Why Filipino Chefs have Become the Solution to Top Australian Kitchens

Do you struggle to find, and keep good chefs? 

- then I expect you manage a kitchen in Australia 

“Australia’s booming restaurant scene is at risk of stalling as an international chef shortage begins to bite locally.” – Aug 2015, The Australian.

Restaurateurs say a combination of a ‘world-wide’ ever-increasing demand for chefs, inadequate training and not wanting to do the hard yards among young adults means chef positions across Australia have become difficult to fill.

Restaurant operators in several of the developed world’s biggest markets — including the US, Britain and Ireland — are struggling to fill positions. As restaurant interest builds on the back of television’s appetite for food and chefs, demand for dining out is threatened by a sheer lack of hands to produce restaurant food.

The article in The Weekend Australian includes various restaurant owners and chefs from around the country who agree that our available source is severely depleted and it is affecting our ability to find suitable personnel.

According to Melbourne restaurateur Philip Kennedy “None of Melbourne’s top kitchens could operate without 457 visas and working holiday visas. We advertise for chefs regularly and there are very few appropriately experienced Australian applicants.” 

Around the country the problem is the same, its even tougher outside our major capital cities.

Greg Holmsen, Managing Director of The Philippines Recruitment Company (TPRC) has spent 3 years developing a solution in the Philippines to this on-going problem. 

“Our clients identified 5 major areas not being covered by any other firm”, says Greg. We have worked hard to develop a system that can cover each of these areas:

1. Candidates must have skills that can easily assimilate into our kitchens, There is no time for training.
2. Communication skills – without question, they must have great English
3. Speed to market – we need them now
4. Return on Investment
5. Guaranteed for 12 months

To cover each point:

1. We screen out 99% of our applicants. What we have left is a core group of exceptional candidates who have all worked internationally with Western Cuisine. They will understand food culture, safety standards and will be matched to each kitchen.
2.  All assessment criteria is in English. Each of our candidates must also pass our own internal review. Our YouTube profiling will show communication skills as well as culinary skills.
3.  Our candidates have been through 7 stages of screening. They then undertake the immigration required Trades Recognition Australia (TRA) assessment so they are ‘ready to lodge’.
4. Filipino’s are well known in Australia as hard working, loyal and dedicated employees who appreciate the opportunity given to them by their employer. The hidden cost of finding new staff is greater than just the hard cost of short-term labour. Training and re-training, only to find the chef leave again. We have one client who has 9 Filipinos working with them who said after two years not one has had a sick day. They estimated this as being worth $4,000 per worker every year.
5.  Through our 7-Stages of screening we fly our consultant Executive Chef up from Sydney. As we guarantee each chef we need to be 100% sure ourselves – for both the candidate and the client.

The pool of candidates in the Philippines is limited however, we been able to deliver on every request. Not every chef in the Philippines is suitable for an Australian Kitchen but every Chef in the Philippines wants to be in one. It is the extent of our recruitment team to source only the best-of-the-best. 

You can view our current talent pool on our YouTube Channel

If you are investigating this option, I’d like to give you access to our report on “How to Legally Recruit from the Philippines” This details the facts to a successful recruitment process and will ensure you avoid any messy red tape. www.bit.ly/howtorecruitfromphilippines

Or please contact me direct greg@tprc.com.au or call me on 0407 743 276 for a free consultation to see if our world class chefs could benefit your business.