There are currently 6 relief chefs out working.
We have had 2 relief jobs confirmed this week and an advert place and more enquires for placing adverts next week.
We have had good sales for beer from the shop / office.
Office hours next week will be 9.30am to 4.30pm – selling beer from 11am.
Chefs out working are
Mark Shaw at Crofthead Care Home
Dave Mcconnachie at Seafield Arms in Cullen
Robert Mckillop has been extended to the end of the year at Deans of Huntly
Gordon Smillie is at Shieldaig Lodge, he has also been extended
Jason Paxton is at Friars Carse near Dumfries
Craig Wood is at The Isles Inn in Portree
Thank you to ALL our chefs for you hard work, support and patience 😊
Stay Safe
We have got 5 chefs still out working. We had 1 relief job confirmed for the week.
We are also selling Michael’s book Chopped Parsely….. anyone that would like a copy please drop us a message it is £7.00 posted to anywhere the UK.
We also have cases of beer from Lowland Brewing 12 x 500ml bottles (Dryfe Blonde, Twa Dugs, Rabbies Drouth and Beerdie Beatnik Stout) £24.00 and can be delivered locally at no charge. We can also courier to anywhere in the UK the charge will be added to the cost of the case.
We also have nice gift boxes that hold 3 x 500ml bottles and either a pint or ½ pint glass £12 - these are available for delivery in Lockerbie or Moffat and in between.
We now have an occasional license for 15 Well Street, Moffat so feel free to pop in and purchase.
Anyone buying a case of 12 bottles or 2 x gift boxes up until 31st December 2020 will be entered in to our competition for 1 week’s free accommodation at our apartment in Nerja anytime in 2021 (depending on availability).
To place an order you can PM me, email [jojo@chefsinscotland.co.uk](mailto:jojo@chefsinscotland.co.uk) or call 01683 222830.
Here are the chefs we have out working and still charging for
Robert Mckillop is at Deans of Huntly
Gordon Smillie is at The Shieldaig Lodge in Ross-shire
Ed Stankaitis is at The Scores Hotel in St Andrews
Jason Paxton is at Friars Carse Hotel in Dumfriesshire
Craig Wood is at The Isle Inn in Portree
Thanks to you ALL for your hard work and support
Stay Safe 😊 x
We currently have 56 chefs out working in Scotland and Northumberland
The work this week has been very patchy with 8 new relief job confirmed
We have excellent availability of relief chefs with a lot of well-known to CIS.
Michael gave you a list of some of the long standing chefs yesterday, here are some one the newer placements 😊
Ben Donaldson at The Gables Hotel in Gretna
Glenn Richards at Craigard Hotel in Campbeltown
Bobby Ainsworth and James McPherson at The Glen Mhor Hotel in Inverness
Tony Orr at The Kenmore Hotel in Perthshire
Ed Stankaitis at Grant Arms Hotel in Grantown on Spey
Martin Kelly at The Kinloch Hotel in Skye
Ally Brown at Inveroran hotel in Argyll
Robert Mckillop at Y Not in Thurso
Phil Smith at The Cairndow Coach Inn in Argyll
Thanks to you all for you hard work and continued support 😊
17th July 2020
Out and Almost about
A live out commis chef job in the Scottish Borders is getting no applicants. Wow!
What does that indicate?
As we come out of lockdown and some, very much some, hotels and restaurants open up; the industry problems of an aging demographic of chefs quite possibly remains the same as it was pre lockdown.
Lockdown: have a job in the public sector and get furloughed and get your job back, for now as lockdown eases.
Lockdown: have a job in Scottish Hospitality and maybe get furloughed, but just as maybe get no furlough and made redundant. Not a criticism of private industry which has to play with the cards dealt.
The demographics may be worse as many may have managed to find work in other industries such as care or online retail.
Jobs, there are some and after 12 weeks of inactivity CIS made our first relief placement since lockdown on Thursday the 9th of July.
There were two more relief placements made yesterday.
There are permanent jobs out there as well to apply for and I expect that there will be some more in the
next few weeks .
I took my car over to the garage in Beattock this morning after posting an early morning song and walking back there was a steady flow of campervans leaving Moffat. When popping out for a couple of pints on Wednesday night there were quite a few tourists about, mainly middle aged and early retirement ages and possibly with quite a bit of disposable income.
One of the phone calls yesterday came from down in Tigh Na Bruich and the report was busy in rural Scotland as the tourist season started up again.
Not a big fan of the sound of the word staycation, but what I am seeing and hearing is that many people from England are holidaying in Scotland.
How long will the season last and how much demand will there be for chefs?
Not sure, but there are chef jobs out there for now and why not apply for the job on north Skye for 3 months at 13 pounds an hour live in
Next week we will be open longer hours, not quite back to 9 to 5pm and will see how work pans out up until the end of July.
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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