Sunday 11th May

 

26 NOT OUT.

 

The week just passed was a blur of ringing phones and agitation but at the end of Friday when Suzanna worked out the weekly statistics there it was in black and white; we had knocked out 26 relief jobs for the week which is an all-time record and as of 12.30 yesterday when I vacated the office there had been no fall downs, no cancellations, no runners….quite amazing.

 

Ruth knocked out 22 of the relief jobs up to Thursday, averaging 5.5 a day and I contributed 4 on Friday.

 

The usual fall down figure for relief jobs is between 15 and 20% for one reason or another, a hotel cancels the job after we have booked the relief chef, the chef cancels the job for personal reasons (acceptable) or because he has been made a better offer elsewhere (nae so good but there we have it)

 

This compares well with the fall down figure for permanent placements within 4 weeks of the start date which comes in at 50% (more for more junior positions and less for head chef jobs)

 

Why is the figure so high for permanent placements?

 

A variety of reasons, chefs moving from place A to place B may not settle in the area. The employer may not think that the chef is suitable for the job, perhaps the hotelier has too high expectations. Call it the “Lochmaddy Syndrome” when we are asked for a commis chef for a busy hotel serving up to 80 bar meals and specials a night, said commis chef pitches up, call him Bobby and it transpires that he is expected to be able to cover for the head chef on the head chef’s days off. This is a sous chef job, not a commis chef job. It is a volatile market out there and the jobs and chefs move around and there is not a stable environment in existence in the Scottish Tourism Industry. Perhaps, one day one of the great and good quangos which exist and persist will do something about the lack of career structure and working standards of practice and entice some more good youngsters into the industry. I will not hold by breathe as I would be dead soon enough.

 

Ron Burgess

 

It was saddening to hear of the premature death last Sunday, from his daughter Kerry, of Ron Burgess, a chef from the North East of Scotland who had moved back to Scotland last year with his wife to be closer to his family in Perth. Ron was diagnosed with cancer in February this year and passed away recently, whilst only in his early fifties. Ron had spent much of the last 20 years working in England as a head chef in hotels. My thoughts are with his family.  

 

Good News

 

It is good to have Sebastien Schoeder back on our books on relief for a few weeks whilst he has interviews and decides on which job to take next. Sebastien is French and a larger than life character as well as a good and hard working chef. I was fortunate to attend Seb’s wedding to Tracy at The Links Hotel in Montrose back in March 2005, the 26th of March 2005 to be exact. Tracy and Seb now have two young children and are settled in Montrose. After helping out for a week at Victoria Café in St Andrews for a week then a week at the Dundee Apex Hotel, it was up to that well kent culinary hot spot of Hatton of Fintray for Seb last week-end and back again this before up to Balmeddie tomorrow. I am sure that a really good job will come in for Seb shortly and many thanks for the relief jobs meantime; the reference reports have all come back Excellent.

 

 

We have introduced a new relief chef confirmation form in the last week which includes a “Finnish Form” for the employer to fill in and email or fax back to Ruth when the chef completes their work stint. This will benefit both the chef and the employer and it will help us to place the relief chefs with a greater knowledge of their performance on relief jobs. We do not meet the chefs and do not pretend to so all feedback is very important.

 

Dearth of junior chefs.

 

There has been a dearth of junior chefs coming through from all corners of Europe these last couple of weeks. Perhaps, all the junior chefs are applying directly for jobs via our website, I am not certain but we have very few on the go currently, a couple down in Glasgow looking for work only in Glasgow and that is about it. I will be looking to see what we can do to try and get some more junior chefs in. We currently have an advert in Germany which has produced one German Head Chef, after some encouragement from the first two German adverts which produced a few CVS. Unfortunately, I do not speak German and Mario Pohlman is too busy working as Senior Sous chef at The Cuillin Hills Hotel.

 

We do have one excellent young German lady chef called Daniella Lenhard who is keen to come over for a year’s placement from early August which is, I know, a few months off as of yet. Aged 25 and just completed her 3 year apprenticeship at the same hotel in Germany. An excellent reference also from her head chef. Anyone interested, please send me an email:

 

Michael@chefsinscotland.co.uk

 

Agitation

 

We do our best with supplying relief chefs and do, in the main, manage to get the job done. Due to the nature of relief work and relief jobs, we cannot let the employer know well in advance who the relief chef will be. You do not have to exist in our list and are welcome to use other avenues to fill your relief chef vacancy. I will delete those from our list that persistently phone up and agitate about who their relief chef is two weeks in advance. Time spent explaining for the 3rd time is time that is not being spent trying to sort other problems. I feel fairly sure a deletion for agitation will arrive at some point early tomorrow morning when I will have phone 1 for the first hour up until 10am when Suzanna will come in to work the 10 to 6 shift.

 

Busy

 

It has been very busy this year so far and adverts on our website are well up, 16 last week alone, and a couple of new ones to put on this afternoon in the office when phones are blessedly switched off. We are interviewing tomorrow at 5pm for a part-time office junior to help with scanning, possibly invoices and cleaning the office. I am not desperate to have more employees as it brings with it greater responsibility but Chefs In Scotland does have a growing life of its own and I have a responsibility to let it grow as best as I can whilst trying to retain my sanity.

 

Photos from Miss Inita?

 

I duly received an email from Lativa last week from Miss Inita and she offered to put some photographs on the website but they have not been forthcoming as of yet. Perhaps, if I ask nicely they will appear soon to lighten up my repetitive black and white dribblings. One can but ask.

 

The Economy and The Greater Picture

 

It does seem that what ever way you look at it the UK Economy is not in the best of states in the year 2008. Petrol prices plunge ever upwards as does the cost of every day goods such as meat and veg. I was in the local Coop yesterday trying to by some diced shoulder steak to make a curry for my dinner last night. I seem to be stuck under the impression that diced shoulder steak costs about two pounds a pound which equates to four pounds forty pence for a kilo. The Coop was having none of that and seemed desperate to charge about 7 pounds a kilo unless you bought two 500 gram packs when the price would come tumbling down. I live on my own and my freezer doesn’t work properly so having none of that, managed to get a small joint of beef on special offer instead and settled for roast beef and sautéed vegetables, gravy, horseradish sauce and …er chips….not so good for the diet, I know.

 

Toilet paper, up in price, everything, bread well up in price.

 

The exchange rate for the pound against the Euro seems to be in a prolonged, if not terminal slump and my ill gotten pounds sitting in the Royal Bank of Scotland’s vaults are declining in value rapidly more quickly than the taxman can grab them off me. And I am one of the lucky ones not having a mortgage or wife and weans to support.

 

What is happening elsewhere?

 

Burma sits to the left of Thailand on the map south of China and they are suffering terrible hardship, starvation and death subsequent to the cyclone last week. Estimates are that here may be as many as 100,000 people dead. The ruling military Junta has not been able to provide sufficient aid for those left alive and in need of food and prompt medical help.

 

OK, perhaps more gloom than normal this week.

 

Many thanks for your continued support and patience.