Another busy week on relief with around 60 chefs out working in Scotland and the North of England.
We are still very keen to hear from new chefs looking to do relief work – all you need to do is email a copy of your up-to-date CV to recruitment@chefsinscotland.co.uk and we will call you and get you registered then as standard take at least 2 references.
We are also meeting new relief chefs at our office in Moffat.
Out at the moment:
In the North of Scotland
Michal Buczkowski is coming to an end at Tongue Hotel where Mark Bellingham is in his 2nd week as Sous Chef and Gary Imlach has taken on a permanent head chef role.
Gary Imlach is currently at Eddrachillies Hotel and Restaurant.
Pawel Halicki was working with Jenny Quashie at The Mackays Hotel in Wick.
Tim Morris is in Sheildaig at Tigh an Eilean Hotel.
Mark MacCallum is in Ullapool at The Arch Inn.
David Ironside was working at Cuillin Hills in Skye.
Lillian Clarkson is at Armadale Castle in Skye.
Gareth Connelly is finishing up at Skeabost Hotel in Skye.
Andrew McMillan completed his first relief job with CIS also on Skye at the Duisdale Hotel.
Blair Mackay is back helping out Saurav Kumar at Eden Court Theatre where Stephen Kessell was for a few months.
Over on Stornoway – Kai Stutzkeitz, Lauren McConnell and Kevin MacAngus have spent time at The Caladh Inn, in Harris we have Gerry Mullen who is staying at Hotel Hebrides for the season.
Barry Richards is also new to relief and getting on well at The Station Hotel in Portsoy.
Ben Mailer was at the Coul House in Contin.
Peter Norrie was down in Aberfeldy at the Three Lemons Scott Bradley was also there for a few days last week.
Sarah Pozzi is at Killiecrankie Hotel enjoying her lovely accommodation and the beautiful scenery.
In Mull Ionel Rizea is at The Tobermory Hotel and Kevin MacAngus was doing a short stint at Mishnish.
Andras Rethi and Andrew Stott are in Northumberland at Eshott Hall.
In Dumfriesshire we have Mark Wilkinson and Yosef Shengheer at Caledonian Hotel in Dumfries and Daniel Haig at Balcary Bay.
In Northern England Stuart MacColl and Glyn Musker are at Bridge Hotel Buttermere.
There are many more I could mention but I would be here most of the day and I have relief jobs to fill.
More to come next week, hope everyone is getting a chance to enjoy the sunshine.
Thanks for all of your hard work and continued support.
Availability of Chefs in Rural Scotland 4th May 2017
Head chefs
In rural Scotland including Inverness, Aberdeen, The highlands and islands, Perthshire, The Borders, Dumfriesshire and all the west coast including Ayrshire.
There are some head chefs always looking for a new challenge.
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. Suggest paying in the region of £16 per hour with accommodation provided at no cost for seasonal positions.
For more permanent roles suggest £30,000 per annum upwards plus bonus scheme based on profit margins, turnover, wages ratio and if relevant for gaining accolades.
2AA Rosette and above head chef candidates with stable and relevant work histories are quite scarce. Suggest paying to £35,000 for a 2AA Rosette head chef
In general for head chefs suggest paying £28,000 upwards to £50,000 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.
Head Chefs may be ok to be paid monthly but more junior positions, we very much advise you pay weekly in what is a competitive market place.
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.
Sous chefs
In rural Scotland, it can be hard to get candidates but there are some candidates available if there is a good package in place.
2AA Rosettes there a few available. Suggest wages of £22,000 - £28,000 upwards to £30,000 for 3AA Rosette sous chef.
A good way to attract candidates is to pay hourly rates for every hour worked by chefs. For sous chefs suggest £12 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
In rural Scotland with accommodation there are a few candidates if wages are decent, suggesting hourly rate of pay and providing accommodation.
The availability of chefs who are looking for places such as Fort William, Inverness 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 or hourly rate £10.00 - £12.50 per hour with live in accommodation at a small charge.
We would hope you will get decent candidates with this.
Commis chefs
Pay relevant minimum wage per hour as opposed to salary.
