WHEN a chef at a busy restaurant takes a day off sick, it can bring chaos to the kitchen.

That is something that has become clear to Rene Notter in his 20 years as a chef and now he intends to give stressed restaurateurs with staffing problems somewhere to turn in their hour of need.

Mr. Notter has formed Chefs R Us, a new company offering chefs for hire. Just two months ago Mr. Notter was jotting down a few ideas on how the business could work and already the company is up and running.

Though the winds of Hurricane Fabian blew 41-year-old Mr. Notter against the wall of his St. David's home, causing him to break five ribs , he believes the storm also did him a favour by creating a business opportunity for him.

The chefs put out of work by the closure of damaged hotels and restaurants are now looking for work ? and some of them will form the backbone of Mr. Notter's workforce.

Mr. Notter came to the island from his native Switzerland two decades ago and since then has worked for the Inverurie Hotel, The Red Carpet restaurant, the St. George's Club, the Hickory Stick, White Sands Hotel and the Supermart.

Having learned a variety of culinary skills, he left Supermart in August this year, took three weeks off and then concentrated on working for himself. The Chefs R US idea came to him quickly.

"I have been working for 20 years as a chef and I've always found that there are high rates of people calling in sick," Mr. Notter said.

"With people missing, deadlines had to be made and quality had to be the same. It hurts the morale of the staff.

"If a restaurant has two chefs and one of them is off, then the other chef has twice the workload. That's not good for anyone and it's nice for the employer to be able to call someone to get a replacement."

Since conducting a survey of business people who might use the new service and placing advertisements, designed by his wife Sheena, in , Mr. Notter has received a lot of interest.

fledgling business looks set to get off to a flying start, as one client has already asked for a chef for a period of five weeks. Another Hamilton restaurant which lost a chef recently and is waiting for a work permit for the replacement is also interested. There have been many inquiries about chefs to work at Christmas functions. It seems already that Chefs R Us will be much in demand.

"Before setting it up, I asked a few business people what they thought of my idea," said Mr. Notter. "Steve Thomson of Mailboxes Unlimited thought it was a brilliant idea.

"I think the key to success is doing something that nobody else does ? and then doing it to the best of your ability.

"We charge people $32 per hour for a chef and ask for a minimum hire time of three hours. But if someone wants a chef for a week or more, we will arrange a price lower than $32."

The level of interest has been such that Mr. Notter is already considering the possibility of expanding beyond the original plan of offering chef services only.

"Some people have come up to me and said there is a demand for private chefs and waiters from millionaires who live in Tucker's Town. For example, Ross Perot might call and ask us to provide a private chef, waiter and a bar tender. Waiters have told me they are very interested in doing that sort of thing. And I will be looking into that.

"I've got into something that may be bigger than I thought it would be and I will have to tap into this market and see how deep it is."

At White Sands, Mr. Notter worked as a sous chef, but it was at the Hickory Stick that he learned more about preparing large amounts of food in a short space of time.

He put that knowledge to good use as he turned to making fish cakes ? in impressive quantities.

"In three years I sold 50,000 fish cakes," Mr. Notter said. "The owner of the Buckaroo allowed me to use his kitchen to make fish cakes. They used to sell some of them there.

"People used to call me Mr. Fishcakes, because they didn't know my name. The staff still call me that when I go for lunch there.

"We had a stall called Genesis on Harbour Nights. One night I remember we sold 120 burgers, 100 fish cakes, 100 chicken breasts, 140 hot dogs and a lot of sodas. We made $1,200 in two hours.

"Sometimes we had a line of 30 people waiting to buy our food."

Notter has advised some potential clients of how to get the most out of chefs they hire from him, saying that whenever circumstances allowed, they should not be involved in the intricacies of tasks such as menu preparation ? or working "on the line" as it is known in the trade.

"The most effective way to use chefs is to give them work they are trained for, jobs that they can get on with immediately," Mr. Notter said.

"Sometimes it will be unavoidable for a hired chef to work on the line, but he will need to know many things about the restaurant to do that.

"It is better for him to be asked when he comes in to chop up that turkey, or clean that lettuce or make those omelettes. Those jobs are time-consuming and they can get on with them immediately because that's what they're trained to do."

Mr. Notter was philosophical about the risks of setting up a new business.

"People see a wealthy businessman driving around in a BMW and they say, 'he's lucky'," Mr. Notter said. "What they don't see is the hard work, sacrifice and the going without things that went on before.

"A lot of people live in an effort not to lose, rather than living to win. Daring is the difference. I want to live my life to win.

"First we will have to prove ourselves and allow people to get comfortable with the idea of hiring a temporary chef. If we can do that we can succeed."

Mr. Notter can be contacted by e-mail at or on 799-9016.