With 81 relief chefs still out working this is nearly double the amount looking back 3 and 4 years ago in 2013 and 2014.
We are placing interviews with new relief chefs for the 2018 season and looking for these to take place in November and early December, if you are thinking of doing relief work please email over your CV quoting RELIEF2018 to jojo@chefsinscotland.co.uk we will call you and get you registered take references as standard an...d be in touch to arrange a suitable time to meet.
We have 22 relief jobs out so far this week with more to go out today.
A few chefs out at the moment are –
James O’Brien is at Grant Arms Hotel in Grantown on Spey.
Vlad Sviridenko is at Bridge Hotel in Buttermere.
Lillian ‘Elaine’ Clarkson is at The Royal Hotel in Keith.
Sarah Pozzi is at Four Seasons Restaurant in Onich.
Steve Nye is at The Victoria Hotel in Rothesay.
Glenn Richards was at The Glenisle Hotel in Arran for a few days with back on dry land.
The 2 Ricky’s Agnew and Leyland are at Aysgarth Hotel in the Yorkshire Dales.
Barry Owen is up in Inverness at the Kingsmills Hotel.
Ian Harvey is at The Scalloway Hotel in Shetland.
Jordan Miller is at the Mustard Seed Restaurant in Inverness.
Ryan Marshall is at The wheatsheaf Hotel in Swinton.
Craig Eggers is at The Kastille Hotel in Turriff.
Lots of excellent feedback from the establishments keep up the great work.
I am also getting everyone’s availability for working Christmas Day and New Year Day, double time is payable for both days. Drop me a PM or email to update our records.
We are now over half way through September already – I have no idea where the time is going! I have 4 weeks left until I go on maternity leave.
We are still busy in the office and there is a lot going at the moment. Relief is still extremely busy – the jobs are still piling in and we expect they will carry on like that until the beginning of November. If you are a chef well known to us, send an email to Johanna at jojo@chefsinscotland.co.uk and we can mark you available. We are still meeting relief chefs at our office too which is keeping us busy as well.
In terms of permanent recruitment, the adverts are still coming in and we are still getting a steady stream of CVs coming in every day. We are running our competition at the moment until the end of December – any adverts placed between now and the 29th of December will be placed into a prize draw to win a CIS mug, a CIS pen and a week’s free accommodation in the CIS apartment in Nerja, Spain to be taken in March 2018.
The daily jobs are keeping us busy also, downloading CVs, adding relief and permanent chefs to the databases and calling them to register them. We also are chasing up references twice daily, as well as chasing up credit control, doing weekly invoices and receipts, arranging interviews and adding all new fee of interest jobs to caterer.
Tom- (our director of special projects) is also being kept busy in the office managing our new project – the brewery in Lockerbie. It is an exciting project for Chefs In Scotland and we are all looking forward to seeing it develop. Jessica is very much looking forward to sampling the new gin and we will also be looking to produce 2 beers as well. We are looking to call the first beer "Dryfe Blonde” and Michael is looking for a name for the second beer – something spiky / punchy so if you have an ideas, feel free to give us some suggestions.
Tom is also looking for some ideas for a logo for our brewery - Galldachd na h-Alba Brewery. If you have any ideas email tom@chefsinscotland.co.uk – if we use your idea, you could win a bottle of the first batch of Lockerbie Gin. Good luck!
Head chefs There are head chef candidates in central Scotland if paying good money in excess of £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. At this stage in the season it is quite difficult to attract chefs and they will be more chefs becoming available as they finish the season in the next 8 weeks. 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 £13.50 to £14.50 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 £10 to £12 per hour. The availability of chefs who are looking for more rural jobs such as Fort William, Inverness-shire and West Coast is poor 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. www.minimum-wage.co.uk/
Availability of Relief Chefs changes daily and we can advise.
It has been a very busy month for the brewery. My first week at the start of the month involved a meeting with a local structural engineer, Paul Burley, who cast his eye over the property in Well street, making comments on how he liked the space and explaining what was required to make the building sound and ready for production. He pointed us in the direction of John Quigley, a damp preservation specialist, and David Little a stonemason from Dumfries.
