Imagine you’re standing in a room for twelve hours straight.

However, this isn’t any ordinary room. This room is sweltering at 47°C. You look to your hands to see they’re an amalgam of cuts, blisters and burns. Your legs ache and tense underneath your checkered pants, craving to sit down. But there’s work ahead and you can’t afford to fall behind. You breathe in the dense air, compose your scattered mind and prepare your body for another service.

Tonight, you’re working the difficult section – mains. Timing is everything. Take too long, or peak too soon and you’ve ruined the cover. Everything you do needs to be perfect. But your success, in this moment, is not dependent on how well you cook a meal. Your success comes from your team.

Service ends and it's well into the night. You get home, exhausted. The only thing on your mind is a shower to rid yourself from the smell that has entrenched itself into your clothes.

This is the day-to-day reality of my partner, Mitchell. He’s a chef and a damn good one at that. I often find myself in awe of what he does every day and how he gets up the next morning to do it again.

It’s insane.

Our lives have taken very different paths professionally; he into hospitality and I into advertising. However, I find myself learning from and being inspired by his work ethic. To an extent, it’s his work ethic that has enabled me to be successful in mine.

From the outside looking in, our lifestyles aren't what you'd call "desirable".

A good day is having dinner together before 10:00 PM. A good week is clocking up less than 70 hours of work. And a good month is spending at least one day off in each other's company.



The reality and lifestyle of being a chef is at times very difficult. It's this reality that makes it incredibly unsurprising that Australia is experiencing a national chef shortage.



In 2014, the Australian Federal Government added chefs to the Skilled Occupation List. This allows foreign workers in the industry to apply for a permanent visa without a sponsor to fill the positions left vacant by Australian workers.

In New South Wales, metropolitan areas are struggling to secure and retain chefs and the demand continues to increase. In 2014, there was a shortage of over 35,000 chefs in Australia.

Take the below figures into account:



Hospitality turnover in New South Wales (restaurants, catering and cafes) grew by 7.6% in the year to September 2015, following a 17.9% growth the previous year.



The number of vacancies posted online for chefs in New South Wales increased in the year to September 2015 by 8.1%.



However, the number of chefs and cooks completing their apprenticeships in New South Wales averaged around 760 from 2014 - 2015 (a similar number to the previous three years). Qualification completions are not growing. What's more startling is qualification commencements have fallen by 15% in the three years to 2014 - 2015.



What does this mean?

The hospitality industry and subsequent consumer demand for the industry is growing year-on-year. However, the supply of qualified chefs entering the workforce is declining. We are amid a national chef shortage in Australia.



There are many, many reasons why the industry is turning this way. Don't get me wrong - I'm no expert here. I write anecdotally from Mitchell's experience and my own research into the industry.



Media outlets attribute the shortage to "Generation Y Loafers" (The Daily Telegraph, May 2016) and "young Australians having lost the taste for hard work" (2UE, May 2016).



Hmm, I beg to differ.

Would you be able to work the day-to-day I described above? Unless you're deeply passionate about food, probably not. I don't blame you. Neither could I. That doesn't make you or I lazy. It makes us realistic.



The life and reality of a chef is a lot of hard work and sacrifice. You need to be damn well passionate about what you do. To attribute a national shortage to laziness is a disservice to the industry and all young professionals.



The problem goes beyond hard work. Compensation and expectations are helping to propel the problem.



Let's take the average wage of a sous chef in Sydney, Australia. According to PayScale, the median annual salary of a sous chef is approximately $55,945 per year before tax. This equals to approximately $854.63 per week after tax.



Contrasting this with the national minimum wage in Australia, which is $656.90 before tax for a standard 38 hour week. After tax, this figure drops to approximately $585.90 per week. At first glance, the wage comparison between your average chef and minimum wage employee clearly swings in favor towards the former. However, there's a pretty good chance your average chef does not work just 38 hours a week. They're more likely to be working 60+.



Let's adjust these figures again to look at a realistic hourly wage based on a working week. For your minimum wage employee, they can expect to be paid approximately $15.41 per hour for a 38 hour week. However, your sous chef is more likely to be earning around $14.24 for a 60 hour week.



At the end of the week, the sous chef earns more, but they worked a lot harder to get there. Unless you're fortunate enough to be paid hourly, a full-time salaried sous chef will not reap the benefits of overtime or penalty rates.



Clearly, wage is a factor in steering people away from the industry. It's not surprising that young chefs struggle to complete their apprenticeships - they're earning even less than the above.



The obvious solution to this is to pay chefs more. But it's not quite that simple.

Most restaurants operate on extremely small margins. Check out this example from Hospitality Magazine highlighting the general expense breakdown of your average medium-sized restaurant.

If a restaurant increases their wages above award average, most owners cannot afford it and they'll close. Let's be honest though, some can afford it, but choose not to.

The other option is to pay chefs more and pass that cost on to diners. But in a city like Sydney, with over 1,000 restaurants and plenty of competition, you'll probably lose customers.



The answer to the wage problem isn't black and white and for now, it's the chefs that lose.



There's more than just take home pay that's keeping young chefs out of the industry - alcohol and cigarette consumption is exceptionally high.



In a 2013 study, the National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction (NCETA) found that 65% of apprentice chefs surveyed consumed more than five standard alcoholic drinks up to three times per week.



The research says stress, irregular hours and late finishes drive apprentice chefs to drink. Let's add in to the mix an average first year salary of approximately $420.70 per week coupled with an industry predisposition for verbal abuse, patriarchy and bullying.

Is it really that surprising?



Industry culture at the end of a long shift is to wind down with a drink. When the kitchen gets too hot (so to speak), a cigarette helps calm you down. Neither of which help support a sustainable lifestyle.



So let's recap where we're at.

You're in a physically and mentally demanding environment, working 60+ hours a week for a wage that, when broken down, is less than the hourly minimum wage.



Would you do it?



My answer is still no.

I'm guessing yours probably is still too.





