I interviewed directly with the business owner, a self-proclaimed culinary professional who had never worked in the restaurant industry for this company. The email communication to set up a time for the video call interview was very time consuming and took 3 weeks and 3 weeks before the actual video call. During that video call interview she was over 20 minutes late and started the interview without any apology. I tried to change my mind and talk to her, but the other party's internet connection was terrible and the other party left the room several times and was in very poor condition to talk. It was the most unpleasant interview of my life. My impression after the interview was that, as a worker, the salary is low, starting at $150 per week, and you can't hire really good people at that price. It is obvious that only low level cooks can be hired. Even if you are hired, you will be treated as a freelancer, so there are no benefits such as payoffs or health insurance, so you should rely on other agents. If I were a client myself, I would not use this service. Because there are few attractive chefs, the service itself is not outstanding, and they demand a high price.

The Culinistas head recruiter for the Hamptons initiative reached out to me about working with them to place me with one of their clients. I had a 30 minute phone interview, then waited a week while they made their decision. I heard back on the 7th day, asking for an in person interview where I would come to their office on 14th st and 7th ave in Manhattan and cook two of their dishes in 90 minutes (including clean up) and they would taste my (their) food and decided on my employment. about 90 minutes before the interview (which was 60 minutes from my house), they sprung an extremely restrictive NDA on me as a requirement to continue with the interview. It had extremely vague language that indicated that I would be legally liable if I did things like: - learned anything about their business and used those techniques as a freelancer (which, by definition, I would be in their employ) - published any recipes that resembled any of those from their extensive catalogue of recipes - contacted or solicited any of their current, former, or possible future clients - used any knowledge I gained from working with them for any reason other than to better THEIR business (freelancers be damned) - did any of these things, anywhere in the world, for the rest of time not only that, but I would've forfeited my legal right to sue them for any infractions, and if they wanted to sue me for any reason, I'd have to pay THEIR court/legal fees. JUST FOR AN INTERVIEW. What a scam.