What is the main challenge with recruiting and retaining talent in the UAE?
Colin: They come out of college thinking they can cook and they can’t! Firstly there are no third commis anymore, there are just commis, and they say they want to be a demi chef yet they’ve only been in the job six months.
If you don’t give it to them they move because someone will offer them it somewhere else. So what happens is that within two years, you’ve got demi chefs and junior sous chefs and they don’t know that much. You have to do your time, I mean Rome wasn’t built in a day.
Ryan: It’s not just in Dubai though, it’s the UK as well. It’s started to change back now a bit — you’re starting to get more guys coming back in young as students now.
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Colin: Guys come out of college and say that you don’t need to fillet a fish because you can get filleted fish. They are no good to me if they can’t fillet a fish or bone a chicken.
Darren: I think new techniques have also taken away skills. There are so many young cooks today who are hotshots and they only know water baths, or how to do all the froths and foams. But if the water bath goes wrong and you tell them to cook it in the pan they look at you like you’re mad. I still teach the guys the classic way because I think it’s important; to learn the modern you need to learn the classics.
Genny: For the opening of Marco Pierre White Grill, when trying to fill the chef de partie role I knew that they had a tendency to disappoint so I took mostly commis and trained them up in my way of doing things. I think that’s a lot easier as opposed to hiring a chef de partie who has been trained by someone else.
Edi: If you bring people up you have the chance to keep them longer.
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