MKR star reveals he will never run a restaurant again
My Kitchen Rules star Manu Feildel has revealed he never wants to run a restaurant again due to the awful state of Australia’s hospitality sector.
Fieldel is about to embark on series of roadshows in partnership with advisory service My Business where he chats with small business owners in Sydney and will reflect on his vast experiences in the industry.
“I wouldn’t want to own a restaurant more than ever now,” he said.
“The thing is, three years ago when I first said it, the restaurant world was already difficult.
“Now, we’re talking about losing staff, we’re talking about the rent going up, we’re talking about costs going up – vegetables, protein, everything is going up in price.”
Feildel said extensive chain supply issues put owners in the position of having to raise prices on their menus.
He also stated that border restrictions and lockdowns forced many foreign hospitality workers out of Australia.
“We haven’t got the people to run restaurants and through Covid we’ve lost I think 200,000 staff in the industry in Australia,” he said.
“Half of them have gone back home and half of them have decided to do something else because they have bills to pay and they’ve decided not to come back.
“You can’t run a business without staff, but the solution isn’t this either because then there’s going to be a lot of people without a lot of work.”
Irit Jackson, 25th August 2022
