Too few chefs

Schedules are full of celebrity chefs discussing, creating or consuming culinary delights.

Gordon Ramsay seems to be flavour of the month with his Kitchen Nightmares and now Hell's Kitchen, which I see from a quick flick through this week's menu is on Meridian every night.

We have had Jamie Oliver in Naked Chef and Jamie's Kitchen, when he taught 15 underprivileged youngsters to become chefs.

Then there's Antony Worrall Thompson, Delia Smith, Nigella Lawson, Keith Floyd, Ainsley Harriott, Clarissa Dickson Wright, Gary Rhodes - the list goes on.

Strange, then,that while we are hungry for any food programme cooked up there is such a shortage of chefs in the workplace.

Dorset is entering the busy summer season with 16 per cent of its chef vacancies unfilled.

Redressing the shortage is a tall order, but it is hoped a new recruitment campaign to help attract and develop fresh talent will tip the kitchen scales.

Tony Shepard has been head chef at the Marsham Court Hotel in Bournemouth for 17 years.

He went straight from schoolbooks to recipe books, enrolling on a two-year catering course.

"I always wanted to do a job where I worked with my hands," he said. "It was boat building or this - and I chose this. People have always got to eat."

He loves the atmosphere, with all the rushing about. And he enjoys the job today as much as the day he started.

"It's constantly changing, you are constantly learning. And I still only do eight hours a day."

It's a split shift. He works from 10am to 2.30pm and returns from 5.30pm through to 9.30pm, something he says you get used to.

And that's five days a week - although his weekend may be a Monday and Tuesday. "You do get people thinking I'm here from six o'clock in the morning until 12 at night. Some are quite shocked I'm not here all day."

And those who think every chef in charge is like Gordon Ramsay could be in for a surprise too.

"All that yelling doesn't happen, but that's what people see on the TV. If everyone went around shouting like he does, nobody would be working in the trade."

Head of hospitality and catering at Bournemouth and Poole College, Tony Taylor, agreed people don't yell like they used to.

When he began his career there were some strict disciplinarians but leading by respect rather than fear is now more common.

He said people may still equate the job with poor pay and long hours, but the situation is improving with new working directives and minimum wage rules.

TV chefs appeal to different audiences, he added. "They appeal to people who like the amusement side - they appeal to a number who like to cook as a hobby.

"I don't know whether they appeal to young people thinking of going into the industry. It's very difficult to say.

"A lot of good restaurants have popped up in the Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch area in the past 10 years and they are doing quite well. We can all be proud of the food being offered in this area now and a lot of the chefs in these restaurants came from this college, I'm pleased to say."

Student Cameron Rutherford from Canada is coming to the end of his first year at the college.

"Cooking has always interested me," he said. "As I grew up I started to take it more and more seriously. When I was a teenager, everybody else was reading comic books while I was reading cook books. I couldn't really see myself doing anything else.

"This college has a really good reputation. Everyone was really keen and passionate - this was the place for me."

He said people might be put off the job because it's hard work. "But if you care about food it's worth it," he smiled. "It gets into your blood. You get a real buzz when it is a busy night and everything is going well. You may collapse at the end of it but you feel good. You don't get that in many industries.

"You should never be out of work unless something goes drastically wrong. It's really satisfying to put something good together, see it presented well and then get feedback from customers and plates coming back empty. It's bound to give you a bit of a lift.

"And there is a tremendous network, especially if you work in big kitchens. Wherever you go in the world you keep bumping into people you know in the catering industry."

The number of students training in food preparation and cookery at the college has dropped for the past five years, but this year the number increased. Perhaps that is in part due to programmes like Jamie's Kitchen.

"If that trend continues, somebody somewhere is doing something right," said Tony.

Together with the college, the Dorset and New Forest Tourism Partnership has come up with a recipe to help the industry get more cooks on its books - the Novice with Promise recruitment campaign.

Next month will see the start of a new six-day intensive course at the college. At £95 it is heavily subsidised to make it affordable to businesses.

Jude Sargeant, press officer for the Partnership, which works with European and government funding to help address skills issues in the tourism industry, said: "We want to help attract more people into the industry and help employers with training and improving the skills of staff already on board."

The induction would give employers staff with basic skills to get them through the summer season. Extracted from the Level 2 NVQ in food preparation and cookery, the programme would give new recruits enough knowledge to "hit the ground running" and offers affordable training for existing staff ready to progress.

In September recruits would return to college, again at a subsidised rate, to continue work based/day release training towards the full NVQ qualification.

"Bournemouth has 16,000 jobs related to the tourism industry. Every hotel and most attractions have got a catering outlet and then there are bars and cafes. Catering is very much a growth industry," she added. But the number of people entering the industry is not keeping up.

She counted 28 job ads for chefs, cooks and catering assistants in the Daily Echo on one day.

A team of "industry champions" works with the Partnership to raise awareness of the tourism and hospitality industry as a career with visits to schools.

"That team is short of a chef at the moment. We are looking for an experienced chef who loves the job and can go out and enthuse about the creative side of their occupation.

"I think people really do value their chefs now. This shortage means chefs are being looked after in a way they may not have been in the past."

Skills director of the South West Tourism Skills Network Wendy Samuel said when employers across the area were asked two years ago what the hardest-to-fill vacancies were, chef positions were top of the list.

"That's a common situation across the UK," she said. But this is not unique to Dorset.

"We need to develop long-term solutions and the good initiatives taking place now will reap the benefits."

"This is a real issue affecting many businesses, but there are very exciting and positive approaches to responding to the situation."

For more details on the pre-season intensive course contact the Partnership on 01202 451151.