How to Hire and Retain Prep Cooks in Restaurants: A Practical Guide for Owners and HR Managers

In today’s restaurant industry, where labor shortages collide with rising customer demand, one of the biggest challenges owners and operators face is staffing the back of house. At the heart of kitchen efficiency is the prep cook — the often-unsung role that ensures every service runs smoothly. Yet, finding and keeping reliable prep cooks is easier said than done.

This guide explores proven hiring and retention strategies designed to help restaurant owners, HR managers, and chefs build stronger, more stable prep cook teams. From understanding core responsibilities and skills to navigating salary benchmarks and reducing turnover with workforce management technology, this article serves as a roadmap to better staffing, smoother operations, and happier employees.

Why Is Hiring Prep Cooks Important to Restaurant Success?

Prep cooks are the backbone of kitchen operations. Without their work, chefs and line cooks cannot deliver consistent dishes at speed. Prep cooks handle critical tasks such as preparing ingredients, portioning food, setting up stations, maintaining cleanliness, and supporting overall kitchen organization.

When these responsibilities are executed correctly, restaurants experience:

• Faster service times
• Greater consistency in food quality
• Reduced waste and safer food handling practices
• Less stress among chefs and line cooks

In short, a strong prep team ensures service flows like a well-oiled machine. Conversely, understaffed or undertrained prep cooks can create bottlenecks, missed orders, and frustrated guests. Given today’s competitive dining landscape, no restaurant can afford inefficiency behind the scenes.

Core Responsibilities of a Prep Cook

• Preparing vegetables, proteins, and other ingredients in advance
• Maintaining strict food safety and sanitation practices
• Managing inventory, labeling, and rotation of supplies
• Supporting chefs with mise en place (the setup essential for smooth service)

What Skills and Experience Should You Look for When Hiring a Prep Cook?

Hiring the right prep cooks means looking beyond simple kitchen experience. While the role does not require formal education, certain hard skills and soft skills can significantly influence job performance and retention.

Essential Hard Skills for a Prep Cook

• Knife handling: Safe, efficient chopping and slicing are non-negotiable.
• Recipe accuracy: Following standard recipes ensures portion control and consistency.
• Food safety: Knowledge of sanitation standards and certifications, like a food handler’s permit, are valuable assets.

Soft Skills That Reduce Turnover Potential

• Reliability: Consistent attendance prevents service breakdowns.
• Communication: Strong collaboration with chefs and line cooks is vital.
• Calm under pressure: Kitchens move fast, and prep cooks must keep pace without cutting corners.

While formal culinary training may be helpful, it is not a requirement. Many successful prep cooks rely instead on skill, attitude, and the ability to grow within the kitchen team. Restaurants that consider both technical proficiency and cultural fit are far more likely to hire candidates who stay.

What Is the Average Prep Cook Salary?

Compensation is a key factor in both hiring and retaining prep cooks. According to Salary.com, as of September 2025, the average annual salary for prep cooks in the United States is $$33,839, or $16 per hour, with typical salaries ranging roughly from $30,000 to $39,000 depending on experience and location.

‍

Indeed reports an average wage among job postings of about $16.83/hour. Glassdoor data puts the average (or close to median) base salary for prep cooks in the United States at around $40,000 per year, as of April 2025.

Salaries for prep cooks vary with geography, years of experience, restaurant type, and skill set — to attract solid talent, you’ll almost certainly need to offer above the minimum wage, especially in more competitive or costly markets.

Pay Differences by Geography

• Major cities generally offer higher pay due to cost of living.
• Fine dining establishments often pay more than institutional food service.
• Seasonal or resort locations may provide higher wages but with limited contract duration.

How Compensation Impacts Retention

Pay is one of the simplest levers restaurants can pull to improve staff retention. Offering a competitive wage helps offset industry-average hourly turnover rates, which hover around 70–75 percent according to the National Restaurant Association. Even a small pay bump compared to local competitors can make a significant difference in attracting and keeping talent.

‍

How Can Restaurants Attract Qualified Prep Cooks?

Recruiting prep cooks in today’s market requires creating appealing opportunities and reducing barriers to entry. Beyond compensation, restaurants should focus on transparent job postings and employer brand appeal.

