Top chef starts training course for youngsters

Gleneagles: Andrew Fairlie runs training scheme

A top Perthshire chef hopes to change the perception of waiting tables as a dead-end job to attract more people to the industry.

Andrew Fairlie is to start training teenagers at his Michelin-starred restaurant in the Gleneagles Hotel to tackle a shortage of waiters.

Restaurateurs fear Brexit will cause a crisis in the food and drink industry because they may no longer be able to recruit from countries where the job is seen as a profession.

Mr Fairlie, Scotland’s only twostarred Michelin chef, employs 14 people front-of-house, many of whom come from overseas. He said: “The industry has such a bad reputation, especially ‘out front’. They (young people) think, ‘What can we learn?’ There is almost a perception that it is just taking plates back and forward.

“It’s not for everybody, but some young people will see the potential right away. By the end of it, you will be as knowledgeable about wine as any of our wine suppliers. Then there is food knowledge and food tasting, which people experience. It is opening up a completely new world to people, a world they didn’t know was there.”

Mr Fairlie said staff at his restaurant earn around £19,000 but rookie members of staff are kept behind the scenes until their knowledge is “100%”.

He said: “I quiz them every week. What we can’t afford is for a guest to ask a waiter a question and not get the answer.”

Picture: Steve MacDougall. Mr Fairlie has two Michelin stars.