Too many MasterChefs in the kitchen

watoday.com.au: Jenna Clarke

The increasing expectations of restaurant patrons has been partly blamed on the MasterChef phenomenon.

Restaurateurs claim unrealistic expectations of food, prompted partly by the culinary television phenomenon MasterChef, are why customers are becoming increasingly disgruntled when eating out in Perth.

Alongside the increasingly refined palates of Gen Y and Gen Alpha, the state's mining boom has also copped a serve, with restaurant owners claiming it has left the industry facing a dire shortage of professional staff.

The issue of Perth's service industry's appalling standards was thrust into the spotlight after prominent writer and Fairfax blogger John Birmingham unloaded on our local waitstaff after a recent visit to Perth.

Story continues below Birmingham said he was consistently subjected to rudeness and bad attitudes while eating in cafes and restaurants throughout our city - a sentiment backed up by the dozens of readers who were quick to post their comments.

Claims of poor service have plagued the Perth entertainment scene for years. But now local restaurant and venue owners are urging patrons to appreciate the difficulties caused by critical shortages of qualified and competent servers thanks to the state's booming economy.

They also pleaded with people not to be blinded by the glamourous, Michelin-star quality food and service that TV shows such as MasterChef and celebrity chefs like Jamie Oliver plate up.

"The emergence of food on TV is a double-edged sword for our industry," restaurateur Steve Scaffidi admitted.

"It's great to see the likes of Jamie Oliver showing people how to live to eat, not just eat to live, and make food a conscious factor in their lives. But I think a lot of people then fail to comprehend what it actually takes to open, run and cook in a restaurant and sustain a business.

"We get people coming into the restaurants and who make nonsensical requests and unqualified claims and you just know they've watched an episode of MasterChef the night before," said the 30-year hospitality veteran, who owns and runs Bar One and Sentinel Bar and Grill.

Hold onto your linen napkins and melon ballers, things could get even worse. With a generation of children growing up exposed to the "food on TV" cultural phenomenon, culinary and service expectations in Perth are only going to increase.

"Both restaurant owners and customers need to stay humble and well grounded," Mr Scaffidi said.

"There have always been service issues in Perth, however it is exaggerated here in Perth because of the isolation and our lack of alternative venues and quality staff."

He said businesses were hurting on the front line as highly skilled service staff succumbed to the six-figure salaries dished up by mining companies.

"During the last 12 months demand up north for these quality skills has really intensified and, as a restaurateur, I cannot compete with the remuneration packages of the major corporations.

"I've never worked harder than I have lately, I've had to take a more front-of-house role in the new place purely because the pool of highly-trained staff is too shallow.

"We're left with lots of immigrants, transient young Europeans with minimal knowledge of the local produce and lack of understanding of what Perth customers want.

"Seven out of 10 waitstaff applications that come across my desk are from people who hold short-term visas," he added.

When Birmingham railed against poor service around Perth over the weekend, he was expecting to be crucified by Perth patrons. Instead, Twitter and his blog comments lit up with complaint after complaint about Perth's hospitality, or lack thereof.

These complaints are not foreign to industry groups.

"The number one issue facing the WA hospitality industry is the growing lack of available staff and the high turnover of staff being lost to the mining and resources sector," Australian Hotels Association of WA chief executive Bradley Woods said.

"This results in enormous challenges for some of our members' businesses to provide consistent and long term experienced staff."

The Association was working with the state government to implement a long-term staffing fix which will hopefully allow us to enjoy a glass of wine in Perth without having to whine about it.

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