Orwells chef swaps kitchen for front of house due to staff shortages

A chef who has swapped working in the kitchen for the dining room due to staff shortages says it has given him a greater appreciation of front of house teams.

Ryan Simpson-Trotman (pictured above left), who co-owns Orwells in Shiplake, Henley with his husband Liam Simpson-Trotman (pictured above right), started running the other side of the pass around Easter.

He said the change had been good for his health and helped him better understand another side of the business.

Ryan told The Caterer: “I’ve lost about three and a half stone as I’m eating a lot less, moving around a lot more and doing about 30,000 steps a day, which is fantastic. The main change is it’s quite nice to chat to the customers and get to meet them.

“It’s definitely opened my eyes and made me appreciate how important front of house is, although I did anyway.”

The Simpson-Trotman’s have worked together in the kitchen since launching Orwells 12 years ago, helping the restaurant to win four-AA-rosettes and a recommendation in the Michelin Guide Great Britain and Ireland 2022.

The couple announced plans to relaunch nearby pub the Plowden Arms in 2021 but are no longer involved in the business.

Ryan began working front of house at Orwells after the couple struggled to recruit a new manager amid an industry-wide staffing shortage.

He said: “We’ve only really had two restaurant managers in 12 years, and they automatically become the face of the restaurant, and it’s hard to replace that.

“It’s hard to get staff in general and pay the wages that everyone is demanding. Everything is tight these days.”

The change has allowed him to introduce a relaxed approach to service with the freedom to make “off the cuff” decisions such as offering customers different bottles of wine.

It has also helped develop staff on either side of the pass, with Ryan able to work more closely with the front of house team. One part-time staff member will join the restaurant as a full-time apprentice in the next few weeks.

Ryan said: “Being out front I’m starting to sell the idea [of hospitality] to the youth. We’ve always done it a lot in the kitchen but never as much front of house because we’ve employed managers to do that in the past.

“it’s so rewarding that the guys in the kitchen can replicate what I was doing, and I can step back and let the next generation shine.”

Ryan said he did miss the kitchen and sometimes swapped roles with Liam but enjoyed the different perspective of working in the dining room.

He said: “I became a chef because I like to put a smile on people’s faces. Me and Liam write the menu and test the dishes together, so to have that double whammy of actually seeing [customer’s] faces and how happy they are [with the food], is quite overwhelming sometimes.”