“I’m from Argentina but have been in the country for the last 3 years. My hardest day of work while being in the U.S so far has been one where service was hectic and we were in the weeds, and the staff decided to walk out mid-rush; they just left me there alone to manage! I had to close the kitchen and focus on serving each customer, one at a time – alone.

As a cook and chef, I have been taught to never leave or run away, if I do, at least I’ll finish my shift.

I feel that there is no dedication, especially among younger cooks, – more so when we get paid hourly, people don’t care and they just walk out whenever they feel like it, or sometimes don’t come in at all. Unlike when I worked with people in Latin-American that were paid salaries. I’m not sure what the future of the industry is, but if we don’t better our benefits or the ways we operate as restaurants it’s going to get hard to find reliable staff.”