# Finding good line cooks



## Bfitts (Jun 1, 2016)

Any chefs out there having success finding talented line cooks? I'm having a really tough time trying to find people with the work ethic or basic skills. I know it's rough out there for everyone, but here in Cleveland, it's a real talent desert. I generally use Craigslist to post, and have VERY mixed results. I run a high end, high profile kitchen doing fairly high volume. Mostly I get resumes from landscapers and janitors. The Externs for culinary schools usually want to stay on, and that's a big help, but otherwise, I seem to be SOL lately. Any advice?


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## kostantinos (Jun 1, 2016)

you need to built them from the ground up and that means getting them in and retaining them in the long run .

I had great luck investing in Culinary students before . It is time consuming to built a team and finding one or 2 great people to form a " core "is the absolute most important thing. Once you have your "core people" then you expand by adding people in "layers" . Perpetually you need to be able to delicate to each layer and touch everyone every day . It is important that you embrace everyone as a team member and individually ,and take everyones "temperature" daily .


I really don't like Craigslist as much but sometimes it gets the word out it really depends on the city .Try posting on College job Boards and technical institutes or job programs . And connect to your local school with job fairs and demos .


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## labor of love (Jun 1, 2016)

I like culinary students with little experience that can be groomed into the kind of cook that you want. Catch em while they're young just like the Marlboro man does.


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## Bfitts (Jun 1, 2016)

I couldn't agree with you guys more. It's the "getting them in" part that's been difficult lately. We have a really strong core, one of the sous chefs has been with us for 11 years, and the other 8. I've had some really great cooks come in as interns and the most rewarding part of the job is watching them turn that corner and really getting it. School is out right now, and I was just seeing if I was missing a great job board somewhere.


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## Bfitts (Jun 1, 2016)

The part that boggles me is how frequently I set up an interview or a stage and they just don't show up. We have a strong reputation in town, and talking to other chefs around town they're having the same issue. I simply can't imagine no showing at an interview.


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## chinacats (Jun 1, 2016)

Have you contacted any of the local culinary schools directly?


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## kostantinos (Jun 1, 2016)

You know you are not alone. And it gets worse.I recently contacted the local school over here to connect Marc Dixon -from the forums -with one of the chefs and make the introductions and ask them to have like an open house for recruiting, talk about the possibility of mentorship . A lot of you might know or not know that Marc comes with 11 years of mentorship to young Culinarians doing the ACF Prostart thing. So i was pretty excited to be able to make the connection between the 2. 
I must tell you it failed miserably ...plus i got embarrassed because i was convinced i could help Marc source some decent hands -possibly -and maybe connect him with the local culinary school most importantly WHICH COULD GROW INTO A MULTITUDE OF WAYS . 

I was sadly mistaken and to say i was embarrassed would be the least but what i don't get is this : We have a pretty solid program both him and i in Baltimore. Not to say we are the best in Baltimore but we can hold our own plus we worked for some real bad MOFOs in the industry . So the local culinary school which will go unnamed pretty turned down the possibility of placement for at least 10 of its students by not returning phone calls and being flaky. 

Worst of all both him and i can not explain or care to figure it out further. Back to your situation though . Not turning up for an interview is something unheard off . But i guess a lot of the old ways are now being viewed as ridiculous .


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## brainsausage (Jun 1, 2016)

Bfitts said:


> The part that boggles me is how frequently I set up an interview or a stage and they just don't show up. We have a strong reputation in town, and talking to other chefs around town they're having the same issue. I simply can't imagine no showing at an interview.



I'm having the same problem. In the past six months alone I've lost count of the number of working interviews that were no shows.


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## Dardeau (Jun 1, 2016)

brainsausage said:


> I'm having the same problem. In the past six months alone I've lost count of the number of working interviews that were no shows.



Same down here. We just aren't getting resumes, period. One week we had four stages, and none showed or called. We've been chalking it up to the over saturation of New Orleans with new restaurants, but the problem sounds bigger than that.


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## brainsausage (Jun 1, 2016)

I blame the food network. Let's get some Damascus pitchforks made by Del and storm their goddamn corporate offices.


