Have knives, will travel: The Chef Link hooks up restaurants and industry professionals

A Pikesville steak house needs a kitchen manager, a Timonium restaurant is looking for a line cook and wait staff is being hired for a 70-seat tavern about to open in Potomac.

Information like this isn't impossible to come by, but a new web initiative named Chef Link is setting about to be a clearinghouse for job openings. The Chef Link began in Maryland, but there are now job listing from as far away as California.

Using profile information created by job seekers -- position, location, salary and cuisine type -- The Chef Link assigns a score, ranging from 1 to 25, to help applicants target job openings best matching their requirements. Registered job hunters receive a notification when new positions are posted that meet their criteria.

Now in beta version, Chef Link is free for both applicants and restaurants. The not-for-profit website was hatched by a group of who have spent years in and around the food-service industry.