News

Death of a Chef

4^th February 2016

“Death of a Chef”

Many of the chefs who I knew personally from working on the island of Skye over the years did not have the choice of putting a gun to their head at the age of 44 as did Benoit Violier the Head Chef at the three Michelin star Restaurant de l'Hôtel de Ville in a suburb of Lausanne.

He leaves a 12 year old son Romain and his wife Brigitte.

I do not know what demons are at play in a man’s head that would force him to take his own life. We all, at some point in our lives have low moments.

I do think that the adulation that some chefs receive for what is food is over the top.

Can we compare the daily creation of food to works of art or literature such as Vincent Van Gogh or Henry Miller? There is a lot of talk propagated on television programmes such as Master Chefs The Professionals and which filters through into the industry of “taking the food to the next level” which always seems to entail working endless hours in a kitchen which would often appear to be to the detriment of the individual chef’s well-being and health.

Can food be perfect?

It can be precisely cooked and presented and seasoned well and full of strong individual flavours. But surely food is subjective not objective? What may be to one person, a three Michelin Star meal may be to another a small portion of pretentiousness. One man or woman may prefer the simplicity of some langoustines caught off the island of Skye and cooked in boiling water and served with garlic mayonnaise, a wedge of lemon and some daily home- made bread.

Big Andy was a messy big chef who worked up at The Isles Inn in Portree and also at The Royal in Portree back in 1999 / 2000. He worked and was born locally on Skye. He ambled along and put lots of lettuce on the plates and had a big bushy beard. He loved a game of pool in the Camanachd Bar. He was aged about 25 when the car he and his parents as travelling in was in an accident on the windy Skye roads down towards Broadford. He was killed out-right.

Des Dillon was in his early forties when he pitched up and took a temporary job at The Cuillin Hills overlooking the harbour in Portree. Prior to that, Des had worked in Perthshire for a few years. He got on well and took the full-time sous chef position and stayed on Skye for the rest of his life. Married with a dog. Des worked his last season at Sconser Lodge before dying of a heart attack in November 2010.

Colin was the head chef at The Royal Hotel in Portree, an amiable man from Ayrshire in his mid thirties. He had been there for some four years and kept himself to himself, working hard and on his days off pitching up to the Bosville Hotel to the modern Merchant bar where a few of the chefs such as Martain Irvine, Jim Quinn, Cameron Donaldson and myself would quaff a couple of beers of an evening. Sadly Colin was found dead in the staff accommodation.

There was the guy from south England who worked at The Isles who was implicated in an attempted murder back in about 2003. He was found dead up north of Inverness. We didn’t place him but I remember meeting him at The Isles in Portree, a young man of 25 with large ear piercings.

Stewart Taylor from Aberdeen came over from Ballater with his Labrador in 2006 and took over the head chef job at The Portree Hotel in Somerled Square. Stewart had owned his own pub down south and was a good chef, a nice man from Aberdeen. Stewart was good jovial company who had worked in some nice places. He had split up with his partner and was making his way on Skye.

I had had enough of chef recruitment that summer in 2006 and was doing a few shifts at Sligachan and would then meet up in Portree for a few beers with the other chefs, Bobo, Bruce and Billy and Stewart. I enjoyed the camaraderie. A few years later Stewart came down to Moffat and stayed over and we went out for an Indian meal before we placed him down here at Balcary Bay. Sadly, that was the last time I met up as Stewart was killed in Edinburgh in a fire, murder, in 2011.

There are plenty parts of the world where life is vulnerable; Syria, parts of Africa and the many who find themselves homeless as they are forced to flee their native land in fear of persecution.

If the food doesn’t quite sit right on the plate, take a break, get a seasonal job in the Highlands of Scotland and enjoy the craic and a couple of beers.

Luckily Billy and Bruce are still going strong and with both having spent time in the army, they have a fairly relaxed attitude to life and the workings of Hospitality.

Availability of chefs 4th February 2016

Availability of Chefs 4^th February 2016

Head Chefs

Good in central location including Glasgow, Edinburgh and Stirling. 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.

