Why Culinary Searches Are Taking Longer, and What to Do About It

Across private clubs, hotels, resorts and restaurant groups, many culinary leadership searches are running longer than anyone planned. The first instinct is to blame a lack of candidates. That is rarely the real issue. The market has shifted, and the methods many operators still rely on were built for a different kind of market.

The people you want are not in the pipeline

Today's top executive chefs and F&B leaders are highly selective about where they move. They care about culture, about whether they agree with the leadership above them, and about long-term stability. And they are often not applying anywhere. They are being recruited, sometimes by several people at once, and they respond to the ones who do their homework.

Meanwhile, many organizations are still hiring the traditional way: post the job, wait, screen what comes in. There is nothing wrong with a posting. The problem is that the strongest candidates never enter that pipeline, so the process works perfectly and still does not produce what you needed. A search can look busy, with interviews on the calendar and follow-ups sent, and be working from the wrong pool the entire time.

Why the delay compounds

A vacant executive chef seat does not sit still. The sous chef steps up and runs the kitchen on top of their own job. Ordering slips, prep lists get shorter, and the cooks start wondering whether the place has a future. Some of them start looking themselves. The longer the seat is open, the more it costs, and the cost lands on the people you can least afford to lose.

There is a second effect on candidates. A strong chef watching a search that seems to drift will read it as a sign of indecision. Posted and reposted roles, long silences between interviews, and a description that keeps changing all suggest an operation that is not sure what it wants. The best people quietly step away.

Define the role before you go looking

The first lever is one you control entirely: decide what the job is. That means the scope, the expectations, and the leadership structure around it. Who does the executive chef report to, and who reports to them? Do they own purchasing? Do they hire their own sous chefs? Is the role hands-on at the pass, or mostly managing other managers? How much of the job is banquets, and how much is the day-to-day menu?

Searches stall when these answers differ between the people in the room. The owner wants a culinary visionary, the GM wants someone who controls cost, and the club board wants somebody the members already like. Each of those can be true. They cannot all be the top priority. Settle the ranking first, and the candidate conversations get sharper because you can say what you need and what you are flexible on.

Move when the right person appears

The second lever is speed after identification. Once you are talking to a chef you genuinely want, the process should feel like it respects their time. Line up the people who need to meet them before the first conversation, not after. Decide in advance what a tasting or a site visit will look like. Give honest feedback promptly, even when it is not yes.

This is not about rushing a decision. It is about removing dead time. A chef who is currently employed and quietly exploring has a finite appetite for scheduling games. Every gap gives another opportunity time to show up, and strong candidates seldom lack for those.

Go to the candidate, in a relationship-driven way

The third lever is how you reach people in the first place. A targeted, relationship-driven approach to passive talent means identifying the specific chefs and leaders who fit the seat, contacting them directly, and having a real conversation about the work. It is slower per contact than a posting, and far better per conversation.

What has changed is not access to resumes. Those are easy to come by. What has changed is access to the right candidates at the right moment, which depends on relationships and on being known as someone who handles a confidential conversation well. If a search of yours has been running longer than it should, a 30-minute call with Sean J Lyons can help you work out which of these three levers is the one holding it back.