Good cooks are quitting the kitchen, and that’s bad news for your favourite restaurant

If I hadn’t gone to cooking school or spent six years working in Toronto kitchens, I wouldn’t be who I am today: a writer, not a cook.

Cooking is a wonderful art, skill, trade and craft. But as a career, it stinks: The ratio of work versus reward is inexcusable, and hard-working young cooks, bamboozled by TV into thinking they might one day become celebrity chefs, are waking up to that fact that the odds of winning an Oscar are higher. As a result, established chefs with kitchens to run are finding fewer and fewer qualified cooks.

In the fourth quarter of 2015, Statistics Canada listed job vacancies across Canada for 1,845 welders, 1,535 electricians, 1,825 carpenters, 2,565 mechanics, 1,085 plumbers and 9,115 cooks. If it seems like there’s a massive discrepancy between unfilled cooking jobs and other skilled trades, consider the difference in what those professions earn. A certified tradesperson can make $30 an hour or more; many experienced cooks top out at around half of that.

I left the profession years ago, but more and more cooks today say that being paid like the kid who shovels the driveway, while being expected to perform with a level of precision that keeps the Yelp monsters at bay, day after day, is reaching a tipping point. Read more…

Good cooks are quitting the kitchen, and that’s bad news for your favourite restaurant