GUILD TALK

MY SON, GUY, who is nearing the end of a slightly disappointing year off, has a summer job at a resort in Cornwall. Typical teenage unskilled stuff, but he’s willing to learn, earn money and put the hours in.

Sounds like he is the exception rather than the rule as a few weeks ago they had to shut the restaurant due to staff shortages. I’m a retail man and so can't claim to understand the mechanics of running a foodservice team. But Michel Roux Jr. does and even he stopped lunch service in the swanky Le Gavroche for similar reasons.

Consider that the Office for National Statistics state that 4.8% of economically active people over 16 are unemployed. That’s 1.6m people according to the website Statista. It seems to me that a few more people should be queuing up to fill these foodservice opportunities. Everyone I speak to in that world is desperate to have a successful summer, nay more than that, must have a successful summer to stay in business. And like the folk who stand behind the counters in our delis and farm shops, good people make all the difference to whether that extra bottle of wine or that additional piece of cheese is sold.

Recruiting the right people is only half the battle, though. Like the retail trade, the hospitality sector is famously bad at investing in training. As I’ve said in this column before, selling from a position of knowledge and understanding makes you a better operator and, there is no doubt, increases sales. My concern is that in the chaos of 2021, educating and training of staff will be sacrificed further.

We won’t be able to deliver a successful summer because there won’t be enough chefs

Pandemic aside, we would still have had a labour shortage in the UK, as the movement of workers from the EU would have been severely restricted. My fear is this: we won’t be able to deliver a successful summer because there won’t be enough chefs to cook the food or waiters to pop it in front of the inevitable increase in punters. And those customers will have a poor experience, jump onto the illusory TripAdvisor, and won’t come back. We can’t let it happen.