Chef Wolfgang Puck on why restaurant workers don't want to come back to work

You know, that's fascinating because I was going to ask you if you were able to or willing to pass it on to customers, those higher costs, or whether you were eating it, pun intended. But actually there's a third solution, which is recalibrating the menu. That's amazing. So what about getting employees, though, and wages? How's that going? That's the hardest part. You know, getting new employees, getting the old ones to come back. A lot of the employees in our industry changed their lifestyle. They said, we don't want to work on Mother's Day, on Christmas Eve, on New Year's Eve, Saturday, Sunday, come home at one in the morning, you know. We want to change it. And they went in different direction, do different things. Like I saw a waiter from Spago, actually, in a restaurant. And I said, oh, Omar, what are you doing? He said, I'm in the construction business. I said, in the construction business, you are such a good waiter, how can you do this? He said, you know, I make at least as much money as I did in the restaurant. And every Saturday, Sunday, I'm off. I go home Friday at four in the afternoon, and I have the weekend with my family. So he said, you know, we live just as well. Maybe it was more fun being in a dining room and with the camaraderie, even all the waiters, the chefs. But he said, you know, I have to look out for my family. So a lot of these people didn't want to come back. Little by little, they are coming back. We have waiters at Spago who make over $120,000, $150,000. So it's not a job which doesn't pay well, either. And still, it's hard to find people. The same thing with chefs. You know, it's really difficult. What about tipping or not tipping? You know, Danny Meyer here in New York famously got rid of tipping, then I think he's had to reintroduce it. Where do you stand on that for the waiters? You know, sometimes when something is so ingrained in the people who work and in the customer, it's very difficult to change. What I am, as a chef, I would say I would love every chef should make the same amount as a waiter. So maybe we put on a service charge and we can spread it out evenly. If a chef makes $120,000, the waiter makes $120,000, you know. So it would be more even. But I think by tipping, especially in high-end restaurants, waiters make really good money. They have, sure, a responsibility, let's say, for two times four tables, two seatings at four tables each, but I think they make really good money. And the responsibility is for these four tables, whereas a chef has to manage maybe 40 people in the kitchen. He has to look that every food comes out perfect, that they buy the right things, that everybody clocks in at the same time, they clock out when they go to lunch or to dinner, you know. The labor department will be after you if you don't do it right. So there's a lot of work going on and the pay scale is lower. So I'm trying to bridge the gap so that way we get a little closer.