Chef shortage hits Norfolk
A Norfolk publican is so desperate to find a good chef that he is offering weekends off and a company car to the right applicant.
Nick Wilson, licensee of the Red Lion on the Norfolk and Suffolk border, took six months to recruit his last chef and is worried he will take a similar time to recruit again.
He told BBC news online he has resorted to offering benefits, such as weekends off, that are normally unheard of for chefs. And he said he is considering "doing a Jamie Oliver" and training chefs in his pub.
In March, The Publican reported a similar shortage of chefs in Swindon where publican Simon Collins has been looking for a new chef for more than a year.
At the same time television chef Delia Smith warned education minister Charles Clarke that Britain is short of 60,000 trained chefs.
British Hospitality Association spokesman Miles Quest told the BBC the chef shortage is a "terrible problem".
"Colleges are abandoning catering courses and putting on cheaper tourism courses. Tourism as a career is viewed in a much more sexy light than catering is," he said.
"Television cookery programmes show cooking as a glamorous profession, but it hasn't affected uptake in catering schools - it has affected people wanting to go out for dinner.
"There has been a huge renaissance in British food and British chefs, but there aren't enough of them."
- Have you had problems recruiting a chef? What do you think can be done to help solve the problem? Either post your comments onto this article or contact Kerry Rogan on 020 8565 4460 or at xreele@gurchoyvpna.pbz .
Related articles:
Swindon chef shortage (31 March 2003)
