The shortage of chefs in Ireland is not a new issue, but is now more acute than ever.
It's not difficult to see why this problem has worsened since the start of the economic recovery. The numbers of applicants for professional cooking courses has been in terminal decline for years. Couple that with more and more restaurants opening, and voila...perfect storm conditions exist. Decreasing supply meets increasing demand.
This may explain the background to the current shortage, but there are broader issues which underpin the apparent lack of interest in the profession. Throughout the recession, when unemployment was at it highest levels for a generation, it was still almost impossible to get skilled chefs in Dublin. Every job website had hundreds of vacancies which went unfilled. Despite this, many young Irish people preferred to emigrate than re-skill in an industry where huge opportunities existed for those willing to apply themselves.
In my opinion, a significant part of the problem is cultural. The hospitality industry is not given enough respect as a career path in Ireland. Working in restaurants has traditionally been viewed as something which people did when going through college, en route to a "real job". Becoming a career chef or a waiter here is not treated the same way as it is on the continent, for example. I feel that the our college courses are not structured in the correct way as a result.
In my experience, many of the more recent graduates are better suited to careers in lecturing, than hands on careers in the industry. Until about 15 years ago, the courses were part college, part work experience from the outset. This gave students a real taste of the industry from the beginning, and allowed them to gain practical experience, in tandem with passing their exams. They left college as skilled commis chefs as a result, and could go straight into training for chef de partie positions, once they started in professional kitchens.
Nowadays, many of the courses are full time, with a certain amount of work experience (often unpaid) required in the final year. The end result is that many graduates leave college with excellent grades. Once they find employment however, they have to start at the very bottom rung in the kitchen due to their lack of practical experience. Anecdotal evidence suggests that many are put off by this, and ultimately choose a different path.
There are exceptions to every rule of course, and we have some excellent young chefs here who were driven enough to push themselves in the best kitchens, and are reaping the rewards as a result.
I recall the difficulty we had getting chefs when we opened in 2007. Luckily, we developed a relationship with a culinary college in France, and they sent us two graduates every year. We helped them to find accommodation, settle in and learn English. Some had more experience than others, but every single one had excellent skills and even better attitudes. It underlined for me the shortcomings in our college system here.
In addition to taking in young French chefs and waiting staff, we also trained some people from scratch. Our sous chef in 2012 was a KP in 2007. My advice to restaurants, is to look for talent within their ranks, and invest the time and energy to train those who are eager to learn. Also, I'd recommend writing to some of the top culinary colleges around Europe, and offering to take graduates looking to gain experience and learn English. If you can establish a similar relationship to ours, I can promise you won't regret it.