Chef Salaries Begin to Show Signs of Recovery

NEW YORK, July 1 /PRNewswire/ -- StarChefs.com, the online magazine for culinary insiders, is pleased to announce the results of its nationwide 2009 Salary Survey. While the 2008 Survey posted significant losses, 2009 showed that some chefs are regaining their fiscal footing. After a 13% dip from 2007 to 2008, pastry chefs salaries rose 5.7% in 2009, with an average salary of $48,861. Executive chef salaries similarly rebounded by 6.1% from last year's figures. Meanwhile, the lower ranks continued to drop. Sous chef salaries, the only category that did not fall from 2007 to 2008, finally felt the sting of the economic slowdown, dropping 4.4%. Line Cook salaries continued to dip, falling an additional 2.6%. Will next year's survey reveal if last year's cash injection filters down from the upper ranks in 2010?

The survey also revealed the changing demographics of professional kitchens. Although still the minority, women are taking strong leadership roles in the industry. According to our survey respondents, there are as many female executive chefs (13%) as there are women chef-owners. As far as location, sous chef salaries in California are well bellow the average in other major cities. New York beat out Miami as the highest paying employer of executive chefs and exceeded Boston's average executive chef salary by $14,000. However, the survey showed that pastry chefs earn significantly more dough on average in Florida.

The 2009 Salary Survey's conclusions are based on responses from nearly 1400 chefs and other restaurant professionals across the country. Results of the 2010 Salary Survey can be found at: http://www.starchefs.com/features/editors_dish/salary_survey/2009/index.shtml

About StarChefs.com

StarChefs.com, the magazine for culinary insiders, continues to keep its finger on the pulse of the food industry, providing the tools working chefs need to maximize their career potential since 1995. StarChefs.com's original culinary content is driven by in-person tastings and interviews across the world. In addition to featuring top chefs, pastry chefs, sommeliers, and mixologists, the StarChefs.com JobFinder is the leading job board connecting culinary and hospitality professionals to careers in the foodservice industry. StarChefs.com™ features 25,000 published pages of original, chef-focused culinary content and generates monthly traffic of over 20 million hits a month and was recently nominated for Best Web Site for Food and Nutrition by the James Beard Foundation.

SOURCE StarChefs.com