2025 Restaurant Hiring Trends With Alice Cheng, CEO of Culinary Agents

Let’s be honest—staffing a restaurant can feel like its own full-time job.

That’s why on this episode of The Pre-Shift Podcast, we brought in Alice Cheng, CEO of Culinary Agents, to dive into what restaurant operators need to know about hiring today—and how to build stronger teams for tomorrow.

Listen to the episode

Meet Alice Cheng, CEO of Culinary Agents

Alice Cheng is the founder and CEO of Culinary Agents, also known as the hospitality industry’s hiring platform. She explains, “We focus on helping talent discover great jobs and careers in hospitality and enable businesses with a whole slew of job marketing and applicant tracking tools to make it easier for them.” 

She started Culinary Agents 13 years ago to solve challenges in the hiring process: “A  lot of my friends who were in hospitality—both on the ownership side as well as the worker side—were constantly complaining about Craigslist and it being the only tool that they could find jobs.”

“They’d be post-shift, scrolling through part-garbage, part-interesting things. And then they would find it, and they would send an anonymous email because it was too risky. And it was just this unprofessional feeling about the whole process. Looking for jobs and applying for jobs is not sexy to begin with, but on top of it, it’s kind of unspoken.” You might see a post for a free couch right next to one looking for a line cook at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.

While working with startups at IBM in Silicon Valley, Alice was surrounded by a wave of tech-driven creativity.“People were thinking about how to use technology to really shake up major industries—like the media industry, video distribution. I loved hospitality. I had so many friends in it, had worked in it myself, and I thought, ‘There has to be another tool out there.’”

How restaurant hiring processes have evolved over time

When it comes to hiring processes for restaurants, Alice explains, “ Word of mouth is never going away. That’s still tried and true and amazing. One of the beautiful things about this industry is it’s huge, but it’s small.” That said, technology is playing a bigger role than ever, not just for businesses, but for job seekers too—candidates are looking for tech-friendly application processes.

“That has really changed not just the way people look for jobs or apply to jobs or market their jobs, but it’s changed the level of professionalism in this industry, which was one of the things that we really sought out to do. With more information, more transparency, and more access to data and tools, you just feel like it’s more legitimized.” 

The hospitality-specific advantage

Alice also touches on the advantage of using a hiring platform designed for hospitality. Specifically, what sets Culinary Agents apart from a standard job board? She says, “ Not only are the labels, the taxonomy, the whole experience really optimized for a job seeker in hospitality, but also for businesses. It’s the one-stop shop job distribution.” 

It allows independent restaurants (and even larger brands) to save time and forgo the need to pick and choose different job boards while managing multiple campaigns. She adds that a lot of restaurant employers just need a basic set of tools for applicant tracking to start with. 

“ We wanted to really enable the independent restaurants with a core set of tools that were free—that will help them easily manage applicants to communicate with them, save their data, like really basic stuff.” And when they’re ready for more, she says, the platform can grow with them.

Over the years, Culinary Agents has also evolved as a platform, based on feedback from its users. Alice provides one example: ”People have said, ‘I really want to work at a Michelin-starred restaurant or an award-winning place.’ We’re the only site that lets them search for jobs based on awards and distinctions.”

The big hiring trends of 2025

To look into the future, Alice first revisits trends from the past: “ 2024 was really when we started seeing businesses focus on growth.” She explains that in the years prior to that, businesses were still in the evolution phase—some were in survival mode, while others were still reviving projects that had been delayed by the pandemic. 

“So we saw a lot of growth, particularly in the fall hiring season of 2024—with new openings, not re-openings. And that was a big indicator that businesses were focusing more on the future and had gotten into their new normal.”

She adds that on the talent side, 2021 and 2022 were the years when job seekers had the upper hand. And while that’s still true in some ways, the landscape has changed: “What we’re seeing now is because of the businesses opening and all these new opportunities, we have a big shift in a lot of talent, either entering the industry or coming back to the industry.” She reveals that the average applicants per job on her site has increased quite dramatically within the past six to twelve months. 

But at the same time, challenges persist. Alice says, “I  think hiring, labor, and turnover in this industry are going to continue to be something that the industry is faced with. I’m not gonna just paint rainbows and unicorns. The long-lasting ripple effects of COVID are still being felt across businesses, across job seekers, across workers, and across consumers.”

She adds, “Every day brings a new surprise, and there are so many other potential factors that impact restaurant owners and a business’s ability to plan, forecast, and succeed. I feel like the conversations I have with business owners are really focused on things they can actually control, and then doing the best they can to prepare for unexpected—which I think in this day and age, is inevitable in one way or another.”

