Better training is the answer to skills shortage
After 34 years of running an average three-star hotel with a healthy conference and function business, my wife and I have started to wonder where all the chefs have gone.
We have had the same head chef for 22 years but in the past few months our search for a sous chef has come to nothing.
As an industry we know that our patrons are constantly bombarded with television programmes on the art of cuisine. These programmes have appearances from many famous chefs who give viewers the impression that every restaurant in the land should contain the culinary talent to live up to their standards.
Commitment
Unfortunately, the majority of hoteliers find themselves in great difficulty when trying to find a general chef capable of understanding the pressures of the smaller hotel. Hotels do not always need a high-flyer: what they require is a chef who shows commitment to their establishment along with a genuine interest in the patrons of the hotel and an all-round ability in regular catering.
Our well-entrenched head chef has developed catering standards to that of a reasonable country house-style hotel. He has all the right commitment, loyalty and interest in the business, but is the first to say he's not a high-flyer.
He can be intolerant of fools and front of house staff and sometimes acts like the local shop steward.
I wondered whether he was the stumbling block, but have realised there is far more to it than that. Is it the salary? Is it the quality of life? Or is it the quality and standard of training in our catering colleges?
Spending power
We have pondered further our sous chef shortage and looked at the salary we are offering. Although the salary - £14,000 per year - appears average after looking at the trade press and contact with staff agencies, when I mentioned it to my bar regulars they laughed. My judgement of their spending power has now leapt into the land of fantasy.
Then we considered the quality of life of our head chef. He thrives on split shifts, which allow him to collect his children from school each day. He can cook the children's breakfast before they go to school, and sunbathe by our pool each summer afternoon.
Which leaves us with training. My wife and I have spent time as assessors and moderators, and believe that part of our problems can be blamed on today's inadequate standards of industry training.
When my wife and I entered the hotel industry, a great deal of respect was given to the established catering colleges and there was a lot of rivalry over the production of good all-round chefs.
The quality of craft training now appears to be abysmal. When I failed my first cooking exam in 1961 at Battersea College of Technology I remember the respect - and the fear - I had for our chef lecturers.
But when today's students appear for work experience or even for full-time employment they all too often lack the ability to cook without supervision. They have no knowledge of proper costing and no ability to plan their day.
We believe these short-comings can be blamed on poor training, the introduction of National Vocational Qualifications, falling standards of exams and a general failure to understand the sector.
Today's students appear to think they know it all - didn't we all? - but they rarely show any knowledge of the world of restaurant dining, banquets and conference catering. And they never seem to possess the standard of social graces required by the industry.
Solution
The only solution lies in the hands of the thousands of hoteliers who regularly liaise with catering colleges when they take on work experience trainees. We should not use trainees as cheap labour but should point out clearly to the college that we are doing them a favour by taking on their students.
College tutors should be told if their students are lacking in basic skills. Hoteliers should try to establish a healthy interest in the college syllabus. This is not interfering - it is making sure that those who teach do not lose touch with the real world.
