Head chefs
There are head chef candidates in central Scotland if paying good money more than £30,000 and upwards for head chef jobs.
In rural Scotland including Inverness and all the highlands and islands, there are a few head chefs and we advise offering accommodation with permanent head chef jobs to attract candidates. Otherwise you may have to wait some time until a relevant local candidate becomes available.
In rural Scotland and particular 2AA Rosette country house hotels relevant candidates are scarce. Skye, Shetland Islands and rural Argyll there are candidates if paying good money (about £35,000 for 2AA Rosette head chef)
Suggest
paying £30,000 upwards to £40,000 according to requirements and demands of the
job. Ideally we advise for a five day week and over-time paid on a pro rata
basis for extra days worked and for hours in excess of 48 on a pro rata basis.
Northumberland, Borders, Cumbria, Aberdeenshire, Dundee and East coast, and
Perthshire there are a few Head Chefs registered.
The more central, the more candidates you will expect to get and the more rural, the harder it can get.
With all the social media currently available, many chefs are becoming very savvy about where they wish to work and establishments with records of poor chef retention may find it harder to attract good quality permanent candidates. Scotland is quite a small country.
There are more chefs becoming available as the season is now finished although most chefs arent looking for new jobs until after the festive period. We do advise paying an hourly rate of pay of £14-£16 per hour with accommodation provided depending on location. This will attract candidates which may be of mixed quality.
Sous chefs
If it is a live in position for 3 or 4 star hotel suggest paying £25,000 to £27,000.
In central areas such as Glasgow, Edinburgh, Perth and Stirling can try live-out and there are a few relevant chefs. In rural Scotland, including Dumfries and Galloway, Aberdeenshire and Perthshire it can be harder to get candidates and there are very few candidates available depending on the package in place.
Suggest wages of £28,000 upwards to £30,000 plus for 2 AA and 3AA Rosette sous chefs.
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 is ok in Glasgow, Edinburgh and central belt. Quality can be mixed. In rural Scotland with accommodation there are a few candidates if wages are decent, suggesting £9 to £11 per hour.
The availability of chefs who are looking for more rural jobs such as Fort William, Inverness-shire and West Coast is limited although there may be some chefs looking for live in accommodation that 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 with live in accommodation at a small charge. We would hope you will get decent candidates with this.
Commis chefs
Very few bodies available. Enclosed link to minimum wages.
Availability of Relief Chefs changes daily and we can advise.
There are 40 relief chefs out working which is 17 up on last year.
With Christmas fast approaching, we are still waiting on some of you to get in touch with your festive availability.
Double time is payable on Christmas Day and New Years Day.
Relief jobs have been coming in steady this week with 10 jobs filled so far.
We have also met a few chefs at our offices in Moffat. If you are thinking of doing relief work next season, please get in touch with your CV and references to jojo@chefsinscotland.co.uk
Looking back to this time last year
Sarah Jeffrey was booked to go to Aysgarth Falls – currently at Duisdale Hotel
Mark Murray was at The Kingsmills Hotel – currently working at a permanent job in Edinburgh
Ally Bell was booked to go to The Wheatsheaf – currently working at a permanent job close to his home
Allen Jack was booked to go to The Stotfield Hotel – currently at Ben Nevis Hotel
Daniel Haig was booked to go to the Grant Arms Hotel – he has just finished at The Victoria Hotel and is booked for over Christmas
Derrick Bartley was at The Old Manor Hotel – currently still working at Loch Melfort Hotel
Shaun Murray was at The Cross Keys Hotel – just finished at The Gables Hotel
Mark Shaw was at Auchrannie Resort – currently waiting on his next assignment
Glyn Musker was at The Morritt Hotel – currently travelling back home to Crewe to return to Turriff at The Kastille
I would like to thank all relief chefs for their hard work over what has been a very busy season hoping some of you are enjoying a little down time before your next job.