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## linecooklife (Jun 2, 2016)

Sounds like it's been a growing problem everywhere. I thought maybe it was just harder for me now that I'm in San Francisco. This city it tough, I always had trouble finding talented cooks back home but we made it work and built a team. But the city is a whole new ball game for me. There's no cooks, fewer of the ones I interview are talented and fewer still show up for the stage. There's just too many restaurants and it costs too much to live to get buy on line cook wages. I keep telling myself the bubble will pop and things will equalize otherwise the restaurant industry will burn out. Who knows


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## easy13 (Jun 2, 2016)

Interview and trails not showing up is pretty common round these parts, has been for years. For any craigslist ad I put up, there are TONS of responses, 90% of which are useless, some seem to not even read the ad, some not even close to qualified for the position. Specialized sites - Good Food Jobs, Culinary school boards, Culintro have way lower response rate but way better quality candidates. The quality staff I do get I treat good because they are few and far between and I have a small team. For what I cant make up in higher pay I will hook up in other ways - food to take home, money to take their girlfriend to dinner here and there, just got my Sous a new Suji. To get access to and hold on to the more qualified and skilled cooks I will offer some creative input here and there, be it getting a special on the menu every once and a while or helping to develop a dish or item. High profile spots can offer a name on a resume but few let you have any input at all.


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## panda (Jun 2, 2016)

there's guys that do it for a pay check, they'll get the job done, but none will go the extra mile.
there's the old vets that just want to cook and not handle any responsibility, they're your workhorses, but their ceiling is limited.
then you have the youngsters, who don't know squat or have any awareness. some are eager to learn, but most are just dead weight.
sometimes you'll meet middle aged folk who go through a career crisis and decide they want to give up their office job and try their luck with something they have a passion for (such as cooking) so they already have experience cooking, just not a professional setting. they normally have some talent and can learn, but most of them time they get burnt out pretty quickly and go back to their old careers.
there's the traveling gypsies who work seasonal and go from place to place, often working two jobs to support their off duty habits.
lastly, you have the p*ssies that think they can cook for a living only to come to a rude reality check when they experience the real thing and end up drowning or do a complete u-turn.
the good ones you come by sheer luck, and you have to hold onto them otherwise they usually end up taking a sous chef position elsewhere.

that being said, i've had the most luck by cycling through externs. out of sheer volume (johnson & wales students for example, it doesnt cost you anything, it's free labor, but dont abuse them actually teach the ones who are impressionable), you're bound to find one or two that are worth keeping around to mold into your ideal cook. you're never going to train someone to become a beast that isn't already showing potential, they have to have that fire within themselves to begin with. there's no setting that fire and have it stay lit without you constantly refueling them.

cooks don't need to be talented, just strong work ethic and reliable. skills/consistency/speed is all teachable. attitude is not. at the same time, if they cant learn a given task in a week, that's a lost cause.

unfortunately i don't have any advice on finding good cooks either, i suffer through that same problem.


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## J_Style (Jun 2, 2016)

All great advice above, so I'll add that being in the Midwest like myself, you might of had some cooks from Cleveland move to Chicago or New York for work or school and could be interested in moving back. When I worked in Chicago our pastry chef was from Cleveland and was looking to move back. Might be worth posting on those cities job boards also


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## spoiledbroth (Jun 2, 2016)

panda said:


> there's guys that do it for a pay check, they'll get the job done, but none will go the extra mile.
> there's the old vets that just want to cook and not handle any responsibility, they're your workhorses, but their ceiling is limited.
> then you have the youngsters, who don't know squat or have any awareness. some are eager to learn, but most are just dead weight.
> sometimes you'll meet middle aged folk who go through a career crisis and decide they want to give up their office job and try their luck with something they have a passion for (such as cooking) so they already have experience cooking, just not a professional setting. they normally have some talent and can learn, but most of them time they get burnt out pretty quickly and go back to their old careers.
> ...


well put


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## dizzle (Jun 5, 2016)

as others have mentioned, the industry is changing and new methods for finding cooks are needed. i definitely think that building a good relationship with a culinary school is a good idea. regardless of whether you think culinary school is necessary or not, they are popular and young people are enrolling. its on the chef to find the talent in those pools and cultivate it before someone else does.


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