Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 7 July 2022
Committee on Public Petitions
Consideration of Public Petition on Adding Chefs to the Critical Skills List Now to Save Irish Hospitality: Discussion
Mr. Paddy Lynn:
I mean the chefs, kitchens and restaurants. Chefs are under extreme strain because they are working too many hours. They do not have full teams available.
For all the passion and joy, if you do not have the skill level in the kitchen, you cannot maintain the kitchen. The head chefs are there; we have strong head chefs in most places, but they need understudies and sous-chefs and chefs de partie who can support them. If they are constantly drained because of the number of hours they are working and the failure of the restaurant they have taken so much pride in, it is going to slowly whittle away our industry. We Have Chefs brings fresh talent in. We are not trying to change Irish cuisine to Malaysian cuisine or Thai cuisine. We are injecting a skill set.
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