a shift in eating habits, i.e. lunchtimes and early evenings?
Do you think that TV programmes showing swearing and general stress are putting people off together with the unsocial hours of work?
August 16, 2007 @ 10:45 am
Miles
I would have thought that given the media onslaught and millionaire chefs like Moron Ramsay there would be heightened interest - seems not though.
Huge swathes of things and businesses are going to die away in this country and we only have ourselves to blame.
People are not educated to food, parents don’t educate their children, it spirals downward. Hence they are happy with Lasagne, chips and salad for £3.95 in Lincoln high street, or even 2 cooked breakfasts for £5 !
Imagine trying to peddle that crap in France or Italy !
August 16, 2007 @ 11:37 am
Miles,
Would you say no to a woman? By the way I can’t think of anyone other than a couple of desperate housewives who can cook which is appalling considering how many people I know. The rise of supermarket ready meals and working hours has landed us here. Does this mean more people are eating out?
So basically after all my other busy important work I’ve only got an hour a week to spare, what more do you need to know?!
Cid
August 16, 2007 @ 11:50 am
Miles,
I would imagine it is hard to find any staff ?. Partly due to the unsociable hours and rates of pay. Though I would have thought, as mentioned above with all the media coverage given to food, you would have been inundated with applications from people wanting to be world class chefs. I mean when you see the chefs on the Tv, it does give the impression that good money can be made.
August 16, 2007 @ 12:52 pm
Cid,
I currently employ three female chefs who I would hate to be without. I think food in the home has taken a turn for the worse as more couples are pressurised into working and consequently eating together as a family unit becomes more difficult. Time and money are no doubt important factors but young people should learn the basics of cooking before reaching adulthood when they may have the responsibility of feeding their own children.
August 16, 2007 @ 2:48 pm
Cid
I’ll bet they are but more interseting is where!
Pubs now seem to do huge food sales compared to a few years ago - not sure how ‘proper’ restaurants are faring though
Regards
Rod
August 16, 2007 @ 2:49 pm
Rod and SC,
You are right to think that the media would encourage more people to go into the trade but the biggest problem I have is in convincing young people that they cannot expect to be Jamie or Gordon in six months. Everyone wants everything now without putting in the graft. I spent three years prepping and cooking vegetables, stocks and sauces but I trusted my Head Chef to train me properly. Twenty three years on it has done me no harm and I am glad that I did it because it made me a cook first and not a chef with an embroidered jacket. I also think it takes a few years of maturing before young people build up a respect for food and the work that they do, the hard part is getting them to stick it for long enough until they do.
August 16, 2007 @ 2:56 pm
Rod,
I think proper restaurants would suffer a lot more if they didn’t have the business clientel to rely on. People say restaurants are expensive but so is the food we have to buy-my christmas turkeys have just gone up by 12% but my menu prices were set in February so we just have to take it on the chin.
August 16, 2007 @ 3:06 pm
Miles,
Interesting point, but do they have to be young, could not older people genuinely interested in food be the answer, admittedly the wages may be a problem, but perhaps the trade as a whole will have to address that issue if they want to keep skilled people in the trade.
I mean the main reason people go to work is the money, better money else where and they are gone.
August 16, 2007 @ 3:11 pm
SC,
The problem with employing older people tends to be twofold; the money as you mention and two the working conditions. Every year gets harder for me personally, the hours, heat and stress drains you and that is why you see so few chefs in their late forties and fifties, it is simply too demanding. I don’t wish to sound ageist but I know it would be very difficult for me to keep doing what I am doing at this level twenty years from now.
As for people doing it for the money, you would be suprised at how many chefs don’t do it for the money. When I went to Germany and the the Lake District I wasn’t bothered about the money I just wanted to work there.
We’re a funny lot!
Thanks for the great comments.
MIles
August 16, 2007 @ 6:21 pm
Christine,
A very good point about the menu size.
It’s very difficult, if you don’t have the chefs then a reduced menu makes sense in terms of prep time, labour costs and being able to cook and serve that particular number of dishes. The problem there though is that the customer has less choice so you rely on people not being too particular about what they eat. Ultimately any chef would like to produce a smaller menu as it means concentrating all of your efforts and skills into six or seven dishes rather than twenty. The very best restaurants across the globe tend to offer no more than seven or eight main courses, some of which have been on the menu for years. The main reason for this is that they are terrified of losing their michelin stars so they stick with what they know will please the inspectors. Sad but true-based on fact.
Thanks for commenting and welcome to the site.
Miles
August 16, 2007 @ 6:33 pm
SC
I thought you had made a valid point about some more mature cooks. Then I had visions of Miles checking out the local WI for suitable recruits. No doubt there would be some that could whip up a Victoria Sponge and a mean Steamed Pudd in no time, something his diners may never have experienced!
August 17, 2007 @ 11:41 am
Hello Christine,
I have found him some applicants locally, sadly though for some reason he is very reluctant to have an Arga fitted into his kitchen !.
On a serious note, one of my fondest memories as a child was visiting an aunt who lived in a very picturesque little cottage and cooked on an Arga. She later moved to a brand new bungalow, but I bet she missed that Arga.
The Victoria Sponge sounds nice, I will pop the kettle on, warm the tea pot and polish the Clarise Cliff, … Two for Tea it is then.
August 17, 2007 @ 1:19 pm
Hi SC
Miles also seemed to be concerned about the heat for the more mature. Well, for them the warmer the better, they are leaving the country in droves in search of heat. They also need much less sleep so late shifts would be no problem.
You seem to know how to make a cup of tea, very good start - a budding Chef perhaps?
August 17, 2007 @ 2:16 pm
SC,
Arga’s are the business, a friend of mine has one and he swears by it-the ultimate bachelor accessory perhaps?
miles
August 17, 2007 @ 4:38 pm