Considering the relatively few Maldivian Chefs in the hospitality industry, do you think there are enough opportunities available for locals to excel in this profession?

There are many opportunities for Maldivians who want to become chefs within Four Seasons Resorts Maldives. When we opened Kuda Huraa in 1998, there was no local staff in the kitchen. One of the reasons for launching our apprenticeship program back in 2001 was especially to train Maldivians to become highly skilled chefs and, 18 years later, approximately 60% of the kitchen workforce is Maldivian. That's a great success story, in my opinion. In our ongoing apprenticeship program - which has seen 597 graduates launch into a hospitality career to date - one fourth of the apprentices focuses on food preparation therefore paving their way to a future as 5* star hotel chefs.

Yes we have lot of wonderful opportunities to work in this field. Our young generation should think more about culinary education, including courses and trainings both local and international to become a Master Chef. Culinary schools can be one of the best ways to begin a chef career, thanks to the quality of faculty, training and updated facilities. We have so many resorts in Maldivesand every year the hospitality industry is expanding, we don't have enough local chefs in this industry to promote our local cuisine to the world.

I personally think that young Maldivians have a huge opportunity, due to the fact that they've been born in the most beautiful touristic place in the world. This is a very demanding job, and without passion it only gets exhausting. I suggest to the Maldivian authorities to prepare and train young Maldivians and create a path to help kids reach high levels, paired with lot of training experiences.

Definitely. With the number of new resorts opening in the Maldives and plenty of future opportunities open for locals, we now foresee a big drop in Maldivians wanting to join the culinary profession. It is quite a tough area to excel and a candidate who wishes to join has to put in at least a minimum of 10 to 12 hours per day if he/she needs to be successful. I suggest we work on a Programme to create more awareness and add motivational approaches to attract local youth.

There is a huge shortage of Maldivian chefs in the country at present. Concerned authorities should make an effort to create awareness in order to attract young Maldivians to join the culinary world paving the way for a demand in various opportunities around the globe and not limited to the Maldives. With the right attitude and passion in the culinary field and dedication towards their role, I am sure any young Maldivian will be capable to reach heights in the industry as there are several opportunities in the Maldivian culinary field.