Chef shortage forces restaurants to recruit from abroad

The shortage of chefs throughout the country has reached crisis point and could threaten the success of the tourism industry recovery, TDs and senators were told yesterday.

Restaurateurs said the industry is now facing a huge crisis and has to look outside the country for chefs as cutbacks at the start of the recession has seen fully-fitted state-owned training centres lying idle and decommissioned throughout the country.

Now the joint committee on jobs, enterprise, and innovation is to call in three government departments to see if a solution can be found before the chef shortage escalates.