Van Putten was hired for this $14-an-hour job in April, a month before she graduated from the Charlotte campus of Johnson & Wales University. She started in mid-May, one of about 30 cooks working the kitchen at the upscale restaurant, which bills itself as serving “New American fare in a refined venue.”
and prompted a younger generation to reconsider erratic work hours at places that often do not offer paid sick time or health insurance.that the need for head cooks and chefs will rise 25 percent from 2020 to 2030, far faster than the forecast 8 percent average growth rate for all occupations.
Those statistics don’t tell the full story, said Althea Carter, a culinary instructor in the Hoover, Ala., public schools. Not all executive chefs earn undergraduate degrees at culinary schools, she said. Many want to know the business side of running a restaurant, given the high rate of failure for restaurants.“I was an executive chef for a while,” she said. “But my bachelor’s degree was in restaurant management.
Jason Evans, dean of the College of Food Innovation and Technology at Johnson & Wales, was not surprised to hear that many of van Putten’s classmates are following career paths other than that of executive chefs. His university has reshaped its curriculums over the past decade to reflect the changing market for culinary-adjacent jobs.
Education cost is too high
All these replies calling Gen Z lazy are hilarious. Gen Z is smart to not go into this field. Why bust your ass for 💩 pay & working conditions when you can make more money, have more time off, better working conditions, etc. in many other career fields? Work smarter not harder.