When I was interviewing chefs for our Industry Predictions article as well as our two part series on food costs, nearly every conversation led back to labor. Not because they’re the same problem, but because they share the same root. Food costs are rising. Labor costs are also rising. If we want to stay ahead, we can’t just react. We have to invest.
At Cosmos Club in Washington, D.C., Executive Chef Will Rogers is doing exactly that. He’s built a pipeline by going straight to the source: job fairs, culinary schools, summer interns. Instead of gambling on experience that may not translate, he brings in young people who are eager to learn and teaches them his ways, standards and systems. It’s more work up front, but the payoff is a stronger team that buys in early and sticks around.
That same philosophy is at the heart of a book I’m reading, 10 To 25: A Groundbreaking Approach to Leading the Next Generation and Making Your Own Life Easier by David Yeager. The book digs into how young people process feedback, what motivates them, and why traditional management approaches sometimes fall short.
Here’s the core idea: If you want to lead people between the ages of 10 and 25, you need to give them clarity and purpose. They don’t need or want vague praise, and they won’t respond to command-and-demand instruction either. They need to understand what happened, why it matters, and how to improve.
Say a young cook puts up a steak medium-well when the member requested medium-rare. A typical correction might be, “Be more careful with temps,” but that’s too vague. A more effective approach sounds like: “This landed closer to medium-well. That member expects a true medium-rare, and nailing it helps build trust. What could you adjust on the next one to get it right?”
That kind of feedback works because it connects the correction to something bigger: member expectations, personal growth, and pride in the craft. This generation wants to know that what they do matters. If the message isn’t clear or grounded in purpose, it gets lost. And when it gets lost, so does the opportunity to improve.
This isn’t about overhauling how we lead. It’s about being more thoughtful about who we’re talking to. That small shift is part of the investment. And it pays off in both food and labor.
