Brexit and Covid have exacerbated a problem that has been building for years. But some restaurants are trying to attract and keep staff by changing the culture of the industry
When Danny first entered professional kitchens he did so as a star-struck fanboy. He had devoured Marco Pierre White’s White Heat (“such a romantic book”) and Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential. “I really bought into the glory of it. There’s a Bourdain line about the poetry of the way chefs moved at the grill. He was addicted to that. I loved it as well. I adored the cut and thrust of the kitchen. All I wanted was to be a really good jobbing chef.”
Danny (not his real name) spent the next decade throwing himself into 70- and 80-hour weeks of hard graft in high-end restaurants. “Standing at a stove doing 120 covers in a night is insane,” he says. “It was full on. Pans thrown. Screaming, shouting. I think people misunderstand that. The juniors expect it. Like soldiering, it’s part of the deal.” In that environment, he says, “you learn how to work fast, work cleanly”.