The articles continue to flow pointing to a real dilemma that is facing the restaurant world. Everyone has an opinion on why this is so and many are free to point fingers at this potential cause or another. So, to put this to bed, from my perspective, here are some thoughts.
There is plenty of blame to go around, but no one cause is evident as the definitive culprit. If it were that easy, then the solution would be as well. Regardless of where we collectively point the finger, this is a problem that will have significant ramifications for a long time and may contribute to a complete overhaul of the business of preparing and serving food. Let’s take a moment to identify what has occurred over the past few decades to bring us to this juncture and in doing so start to envision a way out.
[] MUCH OF THE FAULT LIES WITH THE INDUSTRY: Now before everyone runs right to the issues of compensation (certainly a huge factor), hear me out. At some point in time, maybe forty years ago, the restaurant industry gave up on real training and turned over this responsibility to culinary schools. Now, those schools welcomed this responsibility and built an educational empire around it. As a result, the expectation is that graduates would enter the restaurant ready to hit the ground running without need for any serious training. When the reality of the job hits that student squarely in the face, things would often begin to fall apart. First off, after incurring sizable debt from two to four years of college, these graduates were less willing to start as a prep or line cook – expecting a sous chef position or higher. When this didn’t happen there was disappointment on both ends.
There was a time when restaurants knew that to develop strong cooks and eventually chefs, they needed to make a commitment to training – building skills gradually through formal or informal apprenticeships until the individual had earned the opportunity to take on more and more responsibility. This commitment to training would build stronger teams, realistic expectations, loyalty, and longevity. Without this commitment we have created a situation comparable to free agency in professional sports. Cooks move around based on who will pay them the most or move them up the career ladder as quickly as possible.
Secondly, the industry as a whole has done very little to market reasons why young people might consider a career in the kitchen. Instead, we have allowed television to do this through their exaggerated, and some times ridiculous modeling of what it is like to work in restaurants and be a chef. In the end, many young people enter the business or enroll in school with misguided expectations.
We (restaurants) should be in schools early on (elementary school) talking about the work, the opportunities, the challenges, and the process of becoming a cook. Forget the competitions, we should invest time in making an impression through support of school cafeteria programs and building a culture of food enthusiasm at an early age. Look to the food operations in elementary schools in Europe as an example to consider. We (restaurants and the National Restaurant Association) should invest time in helping elementary and secondary teachers portray the value of great food preparation. Help local schools arrange field trips to farms, build school gardens, get students involved in growing and harvesting, and tasting real food.
We, as an industry, should lobby for the return of home economics classes to elementary school curriculum. This is an important life skill that will build on that appreciation for food and in turn the important role that cooks play in society. If their only exposure to food preparation is watching “Hell’s Kitchen” and “Chopped”, then we are allowing a disservice to take place of epic proportions.
[] THE CULINARY SCHOOL DILEMMA:
Consider the exponential growth of culinary schools over the past forty years and then think about the competitive dilemma that has been created. Schools responded with enthusiasm to try and meet the needs of a growing restaurant industry. Following the success of a handful of schools in the late seventies and early eighties, the number of programs has grown to over 1,000. Every one of these schools invested heavily in facilities and equipment to support programs that also demanded small student to faculty ratios. You can’t teach cooking classes to a group of 30 students. Class size in most programs is 18 or less requiring more faculty members to cover sections. As more and more programs started up, the need to fill seats to support the investment drove many schools to soften their admissions standards and heavily discount tuition that had risen significantly. This made it more and more difficult for students to afford the cost of education without taking out crippling loans, which they did.
In an effort to maximize the cost of finding students, some colleges implemented baccalaureate degrees emphasizing that they were preparing students for a faster track to that management position while at the same time driving student debt even further. In the end, when students graduated, the majority were faced with starting on the line at $12-$15 an hour, a longer road to the top than they expected, and an inability to pay back student loans. You see the vicious cycle that has emerged.
When major schools begin closing their doors because they are unable to keep this cycle up or meet the expectations of government for viable employment compensation packages that match the debt incurred, then we can see a system begin to crumble.