Restaurant Talent Scouts, a partnership dedicated to finding qualified employment candidates for the restaurant and hospitality industry, recently celebrated its first anniversary. It was a great initial year.

Founded in 2015 by chef Rocky Tarantello, recruiting professional Lenka Brady, and critic Scott Joseph, Restaurant Talent Scouts provides an affordable solution to businesses faced with filling key positions. Rather than the industry standard percentage, RTS offers its services for a set fee, and further saves its clients time and money by doing the recruiting, vetting and initial interviews of applicants.

“As someone who has been involved with restaurants as an executive chef and manager, I know how frustrating it can be to find qualified candidates to staff a successful business,” said Tarantello. “It can take hours of sifting through resumes and sitting through interviews.”

Over the past 12 months, Restaurant Talent Scouts has placed Executive Chefs, Sous Chefs, Kitchen Managers, General Managers, and Assistant General Managers,. Clients have included Buca di Beppo, Slate, London Lennie’s, Saltaire, Cask & Larder, Tony Roma’s and Wicked Tuna.

And although Restaurant Talent Scouts is based in Orlando, it has recruited for positions in San Francisco, New York City, Salt Lake City, Myrtle Beach, Minneapolis, and West Palm Beach, as well as throughout Central Florida.

The company expects continued growth throughout the rest of 2016 and into 2017. An industrywide shortage of qualified and experienced restaurant professionals makes filling open positions an even greater challenge. Restaurant Talent Scouts is uniquely positioned to easing that task.

If you are a restaurant owner, find more information at the Restaurant Talent Scouts website.

And if you’re a chef or manager with the experience to move to the next level in your career, contact RTS to be considered for one of the currently open positions in San Francisco, New York, Miami, Birmingham, Myrtle Beach or Orlando.