Who had their say?
The Caterer Middle East Head Chef Survey 2012 was open to head and executive chefs across the region. Eighty people took part.
In terms of where our chefs work, the majority were based in the UAE, but others that took part came from as far as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Egypt and Kuwait.
As for their age, the oldest chef that responded was 53, and the youngest to take part was 28. The average age of our respondents was 40.5.
Out of the 43 people who wanted to reveal their sex, 100% of them were male, and if that is representative of every chef who took part, it goes to show that we are working in a very unbalanced environment in this region.
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Most of the chefs in our survey started working in the kitchen at a young age – in fact our oldest was still only 27. The average age our executive chefs started working in kitchens was 18.
The average time the chefs have been working with their current employer was two years, although 14% of them had been with their current employer for 10 years.
The three key factors that had inspired chefs to get into the profession were family members, the want to travel, and the love of creativity.
In terms of what kind of outlet the head chefs worked in, Modern European was the most popular, and more chefs than ever were working in standalone restaurants.
It was regular customers who made up the main bulk of the respondents’ client base, with tourists coming in second, just above corporate business diners.
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