These rates are for the National Minimum Wage. The rates change every April.
Over 25 £7.50 per hour
21 to 24 £7.05 per hour
18 to 20 £5.60 per hour
Under 18 £4.05 per hour
Apprentice £3.50 per hour
Thought for the week.
“chefs prefer to be paid weekly”
I have just returned from a week in Las Vegas. Certainly an experience and completely different way of life to what I am used to. It was my first trip to America and will definitely be back although not somewhere I would choose to live, although the bright lights of the casino and constant flow of people everywhere was exciting for the week.
We were fortunate enough to be staying in a suite with a kitchenette which was great as left plenty of space for snacks and wine before heading out for the evening.
We dined in a few different places. A couple of my favourite was the local Mexican inside the hotel we were staying in which made everything fresh. I ate there a few times and enjoy a taco bowl filled with brown rice, black beans, spicy chicken and fresh pico de gallo, cilantro dressing and homemade guacamole. My favourite! Another place I enjoyed was a Chinese noodle bar which served delicious ginger chicken with stir fried chow mein and fresh prawn dim sum, another one of my favourite foods!
Of course I had all of the usual food while I was there including steak and eggs for breakfasts, huge fluffy pancakes with maple syrup and bacon, all accompanied by a spicy bloody Mary of course. When on holiday…
On the last night we went to an Italian restaurant in the hotel which served great cocktails and lovely homemade pasta dishes. Also delicious.
The food was great but definitely not as good as the food scene in Scotland. Everything was very fast paced and available anywhere such as poolside nachos and cocktails.
For now I will get back to clean eating and think of where to go for my next holiday.
This week in the Chefs In Scotland office has been a very busy one.
If you are looking to do some relief work please get in contact with myself by emailing your CV to jojo@chefsinscotland.co.uk or you can call our office and register on 01683 222830.
If you are a chef already registered with CIS then please get in touch with any availability you may have.
Out at the moment we have
Pawel Halicki is in Wick working at Mackays Hotel where Jenny Quashie has been since October last year, Nelson Reposo has just finished at Kenmore Hotel and will be taking a permanent position close to home, Lillian Clarkson finished at The Waterside Inn and is awaiting her next placement, Yousef Shengheer is in Dumfries at The Caledonian Hotel with Mark Wilkinson, Tim Morris is up in Ross-shire at Tigh an Eilean Hotel, Mark McCallum was at Springkell and is currently at Loch Insh Watersports with Alan MacPherson, Phil Smith and Mick Kitson are back in Lockerbie at The Dryfesdale Hotel, Graham Smith and Daniel Haig ar in Shetland at the Scalloway Hotel, Sarah Pozzi was at The Kings Manor Hotel in Edinburgh and is now up in Perthshire at Killiecrankie Hotel, Glyn Musker went straight from The Waterside Inn to Ardanaseig Hotel and is now in the Borders working with Shaun Murray at The Cross Keys in Kelso with lots more out working all over Scotland.
Thanks for all your hard work guys and gals.
Still happy to meet chefs here in Moffat at our office, please get in touch and we can give you our availability.
Hi guys, Thursday already!
This week has been a busy one here in the office. Jessica is currently on her holidays over in Las Vegas so we are one person down.
It has been a full on week, phones ringing away with people desperate for chefs – be it relief or permanent. When you have a small team, so much paperwork, CVS, phone calls, references, interviews to arrange and credit control to chase it can make your head spin.
The positives of chef recruitment is that no two days are never the same, there is always something happening and it is a fast paced environment where things have to be done quickly.
For the week so far we have 19 relief jobs filled, 35 adverts placed and 4 permanent. This week in-between phones ringing, we have been chasing up references, registering new relief and permanent chefs, sending out CVS and doing searches for jobs. (so if any of you want to be a chef in a rural area – drop me an email!)
In fact – in the time it has taken me to write this, Johanna has had a new relief chef registered, I have had an email regarding placing adverts and Michael has a permanent head chef placed after spending the morning chasing up all the credit control.
Chef Recruitment – never a dull moment!
Alannah Morrison
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