Local Spotlight: Chef For All Seasons

This month, I caught up with Ray Brizell – owner of Bristol-based Chef For All Seasons – to find out what his business is all about…

What is Chef For All Seasons?

Chef For All Seasons is a fairer way for freelance chefs to operate that benefits both the client and the chef, rather than clients having to pay over-inflated high street agency prices and the chefs not getting a better hourly rate.

What made you decide to start the business?

I was working as an agency chef. I found out how much the agency was charging the client and what I was getting paid: the fact the agency in question was charging enhanced rates for weekends but not passing these on to me kind of hit a nerve with me! So I pondered on this and thought that there must be a better system that all parties could benefit from, with more transparency in how things operated, so I went away and chatted with my wife and we came up with Chef For All Seasons UK.

How do you choose the chefs that work with you?

Like any company we do reference checks, but we also talk to the chefs that have worked for us for a while and get feedback from them – they have worked with those who apply before, or have come across them on the circuit. We try to get as much information as possible on all the chefs we use so that we get an accurate portfolio of their skill set, so we can find them the right temp position rather just put people into jobs that don’t suit.

Any massive success stories you want to share?

Last year I was really proud of bringing a team of chefs that had never worked together as a brigade and we pulled off doing a pop up restaurant, and the feedback we got was fantastic: I believe it was the first time a group of freelance chefs had come together and run a pop up restaurant with no full time members on board. I’m also proud that we have managed to supply chefs as far as India and various parts of Europe as well as supplying a chef to a Formula 3 team in Europe, and also to a couple of Premier League footballers.

What’s next for CFAS?

We have just launched our app on Apple’s App Store and on Google Play. So far we’ve had over 150 people download it, which says a lot about how we are doing as a small company. The app will have some updated features over the course of the year and beyond, including a video section where we will leave video blogs on certain things that are going on or things that we feel are relevant to chefs.

The app is designed for chefs, so they can see all the jobs we have to offer and it’s designed to be simple and easy to use. Chefs who are registered with CFAS UK can see every job on offer: we want to be in touch with all our chefs and to be able to deliver a service worthy to each and every one of them. It’s not a job board: clients can fulfil any full-time position on the app free of charge, and can contact chefs directly – if a chef is interested in a job, they contact the client directly.

Chef For All Seasons offer both permanent and temporary To find out more about Chef For All Seasons, visit their website.