Its 4 weeks till Christmas on Monday and relief has held up this week for bookings over the festive period. Johanna returns on Monday after 2 weeks off and Tom in on holiday next week for a break also. We are starting to get positions in for as far ahead as March 2018 so please do send your CV in if you are looking for work in the new year. jessica@chefsinscotland.co.uk
A few chefs booked in from 7th November are:
Keren Tweedie who is new to us this year is working over at The Kingsmills Hotel in Inverness
Ben Mailer is heading over to Stornoway back to The Caberfeidh Hotel.
Ryan Marshall is up in Orkney at The Albert Hotel.
Steve Moffat is at Carfraemill close to home in Lauder.
Michael George is heading to the Ben Nevis hotel next week.
Ryan Williamson is working in Bute at The Victoria and Esplanade Hotels for two weeks.
Graham Smith is finishing up at The Cartland Bridge Hotel with Paul Sellers.
Dale Paton is working the weekend at Cray House.
Mike Pallister is working at Lythe Care Home and Peter Norrie is taking over next week.
Mark Carswell is working at The Hebridean Princess which is moored in Greenock.
Lauren Mcconnell is over at The Bungo in Pollockshields.
Ionel Rizea is also heading over to the Scores in St Andrews.
As the newbie on the CIS team I have settled in very quickly to the recruitment side of things. Although my main task here at CIS is to get Galldachd na h-Alba Brewery up and running I come to the upstairs office and do some chef recruitment when one of the girls are on holiday.
I had never done any recruitment before and it was all totally new to me. The girls couldn’t have been more helpful introducing me to all the systems, the database and how to deal with all the enquiries we get. There is constantly more to learn but it makes the job very interesting as no two days are the same. Within a couple weeks in the upstairs office, I managed to get my first permanent chef placement; it was a good feeling! Chef In Scotland offers everyone a very generous bonus scheme which makes every placement that bit sweeter. But the main satisfaction comes from knowing that you have found someone a job that is suitable for them and helped them with their career.
I came back to Moffat after university and college with the thought that I would move away again to find the right career path for me. Little did I know that the best opportunity for me was right on my doorstep, a 5 minute walk from my house! It is funny how things work out.
With the brewery set to open early 2018 I will not be spending as much time in the recruitment office. This has also given the opportunity for someone else to join the team and to find the enjoyment out of the job that I have so far.
If you are interested in being part of the close knit team we have here in Moffat send your CV with cover letter to Jessica@chefsinscotland.co.uk.
Tom
There are currently 46 chefs out on jobs through us which is nearly doubled since last year.
I have been working on relief this week as Johanna is having a well-deserved two weeks off. Myself and Tom have been working towards beating last years statistics and we are not far off! I have actually quite enjoyed a little bit of a change as although we all pitch in to help get the relief jobs filled I think this is the first time I’ve had a... full run at it. The pace of relief is very different to permanent recruitment and it is much more reactive. It is a little bit quieter on relief which we do expect for this time of year.
A few relief chefs we have out working with us at the moment are:
Chris Daily is back working at The East Haugh House Hotel where he spent time working in the summer.
Sarah Jeffrey is over in Skye at The Duisdale Hotel.
Michael Pallister has finished working at The Blackbull Hotel in Lauder and is heading over to Knockomie Hotel in Forres for a week.
Alex Burns has been asked to stay on a bit longer at The Newton Hotel in Nairn.
Michael George has been posting some lovely photos of the food during his time at The Cullen Bay Hotel.
Claudio Rickard who is new to us this year is on his second job with us at The Old Manor Hotel after completing most of the season in Tongue where the feedback was excellent.
Jason Paxton is over in Memus at The Drovers Inn until the end of the year.
Shaun Murray is working for a few days in Dumfriesshire at The Gables.
Daniel Haig is completing a two-week stint at The Victoria Hotel in Bute.
Lillian Clarkson is working at The Queens Hotel in Oban with John Derrick.
Richard Gunn is working at The Links Hotel in Montrose until the new year.
Blair Mackay has just finished working back at The Eden Court.
Thank you all for your hard work and continued support.
RSS