If you’re an executive chef, chef de cuisine, or hiring manager struggling to find and retain line cooks, sous chefs, and other back-of-house (BOH) support staff, you’re certainly not alone. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce says that the hospitality field has one of the highest quit rates of any industry, and finding new employees to replace those who leave isn’t as quick and simple now as it may have been in the past.
We asked a group of restaurateurs, executive chefs, and hospitality experts to share their thoughts on what’s causing today’s worker shortage, and how restaurants can still attract and keep excellent cooks.
Many of today’s BOH staffing challenges can be traced back to the pandemic.
It likely won’t take any readers by surprise to learn that many of our consulted chefs and restaurateurs cited the COVID pandemic as a top reason for the smaller pool of cooks available for hiring these days. “The restaurant industry is still recovering from the pandemic. Many restaurants lost a significant number of employees when the pandemic hit,” said Maria Fundora, owner and general manager of Casa Nuova Italian Restaurant in Alpharetta, Georgia .
According to Ryan Goldhammer, owner of Noble Pie Parlor in Reno, Nevada, many of the BOH workers who lost their jobs during the COVID shutdowns chose not to return to restaurants. “With so many cooks forced to leave the industry, many found new careers in trucking, shipping, and the trades.”
But Goldhammer predicts that “the industry could see a decent boomerang back as those same cooks find that they aren't happy in their new industries, but that may take some time. I feel that the resumes we have seen are already suggesting a return to the fold in this regard.”
Inflation makes it difficult for restaurants to hire and retain skilled cooks and chefs.
Rising costs are an undeniable fact of life in 2025, and higher prices for basic essentials, “particularly housing, has made it difficult for cooks to sustain themselves on traditionally lower wages, prompting many to leave the industry or to move to more affordable areas,” said Olivia Ostrow, chef/owner of Ostrow Brasserie in Miami.
Not only are BOH staffers struggling to find housing in high cost-of-living cities, but the famously small margins that restaurants dealt with pre-pandemic have only grown tighter and tighter. “It has become incredibly expensive to maintain and run a restaurant. Food costs are very high, and the bills required to keep a restaurant open leave little room to offer better pay for back-of-house staff," said Fundora. "Cooks [want a] higher rate of pay, but with such high operational costs, it's challenging to meet those [requests].”
Competitive pay and benefits are crucial if you want to hire talented and diligent cooks and chefs.
In a more precarious and expensive industry than ever before, how can executive chefs and restaurant owners draw sustained interest from skilled line cooks and sous chefs? The obvious answer, of course, is to pay better.
"In the past, a cook may make minimum wage and, in a few years, a dollar or two more. Those days are gone," said Rick Camac, executive director of industry relations at the Institute of Culinary Education. "If you have to charge more, well, everyone else will have to as well [to stay competitive]. And you cannot recoup those dollars from front-of-house because that has been tried before and failed."
If an increased hourly wage or an annual salary aren’t options, Goldhammer suggests adopting a tipping structure that includes BOH, “There is no reason why outdated systems of servers with almost no experience are walking with $150 (or a bartender with $500) in tips while a cook of five years is making under $22/hour with no tips. If everyone is making $16/hr and a common-sense, fair, and balanced tip sharing policy is in place, that same server can walk with $120, the bartender with $400, and the cooks with $80 each. These policies are not based on sharing the tips by some sort of tip percentage. They can be accomplished with smart and fair policies surrounding food and drink sales that directly reflect the work that is performed by different parts of the business.”
Another way to make compensation more competitive involves providing health and time-off benefits where possible. “Offering benefits can significantly help retain employees," Fundora said. "These benefits could include vacation days, sick days, 401(k) programs, quarterly bonuses, and health insurance."
To attract and keep excellent kitchen employees, restaurants need to foster positive work environments with a strong focus on training and mentorship.
Passionate and promising cooks and chefs value opportunities to hone their craft and learn new skills and techniques, and restaurants can and should embrace this creative curiosity. “A well-trained employee is always an asset to the restaurant," said Chetan Shetty, executive chef of Passerine in New York City. "Investing in training not only helps the employee grow, but also contributes to the overall success of the restaurant.”
“Access to education and training for our BOH employees along with career development and growth [are crucial],” added Krista Cole, owner of Sur Lie, Gather, and Catface Cafe in Maine. “This should be a career where one can grow and succeed, not a place where an individual can barely get by.”
Emphasizing a friendly and collaborative culture can make prospective BOH employees more likely to accept a position and to stay for a longer period of time.
“Create an environment where people are excited to go in each day. That doesn’t always mean easy fun; it means making sure when that individual wakes up in the morning, they are excited to take on a new challenge to help them improve," says Richard Lee, executive chef of Saison Hospitality in San Francisco. "Make sure you are taking the time at the end of service to review the day and set goals for the next day. In the beginning of that next day, make sure you are re-establishing those goals and following up. As leaders, we [need to] take time to teach and help people grow in their careers. What we may not be able to offer them in monetary compensation we need to be able to offer them in experience, knowledge, and skill.”
Fundora also raises the possibility of “collaborating with culinary schools to create specialized programs or internship opportunities that partner with local restaurants,” telling us that she sees these educational partnerships as “highly beneficial.”
Keep open lines of communication between your BOH team and kitchen leadership.
At the end of the day, the clearest and most immediate path to learning what your cooks and chefs want from their professional experience in your kitchen is to talk to them.
"The restaurant isn't a hegemonic structure; it requires cooperation, teamwork, and a commitment to fulfilling what we all like to do, which is feed people and make them happy," said Jonathan Weathington, CEO of Shuckin’ Shack Oyster Bar, which operates locations in six states. "My advice is to talk to your employees, work with them on their schedules, give them a way to succeed, and map out a plan in which they can live a fulfilling life and have their career in our industry be a big part of that.”
Giving employees a chance to “be creative and have input into the menu, and if it works, be able to financially reward them” can help them feel more invested in the restaurant’s success, said Fundora.
Passerine's Shetty reminds us of the importance of “being transparent with your employees, whether the news is good or bad. It’s essential that they understand how daily operations may impact their roles, helping them feel more involved and informed.”