Categories
Back of House
Executive Chef
An executive chef owns the menu, the food cost, and the kitchen team — recipe development, station design, hiring sous and line cooks, vendor relationships, and the plate that goes out on a Saturday at 9pm. Operators hire one before opening to build the program and after opening when the food has drifted or the BoH culture has gone sideways. NYC fine-dining ECs run roughly $150K-$300K base plus bonus or equity, with retained recruiters like One Haus charging 30-35% of first-year total comp.
View briefing →Pizza Chef (Pizzaiolo)
A pizzaiolo runs the dough program (mix, ferment, ball, stretch), works the oven (deck, wood, gas, or coal), and owns the pizza menu from sauce to cheese to topping spec. Slice shops, Neapolitan rooms, and any concept where pizza is the hero hire one — the fermentation timing and oven discipline are not skills line cooks pick up casually. Entry-level NYC pizzaiolo pay runs $15.87-$18.27/hr per ZipRecruiter April 2026, but a true Neapolitan-trained chef at a Roberta's-tier room can clear $80K-$110K.
View briefing →Sushi Chef
Sushi chefs run the raw-fish program — daily fish receipt, breakdown, rice management, knife work, and the omakase sequence at the bar. Hire a head sushi chef when you open a Japanese concept or add a sushi bar inside a broader Asian or hotel program; the role is hard to fill because the apprenticeship pipeline is thin in NYC. Top-tier omakase chefs at properties like Masa command $1,200/pp menus; head sushi chef pay runs $60-$120/hr with itamae masters at the high end.
View briefing →Dishwasher
The dishwasher (officially "steward") runs the warewashing machine, hand-washes glassware and sharps, manages pot-and-pan flow, and breaks down the kitchen at close. Every restaurant, banquet operation, and hotel kitchen needs one — and reliability matters more than skill, because losing your dish on a Saturday night collapses the whole line. NYC stewards run $45K-$75K total comp, with hotel union shops (HTC Local 6 IWA) paying meaningfully above non-union restaurant rates.
View briefing →Food Runner
Food runners shuttle plates from the pass to the table, recite course descriptions, and clear empties — the leg-work that lets servers stay on their sections. You hire them in any room doing 100+ covers a night where servers can't physically cover all the runs. Under 12 NYCRR §146-3.4 the runner is a tip-pool-eligible food service worker, so as of January 1, 2026 NYC minimum is $11.35 cash + $5.65 tip credit = $17.00/hr before tip share.
View briefing →Line Cook
Line cooks work the stations — grill, saute, garde manger, fry — executing the menu plate-by-plate during service. Every restaurant hires them, and turnover is constant: the question is whether yours stick or churn out in three weeks. As of January 1, 2026 NYC minimum wage is $17.00/hr, and any operator starting line cooks below $19-$20 in 2026 will lose them inside a month — the market floor is materially above the legal floor.
View briefing →Pastry Chef
Pastry chefs run the dessert and bread program — recipe development, daily production, plating during service, and the dessert side of any tasting menu or holiday push. Hotels, fine-dining rooms, and bakery-cafes hire one once dessert revenue or guest expectation justifies a dedicated salaried head. NYC has roughly 200-300 active pastry openings at any given moment in 2026; an executive pastry chef at a serious property runs $160K-$180K (Goodwin Recruiting's current Bronx posting at $160K-$180K is a useful benchmark).
View briefing →Prep Cook
Prep cooks do the morning work before service — butchering, vegetable cuts, stocks, sauces, portioning, and mise en place — so the line can hit during dinner. Every full-service kitchen needs one or more, and you can buy them three ways: direct W-2 hire, agency-supplied W-2, or 1099 gig-platform shifts. The 2026 NYC floor is $17.00/hr but real prep wages run $17-$19, and the gig-platform 1099 model is increasingly under DOL scrutiny — make sure your vendor carries proper classification.
View briefing →Butcher
An in-house butcher breaks primals into portion cuts, saving 20-40% on protein cost versus buying pre-portioned, and gives you menu control over specials and aging programs. Steakhouses, whole-animal restaurants, and high-volume Italian rooms with a meat-forward menu are the typical buyers. You cannot reliably hire a NYC butcher who can break a quarter unsupervised under $28/hr in 2026 — the 2.87-29.64/hr BLS band understates the real market for skilled work.
View briefing →Kitchen Manager
A kitchen manager runs the BoH ops layer beneath an executive chef — scheduling, ordering, inventory, payroll coding, and DOH compliance — so the chef can focus on the menu and the plate. You hire one when volume crosses the threshold where the chef can't simultaneously cook and run the back office (typically $4M+ revenue or a multi-unit operator). Indeed's current NYC average for Kitchen Manager is $74,566/yr (107 active postings as of April 2026); Glassdoor median total pay is $65K.
View briefing →Porter
Porters handle the deep-clean and physical infrastructure work nobody else wants — trash hauls, bathroom cleans, floor scrubs, kitchen breakdown, deliveries, and the 2am post-close reset. Every restaurant, bar, and hotel needs at least one, and high-volume nightlife venues need three or four per shift. The NYC 2026 minimum is $16.50/hr (large employer non-tipped) and Indeed's NYC porter average is $18.58/hr — anything below that floor and you'll cycle staff weekly.
View briefing →Sous Chef
The sous chef is the executive chef's #2 — runs the line during service, manages the prep schedule, fills in on stations when someone calls out, and trains line cooks on recipe specs. You hire one once your volume justifies a salaried second-in-command (typically 80+ covers a night) so the EC isn't on the line every shift. NYC sous salaries land $68K-$85K base, and if you require chef whites the NY Hospitality Wage Order Part 146-1.8 forces a $19.90/week uniform-maintenance reimbursement on top.
View briefing →Other Team sub-areas
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