She was quick, but it was clear she wasn’t going to be able to make much serious headway before the bell rang. Kitchen porters, waiters and bar staff are, he says, also hard to come by, though I’d already noticed this myself at the theatre last month, just one server was working her way through the snaking queue for interval drinks. Not to sound like the editor of The Caterer magazine, but what on earth is to be done about the staffing problems in hospitality, the seriousness of which is now obvious to anyone with eyes in their head to see?Īccording to my informant, thanks both to Brexit and the pandemic, it is carnage out there, chefs walking out mid-shift because they’ve received a better offer elsewhere, students at catering colleges snapped up before they’ve even graduated. The restaurant contacts up to 70 potential new cooks a day, and still they don’t have the people they need. Yes, he says, shaking his head: staff shortages. That night, as a waiter hands me an affogato (just a tiny one), I gently quiz him about this.

Booking a table at a favourite place the other morning, I learn from its website that it will be closed two extra days a week for most of July. A colleague says something about one restaurant group he’s heard of that recently ran short of no fewer than 24 chefs across four sites.

A friend tells me that a chef-patron near where he lives has reduced his covers by half in order to keep going.

A t a certain point, anecdotes start to seem – rightly or wrongly – like hard data.

Catering shift exchange