Submitted by Kim Berry, Dec 26, 2006 09:10

As the article states, there are several culinary schools turning out top chefs in NYC alone. H-1b is supposed to require a BS degree and specialized experience. Here are the LCAs for Chefs granted by DOL in FY 2005:

http://www.programmersguild.org/docs/h1b_chefs_2005.htm

We see that many of these imported chefs earn around $13 per hour. The article does not state a typical salary for a "head, professionally trained chef," but I presume it is more than $13 per hour.

It appears that, just as in the programming profession, employers are using H-1b to bring in cheap labor rather than the "best and brightest" workers.

The U.S. culinary schools can turn out all the chefs that are required. The problem seems to be that top restaurants and hotels do not want to pay a livable wage. Please do another article from the perspective of Americans graduating from these culinary schools and how easily they are finding good paying jobs.

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