News

Availability of Chefs 23rd November 2015

Head chefs

To attract a good quality of head chefs in the central belt, including Glasgow, Edinburgh and Perthshire suggest paying in the region of £28,000 – £30,000 live-out with overtime paid after 48 hours.

For more rural areas of Scotland including Aberdeen suggest paying a minimum of £30,000 with live in accommodation at no charge (or minimal charge) and overtime after 48 hours. Also suggest putting concise, achievable bonuses in place. If you can do this you should expect to attract a number of relevant candidates.

For 2-3AA- Rosette chefs suggest paying £30-40,000 with live-in option and overtime after 48 hours, this should attract stable and good quality candidates.

For pub chefs suggest paying at least £26,000 depending on location with live-in option available.

Sous chefs

Availability of sous chefs in central belt is good. If you are in a central location such as Glasgow or Edinburgh and you pay an hourly rate of £11-13 per hour or £22,000 with overtime after 48 hours you will attract a number of candidates.

For 2-3AAR suggest paying £24-30,000 with live in charged at a minimal rate, especially for rural areas including Aberdeenshire.

Chef de partie

The availability of chef de parties for central areas such as Edinburgh, Glasgow and Perth is good. Suggest paying an hourly rate of £9-11 per hour paid weekly to attract good candidates.

To attract chef de parties for more rural locations suggest having live-in accommodation and charge a minimal rate or free. Ideally Wi-Fi and TV will be available and meals whilst on duty. Suggest also to look at being more innovative with time off such as one weekend off per month and three nights off per week.

Good quality Training systems provided can also help as well as day release for college also.

Commis chef

Availability of commis chefs is reasonably good if there are good quality training and systems in place. Suggest paying minimum wage which is £6.70 if the chef is over 21 and £5.30 if they are over 18. Or put in a salary in of between £13,500 and £15,000 with accommodation to be charged at a minimal rate or free.For more rural areas of Scotland including Aberdeen suggest paying a minimum of £30,000 with live in accommodation at no charge (or minimal charge) and overtime after 48 hours. Also suggest putting concise, achievable bonuses in place. If you can do this you should expect to attract a number of relevant candidates.

Out and about Thursday 19th November.

We are getting closer to the end of November with over 20 relief chefs still out working.

Relief chefs still out are Alan MacPherson at the Pierhouse Hotel, Henry Samms up at The Brae hotel in Shetland, Ismail Kilicaslan at Ardanaiseig Hotel, Daniel Elliot over in Arran at Auchrannie, Sara-Jayne Moffat will be heading up to The Kingsmills Hotel, Piotr Miga at The Station Hotel, Lillian Clarkson was asked to stay another extra couple of weeks at The Links Hotel, John Cook is down in Buttermere at The Bridge Hotel, Alan Baird is over at The Apex Hotel in Dundee, Jamie Atkinson at the Kingsmills Hotel with lots more that we have stopped billing for.

Again I would like to thank you all for a very hardworking and busy season.

I am still taking availability for Christmas and New Year please give me a call 01683 222830

Chefs In Scotland News Page 18th November 2015

We are now into winter and the weather is as expected for this time of year. The rain is coming down heavy and the dark nights are setting in earlier and earlier.

This week at Chefs In Scotland I have been contacting hoteliers regarding student placements for summer 2016. My aim is to get in touch with establishments that are well known to us to see if they would be interested in taking students for a 3 month placement over the summer. Placements would require accommodation, pay a minimum rate and be willing to train the students. The idea is to give the students a good footing into the industry. I had to do this when I was at University as did the rest of the students on my course. Some chose to be close to home whereas I got the chance to go to Skibo Castle and it was a fantastic experience. It is an amazing place as are lots of places in Scotland. I met lots of people from different walks of life and we are still in touch now 6 years down the line. So I would definitely encourage budding chefs to get into work placements and embrace it as best you can.

Johanna has been busy getting the availability for relief chefs over Christmas and New Year. Double time is payable on both of those days so if you haven’t given us your availability yet please phone the office.

Recently we have made permanent placements over on Skye at a 3AAR Hotel and 2 over in the Borders and another over in Perthshire at a 5* hotel. The adverts are also coming in all over Scotland including Sutherland, Ayr, Aberdeen and Edinburgh to name a few. Please register for our new function CIS for chefs and you will get regular updates of new jobs on the website.

For now to get this uploaded and back to chasing up more references.

Jessica

Helpful CV writing tips

When we get CVs in at Chefs In Scotland there are a number of things we look for:

1. Key information- name, address, phone number and email address.
2. Up-to-date information- the CV you send in should have on it the current or last place you worked at.
3. Education
4. CVs should ideally be no longer than 2 pages including a short summary of what you are looking for.
5. Stability in a job – precise dates that you were there and your position- if it was a short stint was it relief work or seasonal?
6. Clear and concise objectives to what your plans are
7. Hobbies
8. References – contactable, relevant and recent references

We are happy to help write CVs so you if you need assistance call the office on 01683 222 830 and speak to Jessica or Johanna.