Some hotels and motels are resorting to poaching staff from rivals because of a chronic chef shortage in South Australia. Experts say the skills shortage, is widespread including metropolitan Adelaide and regions including Ceduna, Port Augusta and the Yorke Peninsula. There is a shortage of about 3000 chefs in Australia and at least 250 in SA. Interstate hotels are having to import chefs and cooks from overseas to cope with the demand and experts say it could soon happen here. Australian Hotels Association general manager Ian Horne said the problem was “only going to get worse with the mining boom”. “We have a severe shortage,” he said. Mr Horne said chefs were exiting the industry within five years. “We as a community haven’t worked out a mechanism to keep them here,” he said. Mr Horne said operators in Perth were bringing in skilled chefs and cooks from Bali to cope with the shortage. “What we are seeing in Perth is just a handful of years away for us,” he said. Mr Horne said there would need to be several approaches to fix the problem, including skilled migration and incentive packages to keep chefs here. Alek Korcz, executive chef of Lasseters Hotels SA, which includes the Oriental Hotel at Norwood, said “it’s not difficult to get a chef, it’s difficult to get a good chef”. “There’s not enough training,” he said. “Sometimes they are sending me chefs without knives, without uniforms and this is the basic (things you need) to start your apprenticeship.” The Advertiser (Adelaide), January 2.
Jan 13
