3 Rants, 3 blogs, 3 weeks, Part 1 Conrad Syndrome….

3 Rants, 3 blogs, 3 weeks, Part 1 Conrad Syndrome….3 months in and Cleaver East is flying. We have had some ups and downs and went through a fairamount of staff over the last few months but things are starting to settle down nicely but a few things have been on my mind over the last few months and it’s time to vent……“Conrad Gallagher syndrome”…..This is something I encountered many, many years ago back when took over a restaurant in Ranelagh called Zucchini (I renamed it Mint 4 weeks later). I was fresh off the plane from working abroad and the Irish restaurant scene had changed dramatically on my return. Every chef I interviewed had completely lost the run of themselves. I couldn’t believe it, every single snotty nosed little chef straight out of catering college were demanding outrageous salaries. Let’s get something clear; Chefs are some of the most under paid workers I know and I for one spent over a decade working 80hour plus weeks for crumbs. It is a flawed industry in that regard and I would love it to change, but that’s just the way it is and that’s the way it will stay unless customers decide to pay double for their meals or else taxes are dramatically reduced. (I’m not holding my breath). At first I thought I was just unlucky with my applicants but after a few weeks I realised bad luck had nothing to do with it as a trend soon appeared. That trend was Conrad Gallagher! Conrad had opened a lot of restaurants in a very short space of time. He was the big name chef at the time so every young chef was applying to work for him. He paid (well offered to pay) way over the odds and gave absolute novices senior positions and in doing so completely disillusioned the young chefs coming through and fundamentally made it very hard for them to progress, as they were trapped by money and titles, the two things that destroy young chefs. Of course he wasn’t solely to blame forth is but I personally came across lots of chefs whom darken his doors!

Since Cleaver has opened I have noticed the “Conrad Syndrome” is creeping back in and recession is to blame this time. Due to chef shortages some restaurants are again offering way over the odds for kids from college and this is not sustainable. The young chefs chase the money rather than valuable experience and proper tuition and when they are 26+, start to think about settling down, buying a house etc. They realise they have been led up the garden path by biased employers and subsequently made bad decisions and worked in the wrong establishments. In doing so their potential for financial growth is extremely limited and for these chefs they have only 3 options, but only two are really viable.

• Option 1: Swallow the bitter pill and take a large step down the financial ladder and the ranks and pretty much try to start from scratch. My experience in this regard after giving countless mature chefs a job is it doesn’t work!
• Option 2: Change career as they realise they would earn more standing on a till in a local newsagents and they won’t have to work the anti-social hours
• Option 3: The Carvery beckons

So in a nut shell I believe if we want to compete internationally with some of the great food nations we should concentrate on training and tutoring our young up and coming chefs and provide them with real building blocks so they can grow. Chefs/managers should stop offering over the odds 20 year olds and giving them senior chef roles because in doing so you are ending their careers. You have to earn your stripes in this game and anyone looking for a shortcut re-read your future options above…..