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Well its now almost two weeks since our last chef left us, having lasted the grand total of about three weeks. It just goes to show at how bad a judge of character even the best of us can be - simply didn't see this one coming at all. That was until we got a phone call three hours before a wedding function to tell us our Head Chef was on a ferry to the Channel Islands and his new job. You can imagine the colour of the language from my end of the phone!

Why do I mention this? Well because I think it goes to show how the power has shifted in our industry from Employer to Employee and it frightens me. Not because of our own circumstances although it isn't making my life very easy. No more because as the number of available and talented English chefs reduces more and more of our English restaurants will simply be unable to continue.

I don't mean to scare monger that the entire restaurant industry is going down the pan. Far from it I believe that the industry is offering more choice now than ever. What concerns me is the traditional English restaurant offering good modern and wholesome food is in danger of disappearing from your choice. As ethnic restaurants are growing stronger in the market, many being run by families meaning wage bills are very low so too are the branded chains.

They operate on low margins, fixed menus and quick turnaround. Both are increasingly popular with consumers. Mainly because they offer what the customer wants. A fun night out at a reasonable cost. Our problem? To attract a quality team to run our restaurant means spending significant amounts of money both on salaries and training. This cost has to be passed on and increasingly it is becoming more difficult. Restaurants like ours are having to find more and more ways of changing to keep up, whilst at the same time not sacrificing the one thing that matters - quality.

We have to attract more people into the industry its as simple as that. Not take them for granted and work with them to create a career structure - even if it means that they leave every two years to set up their own restaurants. At least that way your own restaurant remains fresh with new incoming talent. The average now? Eight months... and falling.

Simply unsustainable in an industry such as ours. To make it worse there is simply no one coming through to be trained. There are either Head Chefs naming their own salary or a big black void where the youngsters used to be. If I hear once more "I'd like to take the job but of course I can't work Friday or Saturday evening as my girlfriend/boyfriend/cat/dog or pet goldfish wouldn't like it" I'll scream.

Perhaps the answer is simply to stock up on Marks and Spencers ready meals and a couple of microwaves and just charge for the dishwashing? But then think of all that packaging....