Editor’s Note: In Part 1, we examined how club chefs are rethinking sourcing, prep, and pricing to manage rising food costs. See The Real Cost of the Plate, Part 1: When Food Costs More Than Food.
When ingredient costs rise, chefs adjust. But when labor becomes the biggest and least predictable line item, the entire model starts to strain.
Rising hourly wages, increased demand for flexibility, and shrinking pools of skilled and international candidates have upended staffing norms. Chefs are paying more, training harder, and still struggling to maintain the consistency members expect. The traditional one-third model—where food, labor, and profit each account for roughly 33 percent—no longer applies. Labor costs alone often blow past that threshold.
Charles Myers, Executive Chef of Summit Hills Country Club (Crestview Hills, Ky.), sees it clearly. “We used to find cooks at a reasonable rate,” he says. “Now they have one other job, maybe at a local sub shop, and they won’t even consider less than eighteen dollars an hour.” Add in the increased volume of events and the need to reset spaces overnight, and staffing becomes more than a scheduling problem. It becomes a budget crisis.
In response, Myers has implemented labor-related fees. “If there’s a carving station, there’s a fee,” he explains. “And if that station needs setup or breakdown, there’s a labor charge for that too. We have to account for everything now.” This is not a markup. It is a mechanism to maintain quality and coverage without draining the entire operation.
The same reality plays out in Washington, D.C., where William Rogers, CEC, CCA, serves as Executive Chef of the Cosmos Club. There, the focus is on retention and training. Instead of chasing experience, Rogers builds it. His team recruits seasonal interns who return on breaks and grow within the club’s culture. It is a long-term play rooted in mentorship, belonging, and professional development.
Other chefs are taking similar paths. At Cullasaja Club in Highlands, North Carolina, Executive Chef Scott Craig has built a one-on-one coaching model that allows young cooks to train directly under senior staff. His approach prioritizes teaching and trust, creating a kitchen culture that’s committed to long-term growth, not short-term coverage. As he explains in Scott Craig: Transforming an Industry One Service at a Time and talks about throughout the documentary All Ships Rise, mentorship is a way to both solve the labor issue and elevate the standard of the operation.
At The Landings Golf & Athletic Club in Savannah, Georgia, Executive Chef Sam Brod has built a formal apprenticeship program to attract entry-level talent and develop them personally and professionally. He shared the ins and outs of his ACF-accredited, 3,000-hour program at the 2025 Chef to Chef Conference, where he explained how the structure, mentorship, and hands-on experience are reshaping the club’s culinary culture.
In both cases, the strategy is not just about finding bodies. It is about fostering a sense of belonging, skill development, and loyalty. That matters more now than ever. The next generation of employees are not just looking for a paycheck. They want mentorship, flexibility, and a clear path forward. They want to know that their time matters. Clubs that provide that structure are thriving. Those that do not are struggling to stay staffed.
Labor strategy, in this context, is not a cost conversation—it is a culture conversation. The clubs that will lead in the next five years are the ones that recognize the difference.
