The Restaurant

Restaurateur Dean Banks, says it is an anxious time because a staffing crisis is combining with soaring costs.

Banks, who trained with Rick Stein, employs 21 staff at the Pompadour, Waldorf Astoria, in Edinburgh, 19 at his Haar restaurant in St Andrews and eight in the nationwide Haar At Home service, and says: “Brexit has been the biggest player in the staff crisis but it has been brushed under the carpet because of the pandemic.

“Edinburgh and St Andrews are driven by the tourist industry in peak summer months and usually we would have staff, many from Europe, but that has been massively reduced because of Brexit. It is not just the difficulty getting visas but some people have been turned-off coming to the UK. There was ease of access when we were in the EU. Why would they go to the hassle of coming to Britain, and the bother of filling out the forms when, for example, if they are from Germany they can just go to Italy without a visa?”

Banks, 33, who started his career rustling up bacon rolls in a corner shop and went on to become a 2018 finalist in BBC1’S Masterchef: The Professionals, added: “At the Pompadour, we were struggling to retain staff. There has been big competition with the industry, hiking up the wage brackets. On average, our wage bill is 30% higher than pre-pandemic. The two years of being open and closed because of lockdowns mean we have lost this next generation of 16, 17 and 18-year-olds joining the industry.”

To retain staff he offers a four-day week on the full-time annual salary. With his energy bills soaring from £15k per year to £45k, and food costs increased by 10%, Banks has had to diversify to survive. He is reluctant to raise his prices but says the sustainability of businesses is threatened.

“Either customers understand the cost for the customer increases exponentially, or it gets sorted out by the government,” he said. “It’s like the Wild West out there. I fight for everything. I can’t tell you the last day I didn’t have anxiety.”