In an editorial in the February issue of Public Sector Catering magazine, editor David Foad writes: “Lockdowns during the pandemic gave many of us the chance to consider our work-life balance and chefs were no exception.
“With restaurants and pubs closed and staff either furloughed or laid off, large numbers wondered what to do with their passion and cooking skills.
“Some just went with the flow and became delivery drivers, some threw themselves into charity kitchens helping feed the needy, and a few looked at the public sector and liked what they saw.
“The current School Chef of the Year Rob Chambers is a good case in point. A restaurant chef for 16 years, his career hit the buffers as a result of Covid until a friend persuaded him to get a job in school catering.
“He now heads a team feeding 1,600 pupils at Hampton College and gets his job satisfaction from seeing ‘fresh food prepared each day’ for them.
“And he’s by no means alone. Many chefs are starting to talk more about their job in terms of satisfaction and less in terms of pay. They are balancing the stress that comes with long hours in the high-pressure environment of a high-end restaurant with the family-friendly hours and sense of worth that comes with seeing children, patients or the elderly enjoying a meal they have prepared.
“The public sector cannot compete the High Street in terms of salary, its chefs rarely get the media exposure of celebrities and its budgets don’t run to expensive ingredients and equipment.
“But that’s rather the point. Working with limited money in more challenging kitchens, chefs in the public sector are pushed to be creative. Turning out hundreds of tasty two-course lunches for £2 a head in a school is ultimately just as much a test of skill as preparing a £100 meal in a Michelin-star restaurant.
“You won’t get a tip, of course, but as chefs like Rob Chambers are finding, the smiles on the faces of happy customers is worth a lot.
“That is why our PSC Expo at the NEC from March 15-16 is dedicating a day to showing catering college students and apprentices just what chefs in the public sector do.
“At the Public Sector Catering Kitchen they will see Rob, as well as award-winning and leading chefs from universities, the care sector and prisons preparing typical food and talking about all aspects of their work.
"It’s a chance for these often neglected parts of the catering industry to show off the quality of their work and talk about how rewarding it can be as a career for the chefs of tomorrow.”
Elsewhere in the February issue you can read about the alarming increase in childhood obesity recorded during the pandemic, the story behind the ‘family Christmas’ sacrifice made by care home chef Caroline Lloyd and why events company CleverChefs is now winning contracts in the school meals sector.
Click here to read the digital edition: http://mag.publicsectorcatering.co.uk/books/enmv/#p=1
