Money can't buy love, but it can buy food and shelter.

When the Swedish Chef saw his first paycheck...

Here is a story about how there are too few cooks to go around to all the nice restaurants that have opened up in foodie-centric urban centers over the past five years or so.

Whether you call them aspirational or ambitious or chef-driven, these are the restaurants that lead the food world, and all of them report that hiring is a pain point. Up the scale from fast food or casual chains like Applebee’s, they range from seasonal cafes and wine bars to the priciest and most heralded establishments. Patrick O’Connell, the chef and owner at the Inn at Little Washington in Virginia, said even the prestigious Relais & Châteaux properties no longer attract enough talent; most of them now have a full-time recruiter on the payroll.

I went through culinary school, at not insignificant expense, and ended up running a kitchen for a year in a new restaurant, where part of my responsibilities were to staff it. The problem is kind of obvious and baked into the industry: long hours, few days off, supervisors/owners who will exploit you without blinking,  hard repetitive work, uncomfortable working conditions, co-workers who either 

1. don't really speak English 
2. have drug/mental issues 
3. can't do the work very well 
4. students/hobos who are just briefly passing through or 
5. all of the above.  

The #1 prime reason that allows the labor pool to stay shallow and muddy: low, low pay, usually not far from minimum wage.

It's easy to defend the industry by saying, "but that's the way it's always been!" True, it's always paid little and engages in a militaristic culture to engender loyalty and team work. However, everything around it has changed.

• Cities are a lot less livable for poor people with increasing income inequality. It's not that you can't have a "lifestyle" on a cook's pay in NYC as the NYT article says, but you literally can not both house and feed yourself at the same time on a cook's pay.
• Restaurant food is cheaper (accounting for inflation) and more ubiquitous than ever before. The price have not kept up, and the pressure on profits has to land somewhere.
• Quicker communication via the Internet and competition for a limited work force has made it nonsensical for a young cook to settle for bad pay and bad treatment.

This is a situation that can not continue unless something gives. NYC Restaurateur Danny Meyer recently announced that he will be banning tipping from his restaurants, and raise prices accordingly. Putting aside that the tradition of tipping is a boon to douche bags who like to lord over their servers and allows the industry to not pay their staff, it has also caused a huge differential in the pay between front and back of house in restaurants. It is illegal to share tips, but if it's part of the price of the meal, the restaurant can now move some of that money to the back of house. Servers will not have to grovel to customers, but work for who they are supposed to work for -- the restaurant. Any dim-wit who claims service will suffer because of this move is wrong. People do good work because a) they want to do good for their self-esteem and their team and b) they get paid for it. Sorry, Idiot Douche who won't get to determine a server's pay on the fly!

The current state of America's chefs and customers.

But it cuts to a bigger more problematic trend. Food is undervalued, there are too many restaurants, and the traditional foodways of previous generations have been eroded, perhaps past the point of return. I have friends who eat out every day, order delivery when they don't, purchase prepared foods to zap at home, and find cooking anything other than a bowl of cereal as too much of a hassle. My mom was a horrible cook, but bottom line she was a cook. Part of my motivation in attending culinary school was to cook professionally before I quickly burned out from the low pay, long hours and insane boss, but another part of me wanted to learn how to feed myself and my children, a knowledge base that was not communicated to me like it was from my great grandmother to my grandmother (who made the most knee-weakening matzoh brei imaginable.) 

The solution is  what Danny Meyer has figured out: raise the damn prices, pay people what they need and deserve, and accept potentially lower profits and/or go out of business. With fewer cheap restaurants to serve us, perhaps a few people will have to clear their ovens of stored stuff and figure out how to cook something beyond instant ramen.

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WEEKLY AVERAGE: 2786

In my mind this was a good eating week, but looking at the average, I could have been a little bit more conservative. Guess we'll see what the scale says next week to see how hard I need to push against this perception.

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MONDAY COUNT: 2730

SLEPT: 10pm-6am, 8 hrs

AM SNACK: 6:30am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 10am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST: noon, steel cut oatmeal, 450 cal

LUNCH: 2:30pm, beef patty, chicken soup, momma salad, health salad, pickles, 770 cal

DINNER: 6:15pm, flounder, asparagus,  poppa salad with dressing, 650 cal

EVENING SNACK: 7pm popcorn, +/- 400 cal

HUNGER SNACK: 8pm, almond butter & chocolate syrup, +/- 300 cal
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TUESDAY COUNT: 3180

SLEPT: 9:30pm-12am, 3am-5:30am 5hrs

AM SNACK: 5:45 am,  iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 7:15am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 9:30am, fruit smoothie, 450 cal

LUNCH: 1pm, chicken meatballs, lentil curry, steamed string beans, pickles, 700 cal

PM SNACK: 5pm, momma salad 100 cal

DINNER: 6:30pm, beef lomein,  poppa salad with dressing, +/- 1000 cal

HUNGER SNACK: 8pm, pocky x4, 760 cal, 8/10
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BIKE CREDIT: 730 cal
WEDNESDAY COUNT: 2680

SLEPT: 8:30pm-12am, 3am-6am 6.5 hrs

AM SNACK: 6:15am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 7:45am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 9am, steel cut oatmeal, 450 cal

BIKE SNACK: 10:30am, homemade granola bar, 300 cal

LUNCH: 1:15pm, bacon, poppa salad, 440cal

PM SNACK: 3:30pm, momma salad, cheezits, 310 cal

PM SNACK:  5:30pm, cashews, 250 cal

DINNER: 8:30pm, assorted fancy Japanese food, +/- 1500 cal
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THURSDAY COUNT: 2780

SLEPT: 11:30pm-4am, 4.5 hours

AM SNACK: 4:30am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 10am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 11:30am, Fage yogurt with honey, vanilla, almonds, 450 cal

LUNCH: 1pm, beef patty, momma salad, veggie straws, 760 cal

PM SNACK: 3pm, poppa salad, cheezits, 410 cal

DINNER: 5:30pm, scallops, risotto, brussel sprouts, cake, +/- 1000 cal
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FRIDAY COUNT:2560

SLEPT: 10pm-7am, 9 hrs

AM SNACK: 7:15am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST 1: 10am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 10:30am, granola with whole milk, +/- 450 cal

LUNCH: 3:30pm, sardine & avocado on whole wheat toast, momma salad, pickle, 650 cal

DINNER: 7:30pm, hijiki tofu patty, shrimp tempura, cake, +/- 1000 cal

EVENING SNACK: 11:30pm, slice of pizza, +/- 300 cal