Chef, entrepreneur, and well-known figure in the restaurant industry with numerous establishments located around the world, Wolfgang Puck reveals the difficulties he is facing in retaining employees.
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Chef-entrepreneur Wolfgang Puck, owner of a group of upscale restaurants and several pop establishments, gave an interview to Yahoo Finance about inflation and the crisis in the fine dining industry, saying that "some things, in the last period, have gotten out of control."
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"The average cost for food in our restaurants has increased by 15 percent, which is simply too much," he comments, adding that even prices for buying kitchen equipment have soared. "I bought 12 cutting boards the other day spending $1,500, and then a week later, to do again the exact same purchase, I had to shell out $2,000."
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But it is not only Wolfgang Puck who is concerned about the current situation in the United States. According to last September's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Consumer Price Index (CPI), the overall cost of food increased 11.2 percent over last year. The issues, however, are not just about rising prices, but more importantly about the workforce. According to the chef keeping staff has become a challenge, and finding new employees is not at all easy. Although the level of employment in the hospitality sector has currently risen, the rate is still much lower than the pre-pandemic average.
The entrepreneur is faced with staff shortages and soaring salary costs almost all over the world, as his establishments are scattered almost everywhere between New York, Singapore and Budapest. "It's really difficult, it's a worldwide phenomenon," Puck says. "At Spago's in Budapest, for example, it's just as complicated to recruit staff as it is in New York or Los Angeles; thank God, we have a good name and we pay well, so we hold on to employees, but it's become more expensive."
Finally comes the outburst: "A sommelier, who works at one of my restaurants drawing a salary of $100,000 a year, told me he had received an offer at another restaurant for $30,000 more, so I decided to give it to him myself to make him stay. Training another person would have cost me more."
Source: finance.yahoo.com
