Availability of Head Chefs 8th March 2016
Into the 2nd week in March and I am finding a big split in the head chef recruitment.
Centrally, Glasgow, Perthshire and Stirling there is good availability of chefs.
Also, availability in the Borders and Dumfries and Galloway is decent to good.
Pay decent money and you will get good candidates. Read below for what is good money.
In rural Scotland and particularly for 2AA Rosette country house hotels, we are finding it hard to get relevant candidates. Skye, Shetland islands and rural Argyll, it is proving hard to get relevant candidates despite the payment of good money.
Suggest paying £25,000 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.
Aberdeenshire, Dundee and East coast, there are quite a few Head Chefs registered and the low oil price is having a knock on effect on the availability of chefs as some come back on shore due to cut backs. Albeit, as we speak the price of oil is moving back up to over $40 a barrel up from a year low of $28 a barrel.
Inverness and the highlands of Scotland mainland, pay good money with good accommodation and you will get some decent candidates unless you are 2AARosette or 3AA Rosette in which case it may be a bit tight.
Head Chefs are being put off jobs that offer set wage for 5 or 6 days per week and are preferring 5 day weeks or if six paid by the day. For instance, you can look at £500 to £600 for a five day week and a further £100 to £120 for the sixth day with overtime for five days being paid pro rata at over 45 or 48 hours sanctioned by management.
I advise against offering a set wage for a seasonal job, eg £25,000 for a six month job. I suspect you will get no applicants.
Suggest wage from £25000 upwards will get some candidates, ideally over £28,000 and suggest paying overtime for extra days and for hours worked over 45 / 48 sanctioned by management.
Ideally this will get candidates with verifiable work histories and often well known to Chefs In Scotland. Below quality will be hit or miss.
3AA Rosette head chefs (suggest £35,000 to £45,000) can be scarce, some 2AA (suggest £27,000 to £35,000) and happy to look.
The more central, the more candidates you will expect to get and the more rural, the harder it can get.
We are happy to meet chefs to discuss at our interview room here in Moffat and also hoteliers and restaurateurs.
Recruit a Chef and Win a Week in Aberdeen!
Competition time!!!
To win a week’s accommodation at the CIS Property in Aberdeen place an advert directly onto our website at enclosed link.
Get chefs sent your job directly and win a week in Aberdeen at the lovely Den of Maidencraig.
Sleeps up to 4, next to a nature reserve and only 4 miles from the beach and really handy for Deeside.
Draw will be done on Easter Friday and each paid for advert gets an equal chance to win.
Recruit a Chef and Win a Week in Aberdeen!
Competition time!!!
To win a week’s accommodation at the CIS Property in Aberdeen place an advert directly onto our website at enclosed link.
Get chefs sent your job directly and win a week in Aberdeen at the lovely Den of Maidencraig.
Sleeps up to 4, next to a nature reserve and only 4 miles from the beach and really handy for Deeside.
Draw will be done on Easter Friday and each paid for advert gets an equal chance to win.
Perm CIS Recruiter Update 26th August 2024
We are pleased that Ian Godfrey has joined the team, as the New CIS Permanent Recruitment Consultant.
Ian will be starting with us next Monday the 2nd of September, although I have just thrown a possible job his way!
The quality of the applicants for this role was superb and at least 3 others made a very strong case at our meetings over the last fortnight in Aberdeen, Moffat and online.
With 20 years of kitchen experience and not quite yet hitting his mid 30’s, Ian has been known to CIS through mainly permanent placements, going back 14 years.
Recently Ian has been Senior Sous Chef responsible for the 3AA Rosette kitchen at the 5 Star Rockliffe Hotel in Northumberland. Previously, Ian has held positions in Aberdeenshire, the North West Highlands of Scotland, as well as in Austria and Switzerland.
Historically, CIS has placed many permanent chefs in quality establishments throughout Scotland and further afield, going back to the late 20th century.
Ian joins a very stable team with Johanna Watson and Ruth Hosain in situ.
26th May 2020 Newspage
That is over two months now since the call to lockdown came, the call to shut the hotels, restaurants and pubs in Scotland and the rest of the UK.
The Coronavirus Pandemic seems to have passed over much of the world in its first flush and we will see if there is the much vaunted second wave or not.
Sadly, many people have lost their lives to Covid-19; the UK death toll sits at 36,914 with 121 new fatalities.
“Stay home, protect the NHS, save lives”
In the main, the population seems to have done that.
“Stay alert, control the virus, save lives” has been a little bit more confusing with a UK / Scottish divide adding some confusion to the less obvious phrasing.
“Stay home” is quite clear “Stay alert” not quite so clear.
Thoughts are now turning to reopening, with much of Europe having opened up restaurants and bars or in the case of Sweden, never having shut them down.
What will the rest of the 2020 season bring? Difficult to try and say. No doubt, there will be some life and some businesses will strike up, pitch up their stall and trade. Others may choose not to. That is everyone’s prerogative.
At CIS, an office has been kept open at Sunnybrae in Moffat where I live and where CIS worked out of from 2009 upon leaving Wentworth Street in Portree and before the day to day business moved into the shop on Well Street in Moffat.
There are reduced opening hours for now.
Monday to Friday 9am to 3pm and shut 1pm on the Wednesday. No doubt, these hours will change. If you get an answer machine please leave a message and I will get back to you. As the jobs pick up, I will spend more time on the phones, a bit like the early days in Glenmhor on Skye, I have one landline and one fancyish mobile which will be used when the time comes.
The three ladies who worked at CIS have all started their notice periods of redundancy as of yesterday the 25th of May.
The main issues getting the CIS office back up and running Well Street would be BT and Caterer.com who are chasing CIS for full payments whilst there is no activity. I am loathe to pay them off.
CIS Prices for hoteliers and restaurateurs have been reduced, and CIS is keenly priced to go.
Initially, the rates for relief chefs will be down a couple of pounds also to reflect the expected supply and demand for chefs.
After 20 good years of trading, one bad year is maybe to be expected.
Hopefully, for all the decent, honest, hard-working and skilled chefs who are keen to get back to work, the work will come back.
Some- time in July?
Many of us will be ready.
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