No, you just have to enter the restaurant and speak to the chef to start your work day. At first I thought that it was a bug, too, but it turns out it's not.
That doesn't make any sense! The Chef was standing outside and when I spoke to him he told me I need to train more before he will hire me...
Then when I went to Mekumba and spoke to him, he told me I cant train anymore at the moment...
Why would going inside make a difference? Why would the dev design it this way? Its completely misleading and contradictory!
No, I stand by what I said. This game is utterly broken and the dev needs to stop screwing around with different engines and just concentrate on getting the damned story structure right! Make it make sense!