New Social Media Site For Chefs Gets Funding

Soon students of online culinary courses will be able to do more than just take class on the web. A new social media site for chefs, Culinary Agents, is currently in development. As an alternative to other job networking sites such as LinkedIn, Culinary Agents offers a specific service tailored to food industry professionals. The Wall Street Journal reported that the site recently raised $500,000 in seed funding from RRE Ventures, a New York-based early-stage venture capital firm.

Culinary Agents is led by Alice Cheng, a former IBM executive, who sees the emerging foodie culture as a catalyst for more industry connectivity. The website is going to run similarly to LinkedIn, providing a professional networking service for employers and job candidates in the food industry. The service will be free for individuals to create a profile and will only charge users who wish to post a job. Current rates are $35 for a single job post or $100 for a month of unlimited posts.

According to its website, Culinary Agents will not be limited to chefs, but seeks to include all individuals whose jobs center around food, including food photographers, food writers, sommeliers, etc. Such an online networking site would prove a valuable resource for students entering the job market.