A leading hospitality employer has been forced to close one of her premises due to a shortage of chefs and front-of-house workers.

Rebecca Collins, who runs The Vines of Rochester, Cooling Castle Barn and The Fire Station Brasserie, Chatham, has been shocked by the lack of interest with up to 70 positions open for months.

A nationwide shortfall of hospitality staff has left around 80% of venues short of workers, according to industry body UK Hospitality.

Rebecca has now had to make the difficult decision to shut the brasserie at New Cut to allow the other venues to continue unaffected, while she tries to recruit dozens of new staff including head chefs, pastry chefs and waiters.

Despite offering reasonable working hours compared to the national average and a range of perks and weekend days off, she fears there aren’t enough people wanting to work any more.

She said: “I don’t think it’s Brexit, but there has been a job drain nationally due to Brexit, with many Europeans moving back home.

"There’s also the issue with many employees in the hospitality industry re-training while being on furlough or having time to reconsider what they want to do career-wise when everything opens up.

“It’s sad that we are being lumped in with other businesses who perhaps don’t look after their staff as well.

"You hear the horror stories of chefs being forced to work 65-hour weeks, but our staff average 42-45 hours a week, get a weekend day off and gym perks and private medical insurance.

“We took on a chef a fortnight ago who didn’t turn up on his first day of work and another that came for some informal training and left after 10 minutes suddenly deciding he didn’t want to be in the industry any more.

“We pay well and treat our staff well, so are just hoping we see some movement quickly.”

The Vines of Rochester – a restaurant and boutique hotel – opened its doors for the first time in May, although has put off opening the hotel fully for a few months during the recruitment drive.

Cooling Castle Barn has reopened for weddings after a severely pandemic-affected year, while the company has offered some couples who had their weddings postponed the opportunity to marry at The Vines of Rochester instead.

The company is now looking for a head chef; 10 chefs including pastry and commis; eight front of house advisors; 30 waiters and waitresses; with a number of other roles open including kitchen porters and housekeepers.

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