46% of Brits claim watching cookery shows puts them off a career as a professional chef, according to research conducted by Caterer.com in November 2018
A Caterer.com survey of over 2,000 UK residents revealed that whilst we are a nation of armchair chefs, we're unwilling to take the challenge by entering the hospitality industry.
Skills shortage due to cooking shows?
The results from our survey indicate that the increasing skills shortage in the hospitality industry is partially due to popular cooking shows such as MasterChef and The Great British Bake Off.
63% of adults surveyed say they wouldn’t consider a role in hospitality – and for almost half (46%), tuning into TV cookery shows is to blame.
Not only are the shows putting people off a career in hospitality, they also make one in five of us (20%) question our own culinary skills, resulting in a feeling that we are just not good enough to consider roles in catering and hospitality.
62% unable to cater for paying customers
Whilst these shows may have us glued to our screens and filling our trollies in the baking aisle, the interest stops there. 62% of those surveyed claimed they wouldn’t be able to cope with catering to paying customers under pressure. Brits are a modest bunch with only a quarter (25%) considering themselves to be a good cook (and over half, 56%, rate their cooking skills as average).
The hyped-up tension and contestants beating the clock by seconds is great TV, but doesn’t showcase what a day-to-day role in a leading kitchen is really like. It’s this intense televised pressure that is putting Brits off considering a role in hospitality.
It isn’t just perceived stress in the kitchens. Brits surveyed think stress affects other industry roles from sommeliers (67%) and maître de’s (83%) to bar staff (79%).
Are these cooking shows an accurate reflection of the industry?
Neil Pattison, Group Sales Director at Caterer.com said,
Whilst plenty of us enjoy sitting down to the latest episode of GBBO, it’s important to remember these shows are edited for maximum entertainment – which includes focussing on heightened bursts of pressure and stress.
This isn’t an accurate reflection of the industry as a whole, which whilst certainly busy and often demanding, offers so much more, including career development, variety of experience and positive and vibrant teams.
Hospitality is a fantastic, personable industry and the pressure depicted in these reality TV cooking shows should not lead people to think they can’t handle the pressure of working within it.
This situation is a particular concern as we have a skills shortage in the hospitality industry, which is guaranteed to be exacerbated post-Brexit due to decreasing talent pools.
It’s important to note that hospitality employers are well known for investing in training and development for their staff, so they are fully skilled and prepared to manage a whole host of eventualities, including busy shifts and pressurised situations as just one part of the job. No two days are the same in hospitality, which is why people love it.
Summary of our findings
- Almost half (46%) of Brits claim watching cookery shows puts them off a career as a professional chef
- Almost two thirds (63%) of adults wouldn’t consider a role in the hospitality industry
- 62% feel they wouldn’t be able to cope with the pressure of working in a professional kitchen