After struggling to recruit skilled chefs, Bankfoot restaurant Taste Perthshire’s new talent has come all the way from South Africa.
Finding skilled hospitality staff is a challenge many businesses have faced this year, and Taste Perthshire is no different.
Last month, 21-year-old Michael moved all the way from South Africa to Perthshire, joining a team of four local chefs.
Restaurant owner Calum MacLellan had been on the hunt for a new chef for months to complete the kitchen team.
“Getting chefs with the right skills has been this year’s difficulty,” he says.
“We’ve been able to recruit, but it’s not been individuals that have met our criteria.”
“Luckily, we’ve retained a good structure of staff in our kitchen and we’re blessed with good colleagues who have worked with us for a number of years.
“Without them, we would have found ourselves in greater difficulties. They’ve kept the whole system and kitchen setup flowing.”
How Taste Perthshire solved its chef shortage
The owner thinks the reason for the chef shortages is a mix of Brexit and the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic.
With the UK leaving the EU, many European workers returned to their home countries and didn’t return after lockdown.
Furthermore, some chefs chose to step away from the kitchen after lockdown in favour of a job with shorter hours.
In order to fill vacant positions, Calum registered the business to recruit skilled workers from overseas.
“It’s quite a lengthy exercise,” he explains.
“Firstly, we must have marketed the job here for a minimum of three months, which is fair enough.
“It costs quite a bit, £2,000, to get the licence. Then we have to sponsor the chosen chef and there’s a visa process with costs for both parties.
“Generally, there’s a four to six week window to complete the process and have the individual arrive in the UK.”
Taste Perthshire chef settling in
Through the skilled worker visa programme, Calum has recruited two South African sous chefs. While Michael has been in Scotland for seven weeks, the next chef arrives in two weeks.
The 21-year-old chef has a two-year sponsorship in place that can be extended a further three years.
Since his early teens, Michael has dreamt of coming to the UK and he’d never visited before moving for his Taste Perthshire job.
“He has settled in well, is working very hard and adapting to our ways by learning different skills,” says the owner.
“The team have engaged well with him and he’s fitted in well.”
With two new chefs in the kitchen, the Bankfoot restaurant is in a strong position for the next few years.
If everything works out, Calum says there’s no need for the business to recruit from overseas again next year.
‘First and foremost a local employer’
While the two newest staff members moved from South Africa, most of Taste Perthshire’s 51 staff are from Bankfoot or the surrounding area.
Calum says: “We are first and foremost very much a local employer. That’s important to us.
“But we have deemed the need to take this action this year, it could just be the stabiliser that we needed.
“After having difficulty, we now have stability and we can develop.
“It keeps the momentum we’ve been building up over the past eight years going forward.”
After two years, the two chefs have the option to stay in Bankfoot or move to pastures new.
Calum thinks Perthshire could be tempting enough to make them stick around.
“Our winter works well with South Africa as they’re in the height of summer in January and February,” he says.
“We’ve already got some decent leave for them organised to return for their vacation and family time.
“If that cycle works and they enjoy Scotland, hopefully they’ll get their families visiting.
“Perthshire in warm, sunny weather, you can’t beat it.”
