Top chef says cult of TV ruining recruits

TOO many young cooks prefer the warmth of the TV studio to the heat of the kitchen. Masterchef presenter Michel Roux Junior has criticised the industry's new recruits for being more interested in celebrity than cooking.

The Michelin-starred member of the Roux dynasty, who will be in Scotland this week to cook at his father's restaurant, said too many young would-be chefs were entering the profession for the wrong reasons.

His work as a Masterchef judge had now given him the skills to spot those seeking a fast route to fame rather than a life at the hob.

"I am able to see through the glory hunters who would rather be at a book signing and on television than behind the stove," he said.

He stresses his own show, Masterchef: The Professionals, which will return later this year, shows the reality of life in the kitchen and the passion and hard work needed to reach the top.

But some "wannabes" are attracted to the industry by the glamour without realising the apprenticeship required.

"We are pretty savvy and see through them. What they forget, these young boys and girls, is that celebrity chefs like Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver, to name just two, worked bloody hard to get where they are," said Roux Jr.

"They sweated their nether regions off in the kitchen making their name first before they became celebrity chefs."

Roux Jr, who will be serving up evidence of his skills at his father Albert's restaurant – Chez Roux – in Inverness on Wednesday, told Scotland on Sunday: "A lot of young people coming into the industry think they can be the next great thing on TV without realising that they have to go through the process of making a name for themselves in the kitchen first."

Cooking shows such as The F Word, Hell's Kitchen, Nigella Bites, The Naked Chef and In Search Of Perfection have jammed the TV schedules in recent years and some leading professionals believe it has encouraged many industry entrants to choose the wrong course.

Paul Kitching, who runs the Michelin-starred New Town restaurant 21212, agrees with Roux Jr: "He's absolutely right. No young boy wants to spend two years picking mange tout or peeling shallots; they all have their fancy knives but don't know how to sharpen them."

He said the celebrity culture is encouraging people into the industry, but the real culture of a kitchen environment is sending them out again.

And Kitching warns a crisis awaits the industry in a few years when youngsters seeking to become the next Jamie Oliver or Heston Blumenthal leave when the reality sinks in.

"When it comes down to it, it's a bloody awful job. It's very manual, very dirty, very hard work. You're cooking in hot kitchens and there is a lot of pressure. These guys just think, 'Nah, I'll do something else'.

"How we can address the problem – and it is a problem – is difficult. We have created a culinary rod for our own back. Colleges can help by drumming it into people that it's not all Gordon Ramsay and going around the world and signing this and that."

Kitching says would-be chefs should approach their apprenticeship like plumbers or electricians: "You don't get celebrity plumbers and that's why their heads haven't been turned. With chefs, it's such a glam thing."

Martin Wishart, of Restaurant Martin Wishart in Leith and Cameron House on Loch Lomond, said cookery programmes can feed the dreams of some: "Any young person watching on TV will see the kitchen as an exciting place and the television plays up on that.

"But it doesn't show the reality of labour-intensive jobs and a lot of learning to achieve that level," said the Michelin-starred chef.

"Well before Gordon Ramsay was put in front of a camera he was working very long hours in some of Europe's most prestigious kitchens, but television doesn't show that side."

To become the best, he says there is no substitute for sweating it out in the kitchen.

"You do need to soak yourself in a proper kitchen and learn the proper techniques. You have to enjoy every aspect of being in the kitchen, otherwise you'll drop out," says Wishart.

However, someone at the sharp end of apprenticeships, Justin Galea, chef de cuisine at the Ailsa Cooking School at the Turnberry Resort, says the sector's high profile offers the industry benefits.

"The boys and girls we have here do it for the love of it and for the industry," he said. "When you are a young apprentice, getting paid what they get paid, you're doing it because you want to.

"But in saying that, the whole TV thing can affect some people who just want to be famous. It's a by-product of the industry."