Fife Michelin Star restaurant The Cellar to adopt 4 day working week

The team at The Cellar, one of Fife's Michelin Star restaurants, will move to a four day working week from January 2022.
From January, The Cellar restaurant in Fife will move to a 4 day working week.From January, The Cellar restaurant in Fife will move to a 4 day working week.
From January, The Cellar restaurant in Fife will move to a 4 day working week.

Head chef and owner of The Cellar, Billy Boyter, cites staff well-being and the ability to attract new talent to the industry as the reason for the move.

He said: "I spoke to other chefs who are working a four day week and I thought if we can afford to do it then we really should.

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"It's really for the benefit of the staff, as we know the amount of work they do.

"There's such an amount of negativity around hospitality and especially towards Michelin Star restaurants and the working conditions and hours.

"I want to put a different spin on that and show that you can work in these places and not work these hours that people think you do in order to cook good food."

The news comes in the same week that fellow Scottish chef Tom Kitchin was hit by allegations of bullying and assault in his workplaces. Two members of staff have been suspended and Kitchin has launched an investigation.

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The timing, Boyter said, is a coincidence, but he does feel strongly that the industry needs to move away from this type of behaviour in order to survive and attract new talent.

"I have a friend who is a chef lecturer, and he can see the drop off in the amount of young people coming into industry," said Billy.

"We have to try and make this a more attractive place for people to work. Or we're going to be facing problems in the future."

From January, the restaurant, which currently opens Wednesday - Saturday, will drop the Wednesday dinner service.

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Boyter said: "At the moment we shut on a Monday and Tuesday, and we don't do lunch on a Wednesday as we use this as a prep day. So all we had to do really was drop Wednesday's dinner.

"To cover that we have to do an extra table of two each night. Which, when you step back and look at like that it's totally achievable. So why not?"

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