Episode Overview
In this inaugural episode, André Natera asks the question that launched the show: where did all the cooks go? The culinary industry was facing a significant shortage of trained, experienced kitchen workers, and the gap between the number of positions that needed to be filled and the number of qualified people available to fill them was widening in a way that most operators were struggling to explain and few had a real plan to address.
He shares his take on the root causes of the cook shortage, what the industry had done or failed to do that contributed to it, and why this was not a temporary labor market problem but a structural issue with deeper roots in how the culinary profession was being perceived, compensated, and cultivated. It is the episode that started everything, and it remains as relevant now as it was when it was recorded.
Topics covered in this episode:
- The cook shortage facing the culinary industry and where it came from
- Why the pipeline of trained, experienced kitchen workers was shrinking
- What the industry had done or failed to do to contribute to the shortage
- Why this is a structural problem rather than a temporary labor market fluctuation
- How the culinary profession was being perceived and why that was affecting recruitment
- What needs to change for the industry to rebuild its workforce pipeline
- Why André started Chef’s PSA and what he hoped it would accomplish
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