Reader soapbox

Using the words "hours as required by the demands of the business" is akin to swearing these days. The younger generation have become clock watchers, their only regard being the earliest time they can clock off. Whatever happened to work until the job is done?

A commis chef can expect to earn anything from £10,000 to £14,000, live-in, all-found these days, and this is before they have gleaned any real experience in the industry. Many youngsters with whom I have come into contact have little or no kitchen knowledge, food knowledge or knife skills - and this is after they have attended college. When I ask what modern-day cookery books they possess, I am most often met with a blank stare. Before reaching me they may have done time at Yates's or Caf‚ Rouge and they think this makes them eminently qualified to be a chef, demanding an inflated salary for very little in return.

Work ethics rarely have a place in today's marketplace and the roots of this problem are in the home, the colleges and the celebrity chef culture. Don't get me wrong, there are a few good colleges around, but how many of them take the time to tell the chefs of tomorrow that the rewards don't necessarily come overnight and a few well-placed strands of lettuce and some green herb pesto don't necessarily make a chef?

Catering is no meal ticket, but if you put the hours in, the benefits will be had, albeit slower than in most professions. Perhaps it's time to hold back the inflated pay of the juniors in our industry and teach them that they have to arrive before they get there.