Wednesday 21st December 2016
It is calm and there is a light blue sky in Moffat today and the newly painted offices in the house at Sunnybrae in Moffat. Coldplay are singing a Christmas melody on the radio whilst Bentley the Basset Hound sits looking at his new pal, “El Poco” a Bodeguero from Nerja on the Costa Del Sol.
He found me when he was running along the road at night one Tuesday a few weeks back.
It is a little quiet in the Chefs In Scotland office today. Johanna has got two relief jobs out, sent a couple of applicants over for jobs applied for, and arranged a few interviews and we have one new advert on the website for 2017, up in Tongue.
I have posted a few Christmas cards and looking over the business to check what has happened in the last couple of months when I have been away, driving down south to Nerja and then back up again after a suitable period of rest in between in the mainly pleasant weather overlooking the Mediterranean sea.
I found some interesting places on my drive down such as Pons in the south of France where we kipped in the van in the carpark next to the church. There was a lovely wee brasserie where I was welcomed in by the smoking patron and his friends and family and enjoyed 3 small glasses of wine for less than two euros. A bit off the beaten track seemed to be friendlier.
On the route back up I spent my first night, having made it through the zig sag of motorways in Madrid without getting lost, in Aranda de Duero a very friendly town. I parked the van on the main street as I was gasping for the toilet and Aranda Hotel was the first one I found. “El Perro possible?” “si” A spacious room and a fantastic array of meats and cheeses and breads at breakfast to send us on our way north. The two dogs behaved and sat next to each other and slept for most of the journey stopping every 150 miles or so for a break for them and me.
I failed to find La Rochelle in the south of France on the way back up. Sat Nav was not for giving me any clues and we stayed in a motorway hotel which was fine before booking Le Meurice in Calais where I had never stayed. What I saw of the town was good, the lovely parks and churches.
2016 has been a good year for Chefs In Scotland again, our financial year end is to 30th November and it looks like our turnover is up about 15%.
We have set a target to increase turnover a further 15% in 2017 and to this end we are targeting specific regions in the north of England where we get quite a bit of business. Cumbria, Northumberland, the Lake District and North Yorkshire. We have turned one of the downstairs rooms into an office and Alannah is coming back to work in January alongside Jessica and Johanna and myself.
I hope that everyone has an enjoyable, relaxing Christmas and is in good health for 2017.
Many thanks for your continued support and patience.
Michael, Johanna, Jessica, Bentley and El Poco in Moffat.
�������9�X���As the season draws to a close the Chefs In Scotland office still remains busy. As we enter into late October we do go through a quiet period as do most kitchens. It is the run up to Christmas and people are saving their money so not eating out as much and this has a knock on effect to CIS. However there is always plenty to do. As in a kitchen this would be the time when you would be cleaning, doing stock takes and in my case as pastry chef I would have been getting ready making mincemeat and puddings in time for Christmas day. Well here at CIS we do filing, admin and also this year we are undertaking some refurbishments at the offices in Moffat too. This is a time when we meet chefs who either already have done jobs through CIS or are looking to do relief work with us next year.
The transition from being a chef to being a recruiter sometimes doesn’t seem that different as although I have learnt lots of new skills since starting at CIS in April 2015 there are also lots of transferable skills too. The new things I have learned include accounts, general admin and the system we have at CIS to get chefs placed whether that be permanent, seasonal or relief. But the skills that I already had from being a chef such as perseverance, knowledge of the roles and being able to do more than one thing at a time have also helped.
So over the next few months, relief work will quieten down but it seems to be the time that chefs begin to look for permanent jobs. The season has ended and they want to be in a new role before Christmas so during this time we get lots of CVs in to be processed so if you are looking for a new role or a new challenge please get in touch. I am also happy to write CVs for any chefs who don’t have one either because you are just starting out or have been job-to-job.
We deal with recruitment from small country inns and restaurants to large 5* resort and everything in between with various positions from executive chef to commis chef so please don’t hesitate to send over your CV to jessica@chefsinscotland.co.uk .
Jessica Huntley
The last year of my career as a chef was spent as a pastry chef in a two rosette restaurant with rooms near Edinburgh. I have always had an interest in pastry although I do think it is important to be able to work all sections of the kitchen especially as you move up the ranks. I know the pastry section is one that divides us all. Some chefs love it and some hate it. But either way I think it is a very good skill to have, even if it is just the basics.
I used to make all our own breads twice a day. These included the rosemary focaccia of which the most important ingredient was the olive oil used to cook it with. The quality of the olive oil could make the bread taste so different but it was nice to pick rosemary from the kitchen garden except in the middle of winter when the gate had frozen shut. We also made a wholemeal loaf with a mixture of seeds, our own roasted and ground spelt and treacle. It was delicious and could be used for toast the next day.
I also made all the desserts from scratch; this usually included a chocolate dessert, a parfait or cheesecake, and one other plus a cheese board. We made our own crackers, oatcakes and quince paste. As well as all of the petit fours which were usually rum and raisin fudge, pate au fruits and either truffles, mini tarts, biscuits or freshly baked orange or lemon and poppy seed madeleines.
I have always enjoyed baking and now even more so as I don’t do it as often. I brought some scones in a few weeks ago and they were a hit at the Chefs In Scotland office. I think nowadays pastry and baking is becoming a really big hobby with the rise of shows like the Great British bake off which is very popular nowadays and some of the skills shown by amateurs is amazing.
I know some chefs aren’t keen on the pastry section but do you think it is a skill that more chefs should try and have even if it is just the ability to cover the section on a day off?
Jessica
One of the things that I have always to be found important in any industry is ongoing training. Over the years I have been lucky enough to work with and learn from some excellent chefs. I think training of younger or less experienced members of the team is such a crucial part of being a chef. I see it as a sharing of knowledge, not giving your best tips away. To work together as a team I feel it is very important to make sure that the junior members have as much information as they are willing to take on.
I know we have all seen it in kitchens we have worked in where the young commis claims to know it all and get it wrong in the end but at the end of the day we are all just learning. Sometimes people find it difficult to admit that yes they need advice or help to do their job but this is all part of the process. I used to enjoy helping to train up some of the more junior members and see their skills grow.
Now I work in chef recruitment, training, especially ongoing, is equally as important. We have training once a week at Chefs In Scotland office and this sometimes can go in all directions as you can always learn new things from other people whether junior or senior members. I quite enjoy training up junior members of the team to see them hit their targets because not only does it mean that the work load is lightened but it also means that they are getting better at the job which is the best thing to see.
I have never worked with a chef who hasn’t been willing to help train junior team members and even some relief chefs we had were excellent also. However I have heard stories of chefs watching things going wrong or not wanting to share their knowledge.
How important do you think training is in the hospitality industry?
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