Currently decent in Perthshire, Highlands, Inverness-shire and most regions of Scotland if offering live in.

Suggest wage from £25,000 upwards will get some candidates, ideally over £28,000 and suggest paying overtime for extra days and for hours worked over 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 £32,000) and happy to look.

Sous chefs

Availability ok for live in sous to 4 star paying £22,000 to £30,000.

In central areas such as Glasgow, Edinburgh, Perth, Stirling can try live-out.

More rural availability currently currently decent as in there are some candidates about but quality is variable also but will change as we move towards Easter

2AA Rosettes and above can be quite scarce. Suggest five day week with overtime pro rata over 45 or 48 hours.

Chef de parties

Availability currently good in Glasgow , Edinburgh and central belt.

Availability is quite good currently in rural Scotland also if offering accommodation, there are a lot of chefs looking for live in accommodation.

There do seem to be issues with staff retention in rural Scotland and we are happy to give advice to hoteliers and meet them to discuss at our offices in Moffat.

Suggest £17,000 (low side) to £22,000 or hourly rate £9 - £11 per hour with live in accommodation at a small charge of say £3.45 per day. We would hope you will get decent candidates with this.

Commis chefs

A few bodies available. Suggest £14,000 live in or out. Or minimum wage. Which is currently £6.70 per hour for those over 25 going up to £7.20 in April. Age 18 to 20 the minimum wage will still be £5.30 per hour.

Pastry a few available happy to have a look

For perm we can look if pay “fee of interest” or advertise

Relief

Currently very good although can change daily but we update our database on a daily basis and very happy to look if you are paid up to date with us.

Happy to advertise all positions or us to look with Fee of interest. For sous and below can look and advertise. Fee of interest deducted from finders fee.

Out and about 29th January 2016

So storm Gertrude is upon us today fingers crossed there is not too much disruption from her.

If you are a relief chef and are travelling to your job please take care and if you are going to be late please notify the hotel and CIS.

We still have around 20 chefs out working all over Scotland.

Relief is still patchy but this is expected for the time of year.

We are currently not progressing any new relief chefs but will look at registering new chefs in March time.

All chefs are invited to come and meet at our office in Moffat and as standard we reference check as standard.

We do meet chefs Monday to Friday at either 11am or 2 – 4pm we are flexible with the time. We have availability next week apart for Tuesday.

Thanks to all our chefs for their continued hard work and support.

Chefs In Scotland News Page 27th January 2016

The weather all over Dumfries and Galloway has been very wet this week. We have been on amber alert and the roads into Moffat were flooded yesterday morning and the Nith broke its bank yesterday afternoon. Today began with a wet start again but this afternoon it has dried up and there is even a small amount of sun peeking through the clouds.

At Chefs In Scotland this week we have been busy making permanent placements all over Scotland including Perthshire, Inverness-shire, Aberdeenshire and Edinburgh and Lothians. The jobs are coming in starting immediately as well as in March and April for the season and longer. If you are looking for work at the moment please don’t hesitate to get in touch and we can get you registered.

There has been lots of articles in the news this week about getting young people into industry but what we can do to make this honoured trade a career option for young people. We all know that when you start off in the kitchen as a commis chef you need a lot of dedication, time and a passion for the industry to work 60 hours a week for £14,000 a year. However the more time and dedication you put into the role there are rewards to come from it. There are positives to working in this industry including camaraderie, learning your trade from great chefs and mentors and the buzz of service. You also get a chance to be creative, which you may not find in a standard 9-5 job and where academia isn’t the be all and end all. So really when we do get young chefs into the kitchen starting out the impression the head chef makes on them could be the difference between staying in industry, working their way up and making the same impressions or moving between jobs and leaving the trade. But this isn’t something that is going to happen overnight unfortunately.

We are still keen to meet relief chefs. We have availability and we do understand that with the weather conditions at the moment it is difficult. However we do appreciate our chefs coming to meet as it enables us to fit a face to a name and the same for the chef.

For now it is time to get back to arranging interviews and getting some chefs placed.