Please help, need advice !

Hey Millie, nice to meet a fellow Angeleno!

Is this for a cafeteria/employee dining room? Are you doing plated or steam table?

For Los Angeles, you'll probally need to pay a salary of around $26K to attract a good person.

Your food cost % will depend on how fancy you want the food, if you are subsidising the operation or you just want it to breakeven. For sake of estimation, I'll say 50-65%. You can get some very nice plates for less the $3.00 of food cost.

You should also want to bring your employee participation rate above your estimated 16%

As part of the hiring process, you should have every applicant submit a weeks menu to see if they are thinking on the right wavelength.

Need Details

Once you have decided on the details of the position, salary etc etc
Send me the details (Private Message) and I will advertise the position for you.

Good Luck

ChefsWorld - Chefs Jobs, Catering Jobs, Recruitment & Employment resources for chefs

$26K in Los Angeles will not get you a good chef, assuming this is a full-time position. $26K wouldn't get you a good one here in Minnesota and we have a substantially lower cost-of-living.

Millie might not even need a skilled Chef with a capital "c." Depending on the job specifics you could get by with just a "cook". The job could very well be a part-time job. I also meant that amount as a minimum cash wage. I also assumed that some form of benefits would be offered as well.

I find it hard to believe that anyone can make a living in Los Angeles at $26K with the cost of living there...capital "C" chef or not. I would think the lower end of the pay spectrum for this job would be in the 40s minimum and realistically.

For the amount of responsibility that would be placed on that person big C or not, I think you are looking for more than your basic line cook. (No offense meant to your position tincook - because from your posts, you are probably not your average line cook. I worked with some who could do it and others who would totally botch the job because of the planning and kitchen management skills that would be required in a position of this sort.)

Millie, my opinion is that you are looking to develop a kitchen and position that will vastly reflect the excellence of your company. Don't skimp on this. Your clients are not stupid and as a marketing person, clients sense and smell any inconsistency in company products and policies. Going low end on a chef and kitchen operation would be tantamount to buying a designer gown and wearing holey underwear from Target.

Also, make sure the person you hire has mad mad crazy great people skills and cooking skills! Why? Cuz you only think your employess beeeeotch behind management's back now, but send them in to eat inferior quality food from an inept chef and you will have the worst buzz-build and morale problem you've ever seen...only chances are, you won't see it or know about it until it is at the point where it's nearly impossible to fix from an hr standpoint, short of firing everyone and starting over with new employees. Your credibility with your employees would be completely lost and so would your respect from them.

If you are going to do this. Do it right. Don't skimp. Don't cut corners. There are places you can hide cutting corners...sometimes, rarely. This isn't one of those places. People place wayyyyyy too much importance on food for that to ever be the case.

Don't do it, PLEASE!

Chefs: What would you trade? Suppose the going rate for your position, 6 days/60 hours, no bennies, work every weekend, is 40k.

For me, gimme 401k/fully covered health and I'll take 36k. Gimme 40 hours Mon-Fri and I'll take 34k.

Thoughts?

I think you sell yourself short kuan.

That's still barely making ends meet and that's not figuring the cost of living in LA.

25 years ago a friend went to LA to live and work in the ad business making $30k and it was sooo tough to even afford an appartment. I can't even figure out what it would be like today with the cost of living increases.

He ended up living in an apartment with 3 other guys.

Do you really want to live that way?

This job is all about profile for this company. At a very minimum I would be thinking it would be about $48K with full benes and Mon-Fri about 50-60 hours. And that's minimum.

I wouldn't personally do it for less than $65K

Yep, add $20K in Los Angeles. But say some less expensive place like West Lafayette IN or something. :)

Try looking up monster.com or any other career building site to see what they offer. If they don't list try calling them up as a possible applicant and ask yourself. gathering information from local business is a the better way of getting a rounded idea.

26K...hmm, place things in perspective.

After one year at Costco, the person who serves 1/4 lb. hot dogs makes 26K with benefits. 6 days, 60 hours...lots of overtime pay.

For an L.A. job, 65K with full benefits.