Mike Ledesma, corporate executive chef of Richmond Restaurant Group (Photo by Stephanie Breijo)
"When I first opened The Hard Shell in the South Side and I was looking for applicants, I used to get 50 to 60 [résumés]. Now, it’s like 10.” That was only five years ago for Mike Ledesma, one of the chefs in our exploding restaurant scene. The Next Big Place, A Top-10 Dining Destination, The Food City on the Rise — Richmond’s been all of these, its accolades seemingly accruing in tandem with its number of new restaurants. While more choice is exciting for diners, I hate to be the one to burst the bubble: This boom isn’t always good for the restaurant business, and someday our restaurant-industry bubble might burst, too.
As corporate executive chef of Richmond Restaurant Group, Ledesma hires, trains and oversees roughly 180 employees across six restaurants including Pearl Raw Bar and both Hard Shell locations. With West Coast Provisions and a West End location of The Daily Kitchen & Bar both slated to open later this year, he’s looking for new chefs, servers, bartenders and bussers to keep the new and old restaurants running. The only problem is there aren’t enough of them in the region.
Nationally, there aren’t enough of them in the profession.
According to the National Restaurant Association, a projected 14.7 million jobs will exist in the industry this year; 10 years from now, the number could hit 16.3 million. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of January 2017, the restaurant industry — including fast food — only employed 11,566,900. It’s possible that that projected labor gulf of more than 3 million employees could be filled by undocumented workers, on which this industry already relies, but with an uncertain future for immigration policy, it’s probably not safe to bank on it.
The concern isn’t merely filling roles — a tough task made more difficult during a local dining boom, where rapidly opening new restaurants hire or flat-out poach existing talent from nearby establishments — it’s finding qualified employees, even at entry level.
“What I’m looking at are résumés, and I’m seeing ‘internship,’ ‘volunteer thing,’ ‘church thing,’ ‘theater thing,’ says Secco Wine Bar owner Julia Battaglini, who at the time of this interview was hiring for multiple roles. “It’s not so much a student problem, per se, or a VCU problem; these kids are getting out of school and there are no jobs, so they apply to the restaurant industry with zero experience. Not even crappy jobs.” It isn't just in Richmond.
Also nationally, cooks are jumping ship and opting for higher education and more financially lucrative careers. Restaurants want to incentivize company loyalty and keep talent with higher wages, but in order to do this, that money has to come from somewhere. It could likely come from menu price hikes. The question then becomes whether Richmond diners are willing to pay a little more in order to sustain the region’s restaurants. Locally, restaurateurs are finding additional ways to attract talent in order to stay competitive: extensive training, consistent schedules, health insurance, work-related field trips to dairies, career tracks within the company.
“You’ve got to keep the team engaged and learning,” says Travis Croxton, who sends employees within his Rappahannock empire to charcuterie and butchery classes, and to train on the company’s oyster farm. “If they’re not learning, they are just earning a paycheck. There’s nothing wrong with that, but the people who want to succeed in life want more than just a paycheck; they want to constantly learn, and if you don’t have those people, then you don’t have the best people.”
And how does this affect you, the diner? After all, a surge of new restaurants means more competition for your dollar. But a shortage of qualified staff can mean poor service, disorganization and an overworked front and back of house, which tarnishes your experience. And if prices jump in order to keep talent, will you pay for it? If not, the city may see an unfortunate wave of closures.
“It’s going to get worse before it gets better. That said,” Battaglini adds, laughing, “if you know anybody …”
