In an interview for the Evening Standard, celebrity chef and restaurateur Jason Atherton, whose The Social Company group includes the Michelin-starred Pollen Street Social and City Social, Social Eating House and its speakeasy The Blind Pig, and the famed Berners Tavern, among others, warns that more than half of his ventures might have to go next year.
According to Atherton, the red tape that has resulted from the UK’s decision to leave the European Union is making it impossible to fill job vacancies and run restaurants normally. “I can’t open the Berners Tavern at lunchtime because I have no staff. I can only open for breakfasts for hotel guests. Social Eating House is on its knees. I just can’t get any chefs for that kitchen whatsoever. Little Social is really struggling to get chefs as well. I can’t even find a qualified corporate chef on a big salary who would fly around the world on business class. I can’t do anything to fill that position,” says the chef, who has 350 unfilled vacancies across his London eateries. The staff that has remained is severely overworked and fed up with the situation, he adds.
Atherton is not alone in his warnings, as other hospitality figures have noted that Brexit has resulted in a lack of skilled workers, which again affects restaurant operation. The hospitality industry has recently launched a massive recruitment campaign, ‘Rise Fast, Work Young’, in an effort to tackle the job crisis. The campaign is backed by more than 300 hospitality business and global brands, but with the vacancy count standing at around 400,000, the issue doesn’t look to be resolved any time soon.
Meanwhile, Atherton has stated that he’ll have to decide about whether to mothball his London restaurants in January.