Michael met with John and he indicated that we would need some work done on rising damp and I met with David who looked at the crack in the back wall and the gable end.
I have also been in constant communication with Homer Young a quantity surveyor from McGowan Miller in Dumfries. Homer has been helping us to secure the change of use of the building from the council. It is an old painter decorators after all! I met Homer and his associate at the building and he took all the measurements to draw up plans for the brewery. This will get submitted to the council and we should know if we have our change of use by October (fingers are crossed).
I also arranged an asbestos survey and by chance the company I approached had a surveyor who lives 2 doors down from the brewery. The results came through from the survey and who knew that old, black, 1970's toilets had asbestos in them?! I have arranged a meeting with an asbestos removal firm based in Glasgow at the end of the month.
I keep being emailed and asked about shares in the brewery and local interest keeps growing. I have prepared a draft prospectus, however, as I keep telling these thirsty locals, we must wait for the change of use before we start selling.
I spent a good day on the phone with water companies. Water being pretty crucial to a brewery and the cost of it! I discovered that we could be using up to 1.8 million litres a year which might just fill Moffat pond and then some. I did discover that buying such an old building does have its advantages: its an un-metered property so our water bill will be £300 annually.
I also continually research brewery sizes, gin recipes, brewing courses, logos and much more. There seems to be an endless pit of jobs that need doing. I do know though, that as soon as the change of use application comes through it is going to get ten times more hectic!
There are 87 relief
chefs out working this is up on last year by 22.
This year has been
considerably busier than previous years, sometimes we are unable to take on any
new relief jobs but soon get the queue down and start taking again, or we give
a percentage of the availability of getting a chef in 2 weeks.
When do you think the
season will tail off?
We are starting to get
a few chefs booked in for interview regarding relief work, please get in touch
and we will check our availability.
We have a policy in
place for taking chefs on over the winter.
I am also getting
availability for over the festive period, double time is payable on both
Christmas Day and New Years Day.
Relief chefs we got
out in July and that are still in the same place
George McCallum at The
Lovat as relief Sous Chef he started on the 18th July and is due to
finish this weekend.
Blair Mackay at
Portree Hotel as relief chef de partie he started on the 12th July
and is booked ongoing.
Leslie Kehoe at Glen
Nevis Restaurant as relief chef de partie he started on the 16th
July and will be finishing at the end of September.
Graeme Kennedy at
Carfraemill Hotel as relief chef de partie he started on 29th July
and is booked ongoing.
Phil Smith at Dryburgh
Hotel as relief chef de partie this is his 2nd stint and started on
17th July and is booked ongoing.
Mark Wilkinson at
Fonab Castle as relief chef de partie he started on the 17th July
and is booked ongoing.
Claudio Rockard at
Tongue Hotel as relief chef de partie he started on 24th July and is
booked until the end of October.
Dale Paton at
Glengarry Castle as relief Sous Chef he has been on and off there when he has
some space and is book now until the end September.
Derrick Bartley at
Loch Melfort as relief chef de partie he started on 17th July and is
booked ongoing.
Mark Bellingham at
Bridge Hotel as relief head chef he started back 24th July and is
there ongoing.
Alessandro Canevali at
Mackays Hotel as relief chef de partie he started 25th July and is
there ongoing.
Kevin MacAngus is back
at The Kenmore Hotel as relief chef de partie he started 2nd August
and is there until end October but possibly longer.
Sara-Jayne Moffat at
Cross Keys Hotel Kelso as relief chef de partie she started on 1st
August and will be finishing on 24th September.
Graham Smith at Tongue
Hotel as relief head chef started on 19th August and is booked until
19th September.
Paul Thomson at
Dunavon as relief sous chef he started on 27th July and is there
ongoing.
Bruce Robertson at
Loch Melfort Hotel as relief chef de partie started on 2nd August
and is booked until 24th September.
John Ferguson at The
Arch Inn as relief chef de partie started on 28th July and is booked
until the end September.
Scott Maciejewski is
at Achnagairn Castle as relief chef de partie he started on 6th
August and is there ongoing.
Patrick Johnstone at
Links Hotel and Park Hotel as relief chef de partie he started on 11th
August and is there ongoing.
RSS