The skills gap with middle-level roles

Alice also touches on one big hiring issue in 2025: the skills gap. She says, “There’s a missing middle because if you look at the folks who may have done other things or have gone on during the past handful of years, they took with them a lot of skill and knowledge.”

“And if they came back? Great—they came back. They’re most likely in management positions. They’ve earned that, and they’re hiring for that next cohort of skilled people. But there’s been time that’s been lost and experience that has been lost. And so I think some businesses will play a little bit of catch-up.”

Another reason for this shift is the fast-paced nature of career growth in hospitality. Alice explains that it’s not like other industries where promotions happen every few years. There are stories of people who crush it within a few months, moving up in no time. She says, “I think we’re gonna continue seeing those stories. Employers and leaders are always looking for that type of attitude and potential to cultivate and fill this middle layer that they need.”

To help with the skills gap, Alice also suggests that businesses can implement specific training internally, such as structured learning programs for front-of-house and back-of-house positions. She says, “It really depends on what the particular business needs and what they have resources for.”

She adds that technology and data can help businesses make better decisions because a lot of these trends may just be business as usual, such as a seasonal shift. For example, when the Hamptons open up, a lot of people go there to work for two or three months, and then their positions may need to be backfilled.  

Finding the right balance for employee benefits

Alice adds that the pandemic allowed businesses to step back, re-evaluate, and make some material changes to attract and retain top talent. Restaurant operators asked questions, such as:

• What is our culture?
• What do we want to be known as?
• Who are the types of people we want to attract?
• How do we put it out there?

She says, “ But then, make sure we have the right systems and frameworks in place to support that so that we’re not just saying things. And that was extremely encouraging to see, not just large companies, but we saw a lot of smaller independent restaurants or one, two-location groups think really hard and creatively.”

For example, “ If you can’t give a big healthcare package or dental and vision, adding extra PTO days actually makes a difference.” Some businesses also implement shutdown periods or operate on a limited schedule (such as opening only four days a week) to give employees more time to relax.

But of course, the challenge of finding the right balance remains. If a business does want to go the health insurance (or extended benefits) route, it has to come from somewhere. “More and more businesses are passing off the costs to consumers in some way, shape, or form—increasing menu prices or adding a healthcare line item.  But as you know, food costs are up, everything’s up. There’s just so much you can charge for a burger.”

The good news, Alice points out, is that the pandemic helped positively shift customer perceptions: “I think there’s still people who understand that this industry has its challenges and if they want to continue enjoying going out, getting pampered and spoiled, and having a great time, they need to actively patronize—go visit their favorite places, talk about it positively, and give feedback in a constructive way.” 

New restaurant roles and career growth in the industry

Alice also calls out the growing need for more ‘corporate’ positions in hospitality, such as social media managers. “I think that’s a great indicator that businesses are growing, and they need support in these other areas. It also offers great opportunities to people who are working in hospitality, who don’t want to leave the industry, but want to do something adjacent or to flex some of their other skills.”

She also touches on career growth, outside of hospitality: “This industry isn’t for everyone, right? And that’s okay. And one of the beautiful things about working here is that you could be just a stop-gapper, you could just be a side hustler—it’s fine. The great thing I focus on is that it opens the door to other opportunities, and whatever you’re doing here, whatever skills you’re learning or relationships you’re building—you can bring that into the next thing.”

The key to being a great leader: Being intentional

Alice notes that more and more leaders are being intentional in recognizing their team members. “It doesn’t necessarily need to be this big public fanfare, but highlighting and acknowledging your team and their efforts and encouraging them is never a bad thing. I think that boosts morale, that shows that you’re paying attention, that you care.”

She believes recognition can come in many forms. Yes, health benefits can be great, but she adds, “ I think not just hospitality workers, but workers in general really value and want feedback. And that’s just a reflection of the times and the generations also.”

She explains that because restaurant teams are so diverse, good leaders also need to be mindful of different communication styles: “Restaurants have a lot of generational diversity. Sometimes the way one person wants to be worked with or talked to is different than the way that somebody else wants to. So, having a little bit of awareness—that is something that a lot of people are looking for nowadays.”

More insights & resources

Alice also dives into how restaurants can leverage technology (like Culinary Agents) to streamline hiring—and explores the broader tech trends transforming today’s hospitality industry. Tune into the full episode for all the insights!