Everything, as it turns out. Gillies, who ran Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant empire for seven years, uses less popular spirits to create something special on a creative menu that aims to save money for him and his customers. The same goes for food. Rising fish prices mean he has removed salmon, cod and sea bream from the menu and replaced them with mackerel and cod. He is one of hundreds of chefs and restaurateurs in the country who, faced with devastating increases in material prices and staff shortages, are forced to rethink their menus and take other cost-saving measures before the summer holidays. Famous chefs such as Tom Kerridge, Mitch Tonks and Razak Helalat have told the Observer that they must either close their doors a few days a week, reduce staff hours or change key ingredients in their dishes. “Our costs had risen by 20%, so we were raising prices,” Gillies said. “It was crazy. We can not just keep going up. So I decided to drop the prices and make a zero waste policy. “ The bar in his restaurant, Bank House in Chislehurst, Kent, creates a new cocktail of spirits that people rarely drink every week: in the case of Monte Cassino, Benedictine and yellow chartre. Wine from open bottles is used for a delicious selection. The ornaments are included in soups, sauces and pies. And while lobster and chateaubriand are still on the menu, other ingredients have been replaced and prices have returned to 2019 levels. Tom Kerridge: “We have a reduced menu. We have to achieve the same standard – it is a restaurant with two Michelin stars – but you have to reduce the workload “. Photo: Chris Jackson / Getty Images “The salmon was crazy money,” Gillies said. A smoked salmon salad has become a salad with smoked mackerel. “It’s still a premium product. The portions of cod and sea bream have gone up a lot. So we are using cod at the moment “. Gillies is not alone. Kerridge cut his menu at Hand and Flowers in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, a pub with two Michelin stars, from six appetizers, mainly and desserts to four each, and Coach, his other one-star Marlow store. , are now closed Monday and Tuesday due to staff shortages. Hospitality is at the crossroads of all the crises affecting the UK – food shortages, broken supply chains, fuel inflation, non-peak energy prices, staff shortages, debts from Covid loans and a hangover of customers who do not do so after lockdown. go out as old as possible. So holidaymakers in the UK need to keep their expectations in check. Chip shops and gastropubs in Devon and Cornwall are removing cod from their menus, as are more expensive restaurants such as Mitch Tonks’ Rockfish chain. About 40% of UK cod is caught by Russian vessels, and sanctions imposing a 35% duty on Russian fish also increase the cost of Norwegian supplies, Tonks said. “A plate of cod and chips would be 24 £,” he said. “I do not think it is right for consumers to bear this cost. “It’s temporary, but in the meantime we have amazing fish in Britain.” Flour has doubled in price for restaurants due to a shortage of grain from Ukraine, and a shortage of feed has forced prices for beef and dairy products to rise, with salmon now at its highest ever. Avian flu cases have hit poultry and even supplies of olive oil and other cooking oils have been cut off. Almost everyone is affected – for example, Helalat’s Coal Shed restaurants add chicken to Sunday’s roast menu because beef is so expensive. Even McDonald’s has been warning customers for months to wait for ingredients to be missing, while Wetherspoon’s had shortages last year but has since recovered. I can guarantee you that my sales would be 20% higher if we had more people for work Mark Selby, Wahaca Amid warnings that the UK is heading for recession with a 9% inflation rate, hotels and restaurants are also being hampered by bureaucracy, according to Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UK Hospitality. With 174,000 vacancies, an increase of 83% from 2019, the United Kingdom is losing 22 22 billion a year. “About one in 10 jobs is unpaid in the industry,” he said. “A quarter of businesses reduce their working hours, close certain days or do not sell at full capacity. Hotels decline bookings. It is about 7 billion pounds of money for the State. “If you want to make your way out of a difficult financial environment, not having access to staff is a constraint that we can not afford.” Kerridge’s flagship pub, Hand and Flowers, is a 24-hour business that needs 75 people to run the restaurant and bedrooms, he told the Observer. “Everyone works overtime or overtime,” he said. Recruitment is very difficult, despite the fact that they pay higher than the average salary. “The kitchen has been hit hardest, but we can not just decide to close some days, so we have a reduced menu. “We have to meet the same standards – it’s a Michelin-starred restaurant – but you have to reduce the workload.” On the road, the bus closes on Mondays and Tuesdays to make sure staff have a proper break. “Those were still very strong days,” Kerridge said. “We are losing revenue in two days.” Restaurants are facing increased VAT and still have to repay loans taken out to stay alive during Covid, he added. The shortage of staff is partly due to the fact that thousands of elderly people retired early during the pandemic. But the shortage of students coming from catering schools and the absence of young European workers since the Brexit strike in 2021 are bigger problems. Mark Selby, co-founder of Wahaca, a chain based in Mexico, said the signs of growth before last Christmas had stopped by Omicron and were still about 25% below 2019 levels. “I can guarantee you that my sales would be 20% higher if we had more people to work with,” he said. “We have restaurants, but we can not fill them. The government must acknowledge that there is a labor crisis and put Brexit aside and accept that we are close to full employment. Somewhere – whether it is Europe, India or South Africa – we must allow a workforce to be here and welcome it. “I feel it gets worse every week and the government has its head in the sand. This is a nationwide problem. In the 12 years of operation, I have never had a problem where we have nothing left. “Now we receive calls on a daily basis.” UK Hospitality has backed a student work visa, which Nicholls said could be done by extending the EU trade agreement and pushing for proposals for agreements with Australia, New Zealand, India and Canada. . “First and foremost, reduce the bureaucracy and costs associated with immigration, which means it is beyond the reach of most of our hosting companies,” he said. Liam Nelson, co-founder of Pastaio in London, funded a US chef. The process took several months and cost λί 2,000. “She probably spent about six weeks with us before deciding it was not the right role for her, which is not uncommon for a chef, but it does make it a lot more frustrating when you go through that process,” she said. “Hospitality is an international industry and people do it because they love it. It used to be an incredibly attractive vacation that turned into an incredible career for many people. Without this flexibility, it is unsustainable. “Eating out is a huge part of British culture and we are not going to have enough places to do it.”
