The available of relief work continues to get busy with around 60 chefs out workling.
Chris Roberti is currently up at Hotel Hebrides working as head chef, Rene La Barre was working at Fonab Castle, Lillian Clarkson was at The Burnett Arms and is now at The Ballachulish hotel, Andras Rethi is finishing a 2 week stint along with Tim Morris at The Tufted Duck, Richard Agnew and Douglas Gillies are over in Fife at The Old Manor Hotel, Billy Steel and Philippe Alamichel are helping out in the Borders at The Lodge at Carfraemill, Graham Smith is at Y Note Bar & Grill in Thurso, new relief chef Dale Haywood is over in Stornoway at The Caladh Inn, Johan Sikkema is at Culloden House Hotel, Gareth Connelly and Ionel Rizea are at The Drovers Inn in Memus, Mark Shaw finished up at The Isles of Glencoe and is now at The Alexandra Hotel, Phil Smith is in Uist at Langass Lodge, Ian Fleming is at The Ferry Boat Inn, David McConnachie is up in Moray at The Stotfield Hotel, Allen Jack back over in Tobermory at MishNish, Craig Whitelaw at Tormaukin Hotel, Tom Williams is back after working a Ski season and went to Loch Melfort Hotel, Piotr Dzidzic helps out last weekend at Hetland Hall, Alastair Kelly at Kastille Hotel and Stuart MacColl is back at Ardlui covering holidays.
Thanks all for your very hard work
We are able to take calls now on our usual number 01683 222830
Our main phone lines are down at the moment so please call 01683 221637 until further notice. 28th April 13.47pm
BT is working on the issue
The career structure in a kitchen can seem regimented at times and almost like a pyramid like most jobs. Its starts with the head chef at the top and can sometimes take a while to get to that stage.
Then below that you have your sous chef, covering for the head chef on days off and assisting to train the junior members of the team.
Then you have your chef de parties who should be able to run a section of the kitchen and usually able to jump around the sections. When I was working as a chef de partie I found it beneficial to work a stint on all sections of the kitchen including sauce, larder, garnish and pastry.
At the bottom of the hierarchy is the commis chef usually fresh out of college or with minimum experience.
The skills required to become a chef are determination, hard work, good food knowledge, health safety and hygiene as well as time and people management. These are all good skills and surely can be transferred to many other environments in life. I think being a chef is a much respected job as it can take a lot to get to the top and usually you have to sacrifice a lot of your time, effort and money to get there. When you make it to the top as a head chef there is much further you can go than that other than executive chef of which jobs seem to be few and far between. So what’s next?
These transferable skills should be able to be used in other industry related jobs such as mentoring, lecturing or health and safety officials or even chef recruitment. Once you’ve got to the top there is always ways to keep improving but as we all know this job can be taxing on your health physical and mental as well as your family and social life. So I guess we all come to that point in life where we want a better work/life balance. So it should be 100% possible to shift your direction in career once you have got to the top.
Jessica
Relief is keeping steady with the availability of chefs being OK.
If you do have any availability please PM me or email jojo@chefsinscotland.co.uk and if you also would like to book in for an interview to discuss relief we are keen to meet new chefs and chefs who we have not met. Please get in touch for our availability.
Dmitrij Cvilij is working at The Balcary Bay Hotel in Dumfriesshire along with Chris Daily, John Frame is up at The Scalloway Hotel in Shetland, Tim Morris just finished down at the Bridge Hotel in Buttermere, Ally Elder is at Lochnell Hotel, Mark Bellingham at Hetland Hall Hotel, Vytis Baltrunas is at Eden Court Theatre, Alan Baird at The County Hotel in Stornoway, Andre Burney at Sumburgh Hotel in Shetland, Gary McGirr at Tilmouth Park, Glyn Musker at Cumbria Park Hotel, David Ironside at Glencairn Care Home, Kirsty Hamilton and Grant Buchanan at The Drovers Inn in Memus, Lillian Clarkson at Burnett Arms in Banchory, Andras Rethi at Dryfesdale Hotel in Lockerbie, Ricky Agnew at The Old Manor Hotel and Graham Smith at Y Not.
Thanks to you all for your continued hard work and support.
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