We must nurture young talent

I'm currently reading Hotel Babylon, an expos‚ of the "decadence and debauchery of the ultimate service industry", and co-written, anonymously, by the manager of a five-star hotel in central London. It's a ripping yarn, full of tall tales of rent boys, telephone porn bills, coke snorting, £500 glasses of Cognac and plasma TV theft. But perhaps the book's most shocking element is the light it casts on the agonies and privations hospitality workers have to endure to earn a crust. Reading of the interminable split shifts, sadistic kitchen initiation rites and medieval management techniques leaves you wondering why anyone would ever want to return to work after their first day in hospitality.

Given the rigours of a career in the service industry, this week's JobCentre report of record job vacancies comes as no surprise. The research reveals that the number of vacancies for skilled workers in October was up 16% on the same month last year.

There will be many reasons for this. The Learning Skills Council points the finger of blame at the industry's refusal to embrace apprenticeship schemes, for instance. But the industry's reputation for gruelling working hours and intimidating environments must surely be a contributory factor.

It's a sad fact that large numbers of catering college students don't finish their studies because the traumas of work experience placements scare them off a hospitality career.

All of which makes events like the Acorn Scholarship and the Nestl‚ Toque d'Or challenge - both featured in this week's Caterer - crucial to the future health of the industry. By giving employers the chance to showcase their highest young achievers, the Acorn Scholarship enables industry to identify and reward future talent. Meanwhile, the Toque d'Or challenges industry and education to work together to ensure colleges are producing students with the skills set today's kitchens require.

If we can make the hoteliers, restaurateurs and chefs of tomorrow believe that the hospitality industry is more about progression, achievement, reward and recognition than it is about chefs making you "stand on a hot stove and explain… why I should be allowed to work in their sodding kitchen" (a story from Hotel Babylon), then the skills shortage should quickly become a thing of the past.

Yau talking Alan Yau first touched our consciousness with the opening of his Wagamama concept 12 years ago. He sold the business five years later, but went on to delight our taste-buds further with the opening of Hakkasan, Britain's first Michelin-starred Chinese restaurant, his Busaba Eathai chain, and the recently launched Yauatcha. We hooked up with him in his birthplace, Hong Kong, to find out what drives such a talented man. See page 30.
Jessica Gunn, Deputy News Editor
Tougher TUPE call What happens when the bar, restaurant or hotel where you work changes hands? More than 20 years ago, TUPE legislation was introduced to protect pay and conditions of workers transferring between employers. But some outgoing companies are failing to provide accurate and complete employee records, leading to problems for the new operator. Isn't it time the law was sharpened up? See page 36.
Ben Walker, Contract Catering Editor