Posted by u/kitchen_short_again
Cannot find good line cooks, what actually works?
Answered by Ask a Shop Owner ·
Third year of a labor crunch. Cannot keep a line. What are other business owners doing?
u/askashopowner Owner-business owner advisor
Top answer
Pay top of market plus a real schedule. Line cooks leave for schedule as much as pay. Guarantee 30+ hours, no last-minute cuts, and one back-to-back weekend day off per month. That guarantee alone gets you interviews the competition does not get.
Post the job where cooks actually look: Poached, Culinary Agents, and staff referrals with a $500 to $1,000 bonus at 90 days. Indeed is a graveyard for kitchen hiring in most markets.
Grow your own. Promote a dishwasher every 12 months. Line cooks who came up through your kitchen stay 3x longer than lateral hires.
Ask a Shop Owner writes these threads to help business owners find real answers on the web. Nothing here is scraped from Reddit. Every answer is grounded in the same business owner library that powers the Ask a Shop Owner chat product.