We received a few emails about the use of celebrity chef's names as bait in restaurant want ads. Apparently the practice isn't that uncommon and often has negative effects on the restaurant staffing world. One email comes with a warning:
Often the anonymous listings are from certain recruiters who hope to get the placement but have not actually been retained?the better recruiters do not use blind listings and are above board about their intentions. Unfortunately, once in awhile an unsuspecting candidate may be eliminated for consideration because they’ve been submitted by one of these recruiters, even if the candidate directly applied to the restaurant, because [the restaurants] don’t want to risk a fee.Another anonymous poster agrees:
I have good reason to believe that the Craig’s List posting was placed by a headhunter indeed. None of those misspelled “celebrity chefs” needs to pay a headhunter to find them staff?.We're all for name-dropping—this is LA after all—but the old bait-and-switch tact is unfair no matter how you look at it. Except, of course, for the
· Eater Headhunter: Work for a Celebrity Chef [Eater LA]
