Cook

Vintage ’78 Wine Bar | Overland Park, Kansas
Full-Time | $17–$25/hour | Overtime Available
Professional kitchen experience is welcome, but not required.

Vintage ’78 Wine Bar is looking for a full-time Cook who is curious, reliable, creative and hungry to learn.

Maybe you've spent several years cooking professionally and are looking for a place where you can continue developing your skills and have a voice.

Maybe you're considering culinary school and looking for your first serious kitchen.

Maybe you've always wanted to cook professionally but haven't found a restaurant willing to teach you from the ground up.

We're interested in all three.

We hire for attitude, curiosity, work ethic and potential. Experience can determine where you begin in our training program, but professional kitchen experience is not required.

Vintage ’78 operates a small, open and decidedly nontraditional kitchen.

We have no gas. No hood. No fryer. No grease trap.

Instead, we cook with induction burners, thermal circulators, an electric oven, pasta cooker and panini press—and use those tools to produce contemporary American food grounded in classical French technique from exceptional ingredients sourced from around the world.

Our limitations don't lower our ambitions. They force us to become better cooks.

You'll learn temperature control, sauces, proteins, sous-vide, pasta and risotto, butchery, seasoning, texture, timing, organization, menu development, food costing and how to solve culinary problems without simply turning up a 60,000-BTU burner or dropping something into a fryer.

You'll train hands-on with Vintage ’78 owner and Executive Chef Michael Scherzberg, an Advanced Sommelier whose hospitality background includes experience in the kitchen at The Inn at Little Washington and management at L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon .

We pull inspiration from both: precision, organization, classical technique, exceptional ingredients, hospitality and an unwillingness to let the size or limitations of a kitchen determine what it can accomplish.

Training happens every day—not just during your first week.

We collaborate on new dishes, specials and tasting menus. We encourage our cooks to experiment with new techniques, flavors and textures. Staff meal is often a starting point for creativity; from there, ideas can be refined and potentially make their way onto our menus.

Everyone on our team is welcome to contribute ideas.

We don't believe "opportunity for advancement" should just be something written in a job ad.

Vintage ’78 has a four-level Cook progression based on demonstrated skills and competency:

Cook I — $17/hour
Cook II — $19/hour
Cook III — $21/hour
Cook IV — $23/hour

As you learn the required skills, demonstrate proficiency and earn sign-offs, you advance—and your pay advances with you.

Experienced applicants may enter the progression at a level appropriate to their demonstrated skills. Exceptional experience and qualifications may warrant compensation beyond the standard Cook-level structure.

There is no predetermined ceiling for the right person.

Sous Chef and Chef de Cuisine are realistic paths here. We would love to find someone passionate about food who eventually wants to help us lead the kitchen and push the limits of what Vintage ’78 can accomplish.

We also reward professional development separately from your Cook level.

American Culinary Federation certifications earn additional hourly compensation—and those raises stack:

Certified Foundational Culinarian — +$0.25/hour
Certified Culinarian — +$0.50/hour
Certified Sous Chef — +$2.50/hour
Certified Chef de Cuisine — +$2.50/hour
Certified Executive Chef — +$5.00/hour

For example, a Cook IV holding the first three certifications above would earn $26.25/hour .

We also provide additional compensation for approved wine certifications.

The more you learn, the more valuable you become to us—and we believe your compensation should reflect that.

After six months, eligible Vintage ’78 employees can receive tuition and book reimbursement for approved coursework at Johnson County Community College , home to a nationally recognized Culinary Arts program.

Our reimbursement is based on your final grade:

A — 100% of tuition and books
B — 75%
C — 50%

Earn A's and your approved college tuition and books are effectively free .

For the right employee, we may also be able to assist with tuition up front and arrange repayment through payroll while the course is underway. Other educational programs may be considered on a case-by-case basis.

ServSafe Manager coursework is among the professional education we support, and we're open to considering additional certifications, classes and educational opportunities that will make you a stronger culinary professional.

Vintage ’78 isn't a typical restaurant wine program.

Our wine program has been named Best Wine-by-the-Glass List in North America three consecutive years , has twice been named Best Wine-by-the-Glass List in the World , and was runner-up for the world title in 2026.

We've also earned four consecutive Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence recognitions and were recently named one of America's Top 10 Bars & Restaurants for Enjoying Champagne by the Bureau du Champagne USA.

Cooks age 21+ are welcome to participate in our ongoing wine education and training. Interested employees can pursue approved wine certifications with financial support and earn additional raises for certifications achieved.

Employees also have the opportunity to purchase wine at cost.

Our team occasionally participates in educational wine travel and winery visits as well. Employees may have opportunities to join these trips; while we arrange the travel and winery visits, individual travel expenses are currently the employee's responsibility.

If you want to understand not only how to cook a dish, but why one wine works with it better than another , there are few kitchens where you'll have more opportunity to learn.

Our wine program has already achieved international recognition.

We're ambitious about what comes next for our food.

This isn't a kitchen where we want someone to spend years performing the same repetitive station while waiting for somebody above them to leave.

A cook who grows with us can participate in menu development, learn the financial and operational side of the restaurant, advance into leadership and have a meaningful role in determining what this kitchen becomes.

If your long-term dream is to become a Sous Chef, Chef de Cuisine, Executive Chef—or eventually own an independent restaurant of your own—we want you to learn more here than how to execute our recipes.

You'll have an opportunity to see how an independent restaurant actually operates: food and wine, purchasing, costing, inventory, menu development, hospitality, education, events and the thousands of decisions required to build a restaurant from the ground up.

We're a small team working together in an open kitchen.

We don't believe screaming, hazing, machismo or toxic kitchen culture make anyone a better cook.

We want people who ask questions, help one another, clean up after themselves, take pride in their work and genuinely want to improve.

In fact, some of our best candidates are enthusiastic newcomers. They haven't developed bad habits yet—and nobody has told them that what we accomplish in our unusual little kitchen isn't supposed to be possible.

This is a full-time position averaging approximately 40 hours per week , Thursday through Monday.

Vintage ’78 is generally closed Tuesday and Wednesday, although occasional special events may require availability on those days.

Overtime is available for employees who want additional hours; approximately 50-hour weeks can be available.

Additional benefits include:

• Daily staff meal

• Hands-on culinary training and continuing education

• Cook I–IV competency-based advancement and raises

• Additional raises for professional certifications

• Tuition and book reimbursement after six months

• Wine education and certification opportunities for employees 21+

• Employee wine purchasing at cost

• Potential participation in educational wine travel

• Two scheduled restaurant closure weeks each year, generally the first week of January and first week of July

The scheduled closure weeks are currently unpaid.

We do not currently offer health insurance or paid time off.

You must be at least 18 years old.

Beyond that, we're more interested in who you are and what you want to become than how impressive your résumé looks.

We're looking for someone who is:

• Curious

• Reliable

• Organized

• Clean

• Coachable

• Creative

• Comfortable receiving feedback

• Excited to learn

• Willing to work hard

• Interested in food beyond simply completing a prep list

• Proud of doing things correctly even when nobody is watching

• Interested in becoming better tomorrow than they were today

Professional kitchen experience is welcome.

It is not required.

Local candidates are encouraged to apply, and we're happy to conduct an initial video interview with candidates considering a move to the Kansas City area.

Apply through Culinary Agents and tell us one thing:

What do you want to learn?

You don't need to write an essay.

We'd simply like to know where you want your culinary career to take you—and whether Vintage ’78 might be a good place to help you get there.