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 good, basically, the more central and the larger local population the better availability.
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 £14 per hour for a one-man job cooking simple food to £45,000 and upwards.
For a standard hotel job in we would suggest £28,000 to £35,000 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 getting poorer as we move into the middle of the season. 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 quite a few candidates about and if paying decent money and offering good working conditions there is no reason why you cannot land and 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 and many establishments find it easier to take on relief chefs for the season.
Chef de parties
Availability is ok in Glasgow, Edinburgh and the central belt.
In rural Scotland with accommodation there are fewer candidates, but you will get applicants if wages are decent, suggesting £10 to £12 per hour. The more money you can pay the better the availability of chefs is.
For chef de partie jobs it is a chef market.
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 are often a couple of specialised pastry chefs looking, not always though.
Enclosed link to minimum wages.
Availability of Relief Chefs changes daily and we can advise daily, it is currently quite tight as you would expect for the time of year. The rates of pay are the same as last year which is £13 to £17 per hour according to the position.
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It has been a busy couple of days back at the office this week after my two week holiday.
I spent my time off entertaining some of my Canadian friends who had come over to visit me. I decided that it would be good to show them as much of Scotland as possible as it was their first trip here.
We started off on the island of Gigha off the Mull of Kintyre: it is a beautiful 6 mile long island and has one of our clients- The Boathouse- a few hundred yards from the ferry. The food was excellent!
The next stop was Arran, and after a very brief night we left thanks to an ignorant campsite owner!
On to Aberfeldy we went passing a few more of our clients; The Bridge of Lochay hotel, The Waterfront at Kenmore and the Three Lemons in Aberfeldy. After a couple of nights there we went onto Dundee and then to Perth for a volleyball tournament.
We ate at a Mexican restaurant in Perth with a large group of my volleyball friends from back in my uni days, it took 2 hours to get our food! But thankfully we had good enough company to not notice the wait too much!
After Perth we had another brief stop in Aberfeldy before going onto the Isle of Skye. We stayed at the campsite at the Sligachan hotel and had a great couple of days on Skye.
On the journey back to Moffat we passed a few more hotels that use us for chefs, the Drovers Inn and the Ardlui hotel on Loch Lomond side.
The weather was beautiful for the two weeks we were exploring and it definitely gave my Canadian friends a false impression of Scotland but it was great fun!
Now I’m back we are pushing on with the brewery and the chef recruitment office seems even busier than before.
We have over 70 relief chefs out working just now with 30 being booked this week so far.
All in all it has been a very but week in the Chefs In Scotland office.
As of today, any new relief bookings rates of pay for chefs will be ……… Head chef £17 per hour, Sous Chef £15 per hour and Chef de Partie £13 per hour – premium rate applies for 3 days or less also.
Tom will be back after 2 weeks annual leave and will get back to placing junior chef and Jessica will go back to senior chef recruitment.
We are still looking for available as we have so many relief jobs needing filled, if you are flexible of position and location you can be kept in work right through to the end of October and possibly longer.
Working just now
Sarah Jeffrey is at The Old Mill Inn in Pitlochry
Kevin MacAngus is at The Cairndale hotel in Dumfries
Bruce Robertson is at The Glen Nevis Restaurant
Donnie Lamont is at The Castle Moil Restaurant in skye
Thomas McLean is at The Popinjay Hotel in Carluke
New recruit David Maxwell was over in Mull at The Mishnish
Chris Robertson is at The Moorings Hotel in Fort William
New recruit Pedro Campos is at The Ballachulish hotel
Dom Kelecius is at Ardlui hotel
Ryan Willamson is at The Onich hotel
Sebastian Luszczynski is at La Garrigue in Edinburgh
Roo Edwards is going to The Oswald House in Fife
Alan Anderson is at Y not in Thurso with John Taylor
David Ironside is in Iona at Bishop’s House
Taylor McFarlane is at The Fife Arms in Turriff
Ally Brown is at Balmacara Hotel.
We have been getting lots of excellent feed back from establishments
Thanks all for your hard work and support 😊
Its been a busy week so far in the Chefs In Scotland office and I imagine that all of our chefs are starting to feel the heat in the kitchen after two busy bank holiday weekends this month as well as the increased temperature making al fresco dining and generally eating out more popular every day of the week. Its still half term in some places so again those of you who are working in holiday resorts again will be feeling how busy it is getting. I remember many a time working in Thornhill with the music festival and the various bank holidays throughout the year, starting very early in the morning and not finishing till late at night. But on a day like today when the sun is shining I would love grabbing a quick break in the sun and soaking up the rays. The atmosphere in the kitchen on a bank holiday was always buzzing and I remember running about getting checks sent out enjoying the kitchen banter with the other chefs, including a couple of our relief chefs who’s names will not be mentioned.
I think when its so busy like that it is important to keep the fun aspect up as long as the task at hand is being completed because otherwise it can feel so draining and your adrenaline would drop. When we are working in an office of course it’s completely different, its less hot for one, but we still try and keep the work atmosphere and moral high so that everyone can perform at their best.
What I want to know is what do you do in the kitchen to keep moral high on a busy day, so everyone can get the job done to the best of their ability?
Jessica
With over 70 relief chefs out working all over Scotland and 17 booked out so far this week, the availability of chefs is getting tighter as you would expect for this time of year. If you are a chef who is known to us and would like to do relief work please email your updated CV to jojo@chefsinscotland.co.uk or you can call 01683 222830.
Over all May have been a very busy month for the CIS team with lots of hits and moving office, we are now fully functioning and enjoying our new office space.
Tom is on annual leave and has been visiting Gigha with his Canadian friends (Happy birthday Tom) hope your enjoying all the sunshine.
A few chefs who we have out
Sebastian Held is on his 2nd relief job through CIS and is in St Andrews at the Ardgowan Hotel
Kieran McEachern was at The Clachaig Inn and is currently at Onich Hotel
Tom Williams is at Tontine Hotel in Peebles
Robin McCrindle is at La Piazza in Carluke
Alex Burns and Jonny Lewis are both at The Royal Dornoch Golf Club
Stuart Agnew is back up at the Ben Loyal Hotel
Martin Hamilton is at The Kirkwall Hotel in Orkney
Lillian Clarkson is at Nethy Bridge Hotel
Sarah Pozzi is a The Granary Restaurant in Portree
Shaun Murray is just finished at The Cuillinhills Hotel in Skye
Nancy Rafferty is at The Kings Manor Hotel
Glyn Musker is at The Cross Keys Hotel in Kelso
Thanks to you all for all of your hard work and continued support, we appreciate it
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