• Write compelling job descriptions: Clearly outline duties, expected schedules, growth paths, and workplace culture. Candidates who know what to expect are less likely to leave early.
• Highlight employee perks: Discounts on meals, uniform allowances, or consistent scheduling policies all increase appeal.
• Streamline onboarding: A clunky hiring process can push candidates away. Adopting HR technology to digitize paperwork and communication demonstrates professionalism and saves time.
• Promote workplace culture: A kitchen that values teamwork, respect, and recognition builds a reputation that attracts workers.

Restaurants that treat recruiting like marketing — promoting their culture and benefits alongside the role — stand out in an industry plagued by high turnover and labor shortages.

‍

What Are the Biggest Staffing Challenges When Hiring Prep Cooks?

Hiring and retaining prep cooks in restaurants is difficult, not simply due to wages but also because of industry realities.

• Labor shortages: Many regions report fewer applicants than open positions.
• High competition: Urban markets often see multiple restaurants competing for the same workers.
• Demanding hours: Nights, weekends, and holidays are standard, which can deter candidates.
• Stressful environment: Kitchens are high-pressure workplaces, and some employees burn out quickly.

The National Restaurant Association's reported 70–75 percent turnover rate for hourly roles highlights just how much instability exists in back-of-house staffing. Tackling these challenges requires targeted retention strategies, not just constant rehiring.

‍

How Can Restaurants Retain Prep Cooks and Reduce Turnover?

Retention is where many restaurants struggle, yet it offers the biggest payoff. A stable prep cook team ensures consistency, lowers training costs, and improves morale across the kitchen.

Scheduling Strategies That Support Retention

Unpredictable scheduling is a major driver of turnover. Offering flexibility where possible, avoiding last-minute changes, and distributing desirable shifts fairly improve loyalty among staff. Tools like Push Scheduling make this process easier by automating schedules, reducing over-staffing or under-staffing with sales forecasting, flagging overtime, and ensuring fairness.

Training and Career Development Programs

Prep cook roles provide a valuable entry point into the kitchen hierarchy. Restaurants that invest in skill training, mentorship, and advancement paths to line cook or sous chef positions see greater retention. Employees who view their job as a career — rather than just a paycheck — are more likely to stay.

Additionally, creating a recognition culture, offering competitive pay, and implementing transparent payroll through Push Payroll ensures staff feel valued while reducing administrative bottlenecks that often cause frustration.

‍

How Can Workforce Management Technology Help With Prep Cook Staffing?

Manual scheduling, payroll errors, and communication breakdowns contribute directly to turnover. In high-churn environments, administrative inefficiencies only make matters worse.

Workforce management technology like Push Operations provides advantages such as:

• Automated and accurate scheduling for fair shift allocation.
• Seamless payroll that eliminates errors and builds trust with staff.
• Compliance support and alerts to navigate labor laws across multiple jurisdictions.
• Centralized communication tools that keep managers and employees aligned.

These solutions allow managers to spend less time buried in paperwork and more time focusing on staff development, culture-building, and customer service.

‍

What Immediate Steps Can Managers Take to Strengthen Prep Cook Staffing?

Hiring and retaining prep cooks is an ongoing process, but several quick wins deliver improvements right away:

• Benchmark wages against local competitors and adjust for retention.
• Refresh job descriptions to clearly communicate responsibilities.
• Implement fair and consistent scheduling practices.
• Introduce an employee feedback loop to catch potential issues early.
• Leverage HR and scheduling technology to eliminate back-office inefficiencies.

By making these adjustments, restaurant operators can build a prep team that is ready to support long-term kitchen success.

‍

Conclusion

Prep cooks might not always be in the spotlight, but they are critical to every successful service. Hiring the right candidates, paying competitively, and providing opportunities for advancement are the cornerstones of building and retaining a strong prep cook team.

As turnover remains a persistent challenge in the restaurant industry, workforce management technology offers operators the edge they need. Solutions like Push Operations simplify hiring, enhance scheduling fairness and compliance, and improve employee satisfaction.

Ready to fire up operations and strengthen your kitchen team? Book a demo with Push today to see how streamlined workforce management can help you hire and retain the prep cooks who keep your restaurant running at full speed.