When international luxury hotels and top restaurateurs are looking for chefs, restaurant managers and sommeliers, they call Patrick Nottebaum. The Düsseldorf-based headhunter recruits ambitious talent for the Michelin-starred restaurant industry.

How do you recruit Michelin star chefs?
With passion and understanding. The more you understand the client and his need, the easier it is to bring the right people together. My idea was to set up an agency that would solve recruitment problems for clients in the fine dining industry - a micro market. People laughed at us at first because my client group represents 0.03 per cent of the total market. You can't define a target group any smaller or more specific than that. We have been in business for nine years now. We now have partnerships in Switzerland and are active in Austria, Belgium, France and Holland. We are growing in markets that are homogeneous in terms of culinary understanding.

What is your philosophy?
Honest communication. We know the protagonists and their mindset, and we offer talented people an unsparing look behind the scenes. We know every nook and cranny of the businesses we work with - from the kitchen to the cold room to the wine cellar. We tell both sides what they do well and what they do badly. On the one hand, we negotiate on the workers' behalf and do the best possible selling for them. On the other hand, we also tell restaurateurs: you have to work on your conditions, otherwise nobody will come.

How did you come up with the idea of specialising in this area?
I come from the world of hospitality and fine dining and, as sales manager for a glass manufacturer, I was responsible for key accounts such as luxury hotels and gourmet chefs, so I had good contacts. More and more I was asked: "Don't you have a sous chef for me? Don't you know a sommelier? I sensed that there was a need for a whole industry. After a long drive home from the South of France, I had a business plan in my head. Our first big project was the Phoenix in the Dreischeibenhaus, I filled all the positions and managed HR on an interim basis. It was a huge vote of confidence.

What do you do differently when looking for talent?
We always work on an equal footing and don't think in terms of standard processes. Whether it is restaurant managers, sommeliers or service staff - at the end of the day, people want to be taken seriously, valued and treated as individuals. We make an effort for each individual and keep in touch via social media such as Instagram and Snapchat. We want to stay topmost in people's minds. Building a real relationship with people makes all the difference to us.

Only the very best: precision is a must in award-winning cuisine, even under the greatest pressure.

Is there a typical resume among Michelin star chefs?
Most train as chefs in rudimentary establishments and learn to love food. Or they study and suddenly realise how great cooking is in a communal kitchen. After their apprenticeship, they often move to a good artisan kitchen where they cook "seriously" and continue to develop their skills. The aspiration of a good chef is: how can I make it even better? How can I bring out the flavour? Award-winning chefs are extremely fast, interested in flavour and development, very precise, work in a clean way and have drive - even under pressure.

What motivates them?
They are in the restaurant business because they want fame, because they want to be a Michelin star chef, because they want to cook in a world-famous restaurant. It's like the difference between an amateur footballer and a Champions League player. It's a different world. The demands on the person are different. A Ronaldo is working on his game every day. The same thing happens in top gastronomy. When they're not in the kitchen, they go out to eat, see what their colleagues are doing, experiment, go to the woods in their spare time to pick roots and pickle them. They are obsessed, and they know exactly where they want to go in their careers. That makes them exciting for us as headhunters. But they also demand the highest levels of expertise and knowledge from us.

What are the particular challenges of fine dining?
The anticyclical work. You're always on duty when others are off. It's lonely, it's not a nice life. Gastronomy is not compatible with family life. The workload has always been brutal. But the world of hospitality only works if you show a lot of commitment and go the extra mile. Otherwise it would no longer be affordable. If a conventional restaurant were to follow all the guidelines, a main course would easily cost 50 Euro. Nobody could afford that.

What is the percentage of women in top restaurants?
Men are in the kitchen, women in the service. That's still the case today. Of the 390 or so German Michelin star chefs, just 17 are female. There are few women who follow this career path because it is brutally hard. You need to be in extremely good physical shape to endure 14 to 18 hours of work a day. Everything that goes out has to be perfect. Every day. Guests travel the extra mile for a 3-star menu and take time off work. What ends up on the plate has to be excellent. It's hard to imagine the pressure.

As a headhunter, Patrick Nottebaum filled all the positions at the Phoenix in the Dreischeibenhaus.

Why do so many people still dream of a career in the kitchen?
Restaurants offer planning security and structure that is lacking elsewhere. Many chefs come from a lack of structure, whether for family or cultural reasons. Very few of them have a school-leaving qualification, and many come from poor backgrounds and end up in a culinary apprenticeship by chance. On the one hand, a kitchen is organised hierarchically - like in the military. There is always an incredible amount of pressure, people are cooking at different stations and in the end it all comes together. But on the other hand, in the kitchen, the structures are clear: I can see the next steps in my career. It's a predictable, plannable path.

Is there a skills shortage here too?
It's a huge problem. All sectors in Germany are fighting for the same people. Covid was an accelerator. 35 per cent of our talent pool disappeared overnight. They suddenly had time for friends and family and didn't want to give that up. They went to university or looked for other jobs. The realignment has had an even greater impact on the wider hospitality industry. Although we are noticing the shortage, we are still finding enough people who are interested in this world and who are absorbed in it. But the fact is that there are far fewer young people training to be chefs or restaurant managers than there will be in 2019. The skills shortage will be with us for a long time to come. •

ABOUT PATRICK NOTTEBAUM

• Has never waited tables or cooked, yet is at home in the hospitality industry

• More than 20 years of experience in sales and marketing and as Sales Manager for Schott Zwiesel, responsible for key accounts in the luxury hotel and award-winning fine-dining sectors in the DACH region.

• Founder, strategic driving force and namesake of Walnut Careers

• Nottebaum is of Dutch origin and means "nut tree". Walnut Careers was founded in November 2014 and currently has 4 employees.

GASTRONOMY IN GERMANY:

• 110,000 restaurants

• 274 restaurants with 1 star

• 49 restaurants with 2 stars

• 9 restaurants with 3 stars

• 17 female chefs with one star

(Source: Statista and Guide Michelin)

Text: Karolina Landowski
Fotos: Sascha Perrone (EssBerichte), Aarón Blanco Tejedor, PR

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