As Toronto’s food scene continues to grow, some in the industry say the pool of professional chefs hasn’t kept up with demand.
Adam Ryan, Michelin-recognized executive chef at Azura restaurants in Toronto, manages four teams in the restaurant’s kitchens across the city.
“There are less, I would say, culinary enthusiasts than there were a decade ago,” he told CBC Toronto.
Ryan said he’s seen the talent pool of chefs drop at least 50 per cent in the last five years.
“Myself as the chef can’t be in two places at once, so finding team members and finding leaders that are able, capable and willing to run these businesses is becoming a challenge on its own,” he said.
Ryan said the pandemic, work from home practices and social media could be catalysts for the waning interest.
“I see people that go into food and then become influencers and that’s the lifestyle they want to live,” he said. “That’s great, but now that’s one less person who wants to work in a restaurant.”
Finding restaurant staff is a problem across the province, said Tony Elenis, with the Ontario Restaurant Hotel Motel Association.
Stricter immigration policies have limited the number of professional chefs in Canada, leading to the shortfall, according to Tony Elenis, with the Ontario Restaurant Hotel Motel Association. (Ken Townsend/CBC)
“There is no doubt that there is a high demand for most jobs within the food service sector,” Elenis said.
He said there are about 100,000 job vacancies in the restaurant industry across the country and about half are in Ontario. The lack of professional chefs, Elenis said, is “a concern” because they have specialized skills.
The George Brown College chef school recently paused intake for several of its culinary programs and said in a statement that application numbers have fluctuated over the last few years.
“Overall application numbers have been influenced by various factors, including policies related to international student enrolment and shifts in student preferences following the pandemic,” the statement says.
Barriers to international talent
Enrolment in culinary and baking management and skills programs at Humber Polytechnic have been consistent in recent years, according to a statement the college sent to CBC Toronto. But it says international student applications and enrolment have dropped this year.
The federal government is reducing the number of international workers and students allowed into Canada, which Elenis said is contributing to the shortfall of chefs.
Recently at one of Ryan’s restaurants, a chef’s visa expired and he had to move back to India, Ryan said.
“He was skilled, he was here, he was managing our business for three years as the head chef,” Ryan said. “Unfortunately there was no way for the government to allow him to stay.”
In the face of the talent shortfall, some restaurants are pivoting to try to develop internal employees, training them to be cooks. (Ken Townsend/CBC)
When it comes to federal and provincial foreign workers policies, the needs of restaurants and the hospitality industry have fallen to the wayside in favour of necessity trade jobs in health and construction, Elenis said.
“The hospitality industry has an opportunity to grow the overall economy,” he said. “It has the opportunity to support a workforce.”
Kitchens honing internal prospects
Without as many trained chefs, some restaurants are turning to expanding the skills of those already working in the restaurant. Ryan said he’s hiring dishwashers and training them up to work as prep or line cooks. The next step is adapting the menu to fit their strengths, he said.
“It’s ‘how do you be creative in your menu development so that you’re creating dishes that are achievable by someone who hasn’t been training in this industry for 10 years?’”
Patrick Kriss is the chef at Alder, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Ace Hotel Toronto. His kitchen has a hearth, he said, and cooking on a live fire is a specific skill.
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Rather than looking elsewhere for chefs with specialized experience, Kriss said he also takes the approach of developing new talent who are already part of the team at the restaurant.
Novice cooks shadow experienced chefs for a number of weeks and learn how the open-fire grill works, he said.
“You learn you have to feed the fire, you learn different temperatures,” Kriss said. “It’s just all touch, feel, experience.”
He said it’s normal for restaurants’ staffing to wane, and working in a kitchen is something people can try on for size.
“Coming out of high school, you can become a cook and you’re getting a paycheck,” Kriss said. “You can’t really test out being a lawyer, you can’t test out being a doctor.”
And for those who do stick around, he said, it’s a rewarding and reliable profession.
“I can’t see ChatGPT seasoning a steak for one of our customers anytime soon,” he said.
