Critical shortage of chefs - Low pay means low interest

Our obsession with all things foodie has grown in tandem with the growth of secularism.

Where once Catholics celebrated the rosary, today some of us fret unduly about risotto. Artisan food producers are venerated as the keepers of an undefined, but reassuring, flame.

This fetish is driven by unrelenting food porn on television. Despite all that over-seasoned palaver, Ireland needs 5,000 chefs.