VOA慢速英语 Wanted in Uganda: Restaurant Help

AS IT IS 2015-08-09 Wanted in Uganda: Restaurant Help

The middle class in Uganda is expanding. So too is the country’s tourism industry. The growth of restaurants and high-end hotels is evidence that both foreigners and Ugandans are spending money.

But the owners of these businesses have often had to turn to other countries to find executive¹ chefs. The reason: a lack of well-trained chefs and other help at Ugandan eateries. Slowly but surely, this is changing.

Uganda has a problem not normally found in a low-income country. It has a shortage² of local chefs. In recent years, the number of restaurants and tourism-related businesses has risen. As a result, the demand for well-trained cooks and other kitchen help has grown. But experienced chefs are difficult to find. Jean Byamugisha is with the Uganda Hotel Owners Association.

“The biggest challenge has been capacity building. People really need a lot of training, especially now that we are competing at East African level.”

To meet the need, many restaurants have turned to neighboring countries for help. Enock Alumasi is from Kenya. He saw that Uganda had a lack of top chefs. So he helped launch the Impact Chef’s Academy in 2013. The academy is the only school in Uganda that offers a full training program for chefs. It offers a number of programs -- starting with one-week courses for those who already have a career in the restaurant industry, to a year-long training program.

One recent day, several students were learning the different ways to fry an egg. This may sound like something that comes naturally to a chef. But some workers have never cooked an egg before.

Brian Kazibe has worked as a chef. He says some trainees³ learn about five different areas of restaurant operations over three months. “By the time they get to the kitchen,” he says, “they are only remaining for two or three weeks, which is not really enough for them.”

The Impact Chef’s Academy has trained more than 3,000 people in the past two years. Jean Byamugisha says the need is still growing.

“The impact is not yet felt. One week’s training for a chef is nothing. We need somebody who can come in two months, six months, nine months and train the chef and release somebody who can actually come to a hotel and prepare a meal that everybody will fall over themselves to pay for.”

Now that the academy has gotten a taste of success, it looks forward to expanding.

Words in This Story

tourism – n. travel for recreational, religious, family or business purposes

executive – adj. relating to supervisory⁴ or leadership

chef – n. a cook who often is responsible for food preparation in a restaurant

low-income – adj. earning very little money; poor

capacity - adj. holding the most of something

challenge – n. a difficult problem or test

fry – v. to cook in far or oil

1 executive   

adj.执行的，行政的；n.执行者，行政官，经理

参考例句：

• A good executive usually gets on well with people.一个好的高级管理人员通常与人们相处得很好。
• He is a man of great executive ability.他是个具有极高管理能力的人。

2 shortage   

n.缺少，缺乏，不足

参考例句：

• The city is suffering a desperate shortage of water.这个城市严重缺水。
• The heart of the problem is a shortage of funds.问题的关键是缺乏经费。

3 trainees   

新兵( trainee的名词复数 )； 练习生； 接受训练的人； 训练中的动物

参考例句：

• We've taken on our full complement of new trainees. 我们招收的新学员已经满额了。
• The trainees were put through an assault course. 受训人员接受了突击训练课程。

4 supervisory   

adj.监督的；管理的

参考例句：

• Have you ever done supervisory work? 你担任过管理工作吗？ 来自辞典例句
• Others, however, remain reluctant to strengthen supervisory powers at the European level. 然而，还有一些国家仍不愿强化欧盟层面的监管权力。 来自互联网