Australia’s big skills shortage: chefs
A big issue now facing the industry is a shortage of good chefs. They’re just hard to find.
Massimo Bottura, whose restaurant Osteria Francescana was last year ranked as the number one restaurant in the world, blames it on TV shows built around the celebrity chef.
"Too many people, too many young men and women are driven by the wrong stimulation to become a chef," Bottura told Fairfax Media.
"The television is sending out a message like, you are going to be a star you are going to be a master chef. That is wrong. Our job is all about hard work and a little bit of talent."
Bottura was in the army of chefs and industry dignitaries arriving in Melbourne for the Wednesday night's World’s Best 50 restaurants.
Bottura spelled it out: working as a chef is a grind, it’s damn hard work and that might put many people off.
"It's a job when everyone else is out enjoying themselves on a Saturday night you are in the middle of the most difficult service," he said. "The pressure is unbelievable. In the Osteria every day we play the final of the World Cup lunch and dinner."
The problem facing Australia’s restaurants and eateries was highlighted in a 2015 Deloitte Access Economics report.
The report showed there is a gap of 38,000 staff across the tourism and hospitality sector.
And it forecasts that shortage will increase to 123,000 by 2020.
What makes it more complicated is that over half of all hospitality TAFE students are dropping out.
Peter Gilmore, owner of Quay in Sydney, says part of the problem is the misconception that young people have about joining the industry.
"There are more people starting and less people staying a lot of that has to do with media and TV shows like MasterChef," Gilmore told Fairfax Media.
"They have this expectation that within a couple of years they are all going to be rockstars. When I started cooking that was the furthest thing from my mind. The reality of it hits home, it is hard graft and long hours. I'm not seeing people staying as long as they used to and it is a real worry. It is a long haul."
by Leon Gettler, April 5th 2017
