Entitled Leading a Fair Kitchen, the programme aims to improve working environments and address staff retention issues by empowering leaders with insight and practical tips from others in the industry.
The training is presented by Unilever Food Solutions, one of the co-founders of #FairKitchens, in collaboration with The Culinary Institute of America (CIA).
More than 30 chefs and experts across the world worked together to create the programme, which combines a series of short videos and actions to complete afterwards.
Available for chefs and operators with any level of leadership responsibilities, the programme is designed to teach participants how to be effective leaders.
Participants will learn from leaders who ‘prioritise their people’, including UK-based chefs Chris Galvin and Ruth Hansom.
Hospitality Action and Westminster Kingsway College also contributed their expertise, while the Craft Guild of Chefs has endorsed the training.
In addition to helping individuals fulfil their leadership responsibilities, #FairKitchens aims to accelerate culture change from the top, and give leaders alternatives to simply mirroring the behaviours of head chefs in the kitchens they came up in.
Leading a Fair Kitchen covers seven modules – one introductory module around four minutes in length, and six more detailed modules which take between 30-35 minutes to complete.
Modules include Self Awareness and Self-Management; Crisis Management; and Wellbeing.
“This conversation about leadership is crucial right now to stop talented people being lost to other industries. We have to start putting our teams first,” says Hansom.
“If we stretch people to the max they just burn out and staffing problems get even worse. Many of those who’ve left won’t have been nurtured or led well.”
The #FairKitchens movement was founded in 2018 amid growing awareness of wellbeing issues at the heart of foodservice and hospitality. Believing that this industry will thrive only when the people who work in it thrive, Unilever Food Solutions joined a group of chefs and partners including Naama Tamir, Michael Gulotta, Kat Kinsman, and John Vitale to initiate the #FairKitchens movement as founding partners.
To sign up for the course click here.
