Chef Recruitment into 2026
For the first two months of 2026, we expect it to be a very very strong employers’ market for recruiting chefs.
The availability of both permanent and relief chefs will be pretty good.
What sort of wages to pay to recruit permanent chefs?
Head Chef we suggest rates from £18 to £25 per hour for usually a 40 hour week with accommodation available at no charge to the chef if needed.
Sous Chef we advise on paying anything from £16 to £22 per hour, again with accommodation if needed.
Chef de parties can be anything from £15 up to £18 per hour.
Commis chefs would suggest the national minimum wage at £7.55 up to £12.71 for 21 years and older from April 2026. This varies according to age.
There are several ways that you can recruit chefs via CIS.
Johanna Watson is the Relief Chef Manager.
Ian Godfrey is the Permanent Chef recruitment Consultant.
Both can offer to place adverts also or you can post directly on our website.
I can also help with permanent recruitment, although due to personal choice, this is done via email and messenger, no phones.
You can email michael@chefsinscotland.co.uk for a quote, help and direction or phone Jojo and Ian on 01683 222830 and 01330 476782 respectively.
It is a regular occurrence for there to be news of a hotel or restaurant or café shutting down, yesterday it was The View in Aviemore.
According to the Strathspey & Badenoch Herald, the café has gone into liquidation with Begbies Traynor, taking over dealing with what remains.
Begbies Traynor, despite sounding like a lost shoe from Trainspotting, are a leading business recovery, financial advisory and property services consultancy.
The twelve employees were given one day’s notice and will have issues regarding pay, holiday pay, and pensions.
Meanwhile, in Yorkshire, the Punch Bowl Inn in Burton has been bought over by a community group, who have raised £298,000 towards purchasing and keeping it open.
It does seem quite possible to raise large amounts of money for Hospitality projects, from the private sector of from public monies via grants.
Some of these ventures do meet with success and reasonable longevity such as The Old School Hub and Café, not so far from here, at Eskdalemuir.
What was a primary school, which shut it’s doors to pupils in 2004, has now been open again and trading for over a decade and providing several great amenities to the 250 plus locals who stay in the valley, a shop, a café, a music venue and gallery. This is a charitable organisation.
With increasing costs, which are well documented, for many businesses in Scottish Hospitality, there will no doubt me many more companies shutting down, either with or without good notice, in the coming year.
Committees, who may have people on board, who come from a strong background in accessing private and public money, can be a viably different approach to what are often sole traders or limited companies in the private sector.
Good luck to the twelve employees who have lost their jobs a week shy of Christmas and hopefully they will not be long in finding their next paths in 2026.
Out and About
5th November 2025
There is often a shared history going back to the very beginning of CIS, when we meet up for a few pints, and a blether to put the world to right.
As we did last night up the top of Union Street at The Archibald Simpson, a former bank, by The Castlegate in Aberdeen, although the Castlehill Barracks were knocked down in 1965, the year of my birth and replaced with two blocks of high-rise flats with stunning views over to the harbour and beyond.
Robert and I reminisced about “Big Paul” or “Number one” as we affectionately knew him when he completed placements on relief for perhaps 15 years in total including the first ever relief job that I knocked out to Tongue Hotel, which was part of the group with Bridge of Orchy (BOO) and the Inverbeg Hotel, and as seems like it has for perpetuity, they were missing a Sous Chef and Paul headed up for a few weeks, before his second stint at Lochmaddy Hotel.
CIS didn’t charge for that first ever relief job, in fact we were called Skye Recruitment in that first year when the business took off in 2000, before changing to Chefs In Scotland in 2001 when I was still doing a couple of nights a week in the Isles in Portree on Skye.
Other chefs we chatted about were Sebastien Schoeder who worked with Robert at Onich Hotel (01855 815214) just to the south of Fort William, when Robert would call up the office on Skye to request Big Paul on relief for a few weeks.
Robert took on the Head Chef position at Thainstone House some time back, perhaps in the late 2000’s and moved over to Aberdeenshire where he has remained working since.
Adam has met up the last two times I have been up including yesterday and although, we have only met twice now in person, with the shared history of hotels and people, there is a strong connection.
We talked and drank a couple of pints, and a couple more for the road, all four of us chatting and listening and being part of a strong bond, created and forged in the sometimes wonderful and sometimes not world of Scottish Hospitality.
Ideas, like recipes, are bandied about, such as the “Monday Club” where like-minded hospitality people, or relations, or friends or associates can meet or be connected in someway to provide and mental support that this community of shared experiences can create.
Waking up just off the Lang Stracht this morning, a little later than usual, but not in the gutter, I got thinking about Phil Smith’s email address which contained the words “wide awake”.
There will be other thoughts and ideas and maybe nothing will come of it, bit I quite like the idea and the sound and ring of the words:
“The Wide- Awake Club”
Not a business and not my initial idea and be interesting to see what anyone else thinks.
No need to repost the photo of the slightly tipsy friends last night again, so will try and find another of Aberdeen, the city of my birth.
https://www.acas.org.uk/contact
ACAS is a free to use government sponsored facility to help disputes between employees and employers regarding wages.
it is a friendly and helpful service and available to all.
You can call on 0300 123 1150 and they are open usual office hours from Monday at 9am.
It is also possible to have someone deal with ACAS on your behalf, with permission.
This facility is not relevant for self-employed where the small claims court facility at Sheriff Courts in Scotland is the main option if all else fails, although, personally I have found the “shirker of the week” route, albeit perhaps actionable, can get results.
As of July 22, 2025, the salary threshold for new applicants for a Skilled Worker visa as a chef is £41,700, with some specific exceptions for certain jobs or for those who were issued a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) before April 4, 2024, or July 22, 2025, under transitional rules. Individuals with a CoS assigned before April 4, 2024, can apply at a lower threshold of £31,300, provided they have maintained continuous leave in the route. However, be aware that eligibility for chefs under the Skilled Worker visa is ending, with roles at RQF Level 3 to 5 being removed from the eligible list unless they are on the new Temporary Shortage List.
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