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Availability of Chefs 27th March 2019

Head chefs

If paying good money and in a central location such as Glasgow, Edinburgh, Stirling, Dundee, Aberdeen and Perth the availability of head chefs is very good, basically, the more central and the larger local population the better availability. Now is a good time in general to recruit for staff.

What is good money for a head chef? This can vary from a small pub to a large five star or 3AA Rosette Hotel and can be anything from £15 per hour for a one-man job cooking simple food to £45,000 and upwards.

For a standard hotel job, we would suggest in the region £35,000+ with overtime paid pro rata over 45 to 48 hours sanctioned by management.

Bonus schemes always help and can be based on getting a gross profit margin of over say 65 to 70% and it is always advisable stressing in advance how often the bonus is paid and what the exact criteria are. Other bonuses may be based on increase in sales. Keeping wages ratio down and helping to achieve certain net profits subject to maintaining quality of food, kitchen cleanliness and staff retention.

In more rural Scotland it is harder to get and retain chefs and often accommodation should be offered to attract suitable candidates.

Sous chefs

The availability of sous chefs in rural Scotland is average. Sometimes, a mature former head chef will be happy to take a step back to work alongside head chef.

In more central Scotland, there are candidates about if paying decent money (i.e. upwards of £28,000 or £13-14 per hour) and offering good working conditions there is no reason why you cannot keep a good sous chef with a stable track record.

In rural Scotland, there can be a need to think outside of the box to retain and attract good sous chef candidates. Its is almost essential that you will need to provide accommodation in rural areas.

Chef de parties

Availability is ok in Glasgow, Edinburgh and the central belt.

In rural Scotland with accommodation there are some candidates and you may get applicants if wages are decent, suggesting £10 to £12 per hour or a salary of between £22,000 - £24,000. The more money you can pay the better the availability there is.

Commis chefs

There are usually a few candidates available centrally or further afield if offering accommodation.

Pastry Chefs: this is quite a specialist position and there can be a couple of specialised pastry chefs looking, not always though.

Enclosed link to minimum wages which are increasing as of April 1st 2019.

www.minimum-wage.co.uk/

Availability of Relief Chefs changes, and we can advise daily. The rates of pay are £12 to £18 per hour according to the position.

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