It's 2 a.m. and you just stumbled into your local diner after an epic night of partying.

Ten years ago, you might have expected a perfectly crunchy grilled cheese sandwich delivered in mere minutes by the same cook behind the counter who had been there since your Grandpa lived in the neighborhood.

These days you consider yourself lucky if you get a plate of mushy, reheated fries and a cup of lukewarm gravy within 45 minutes.

That's because, without exaggeration, there is a cook crisis in New York City.

See also: Why eliminating tipping could improve one more American workplace

A photo posted by foodbeast (@foodbeast) on Oct 24, 2015 at 11:05am PDT

NYC has always been the country's culinary epicenter. The nation's first pizzeria still operates in Little Italy. Delmonico's invented a la carte ordering. We gave the world the dirty water dog, the vertically stacked tuna tartare tower and the Cronut.

What's happening to all the great cooks, chefs and food lovers who made the Big Apple delicious?

They are fleeing to places like Baltimore, where rent and cost of running a food business is cheaper. In New York, they feel discouraged to enter an industry where low wages and high cost of living mean there is no chance of repaying costly culinary school debt, for starters. And with the Department of Health on a particularly misguided sushi rampage, it's not hard to imagine why new talent is wary. And current talent is eyeing the door.

The Robicellis with the Telly Leung and George Takei of "Allegiance."

According to the New York Times, full service restaurants are at an all-time high, as of 2014. The Bureau of Labor Statistic's Employment Projections program projects the number of Americans needed to fill those kitchens to grow by 15%, through 2025. That means "nearly 200,000 more line cooks and chefs will be needed."

Only problem is, they're not around yet.

Restaurateurs are tired of passion and talent leaving the industry, and they are finally fighting back. Their war cry: Recall cooks to NYC.

Dig Inn founder and CEO Adam Eskin tells Mashable he takes the fight personally.

As part of the competitive fast casual market and in order to differentiate himself from both the fast food of yesteryear, Eskin relies on excellent cooks in each of his 11 kitchens. Only, it's getting harder and harder to attract them and keep them there.

He blames the cook crisis at least partially on a lack of community. The celebrity chef, low wages and the lack of focus on career building combine in a lethal hit to kitchen morale.

"Cooking as a career has been simplified to preparing dishes based on directions and demonstrations," he says. "Collaboration in the kitchen ultimately teaches young cooks how to be leaders and then create the type of camaraderie that exists in successful restaurants."

Bakery owner Allison Robicelli puts the blame for the cook and chef exodus on a combination of New York's high living costs and a focus on regional cooking. (Southern and Mexican cooking have, in particular, garnered acclaim and notoriety and lured talent to regions that specialize in the cuisines.) That's the case for Blue Hill alums Michael and Tara Gallina, who left the acclaimed restaurant to open up their own spot in Michael's hometown, St. Louis. He says, "St. Louis has this food scene that gets better and better every day. It's got an incredible community of chefs that I think all get along and all have the same mission to take dining to the next level."

The signature falafel at Madcapra, a Los Angeles eatery run by former NYC resident and chef Sara Kramer.

Some of the New York restaurant scene's biggest problems have nothing to do with food at all. Take the infamous back of house/front of house wage disparity.

"I remember having deep resentment for front of the house people who would come back and talk about getting $100+ tips on a table, meanwhile when I broke down the number of hours I was working into my shift pay, I would be taking home less than minimum wage," Robicelli tells Mashable.

Cooks in New York work backbreaking jobs with long hours in one of the most expensive cities in the country, where current wages are mostly still low.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics listed the median salary for a line cook in 2014 as $22,490. Meanwhile, median rent without utility that year came to $14,400.

Danny Meyer is one of the first major American restauranteurs to overhaul tipping.

Restaurateur royalty Danny Meyer is addressing the wage gap between front and back of house on a larger scale than ever before.

At a recent town hall, representatives from his restaurant The Modern stated that, since higher wages were announced, kitchen applications have increased from two or three per month to two or three per day.

But is this move toward eliminating tipping enough? It's not just about the money, after all. It's about cooks feeling empowered to build careers.

A photo posted by MADCAPRA (@madcaprala) on May 27, 2015 at 7:57am PDT

Eskin is adamant that the solution to the chef crisis lies in teaching young cooks. Besides the proper way to filet a fish, they need to know how to organize a payroll and balance the books. Without the business skills, even the most talented cook can't hope to build and sustain his or her own restaurant.

He plans to incentivize cooks at Dig Inn with new cooking technique classes, like dehydration and sous vide, but also with business tutorials, like how to operate Microsoft Excel and contribute firsthand to the menu.

Robicelli says teaching her staff business and management skills is not only important to their careers, but that it benefits her business as well and allows her to delegate major responsibilities. She places an emphasis on teaching these skills even knowing that her cooks will probably leave one day, because "there's a natural wanderlust that's inherent in cooks."

This is radical thinking across the world of business. Until recently, most career moves in any field were vertical, and it was impossible to imagine a world where an employer would actively encourage an employee to branch out and leave the company.

Now, it's essential to embrace this way of thinking, in order to attract new talent to a dying pool.

"Success means that every Dig Inn chef wants to open their own place, something special and meaningful to them, and unique and different to the world," Eskin says.

"Food is not a career — it’s a passion," Robicelli agrees. "It’s something that, if you truly love, you can’t disconnect yourself from."

It's not just enough to provide a paycheck anymore. There has to be a better endgame, one that encourages the passion, artistry and talent of cooks instead of only their abilities to hull strawberries or trim steaks. Expand their scope beyond a narrow job description and they'll learn more, faster.

Business and management expert Dan Pink says, "The secret to high performance isn't rewards and punishments, but that unseen intrinsic drive — the drive to do things for their own sake. The drive to do things because they matter."

Consequently, we'll retain more creativity, diversity and talent in the New York food scene and save the city from a veritable drought.

Robicelli is optimistic about the changes on the horizon. "It means we're entering an age of democratization when it comes to fine dining, which is spectacular."

And sometimes not even fine dining. The return of great grilled cheese at the diner depends on it.