Basic Strategies To Follow: How To Find Cook For Restaurant

Apart from the customers' satisfaction, a restaurant owner's main concern and tension is, “how to find cook for restaurant”. Because ultimately your customer satisfaction depends on your chef.

One of the famous characters “Chef Gusteau” from the movie Ratatouille, quoted that “Anyone Can Cook”. And there were many speculations in the movie surrounding the real meaning of this quote, what he actually meant by saying “anyone can cook”. 

But, at the end of the movie, we also see the critic Anton Ego give the explanation of this quota; “a great cook can come from anywhere”. 

Hence, we can also get the idea that anyone can cook, but not all can become great cooks. And to find a cook, you have to go through some layers of the screening process. 

However, in this blog, I'm going to explain some of the basic strategies to follow, while recruiting a cook for your restaurant and how to find cook for restaurant.

The Basic Point To Cover While Searching On How To Find Cook For A Restaurant 

Always remember restaurant owners’; the chef in your restaurant kitchen is the only person, on whom the whole revenue and customer satisfaction/retention of your restaurant, depends. 

Therefore, before you start analyzing “how to find cook for restaurant”, you need to understand, what kind of cook you wanna hire? check the candidates' portfolios, and look for the expertise you required in your restaurants.

Make sure, you hire a cook, who can take your restaurant to a new level of epitome and make your customer  Now I'm going to share some basic points of “how to find cook for restaurant”, using which you can complete the recruitment process of hiring a chef for your restaurant: 

1. Apply The Internal Hiring Policy 

Sous chefs usually have all the degree, training, and capabilities of becoming head chefs. And if you think you’re suffering from “how to find cook for restaurant”, you can internally promote your sous chef to head chef. 

As a result, this strategy will be beneficial from both sides, for instance, the sous chef can uplift the dedication level towards the restaurant, and also restaurant owners don’t also have to invest time in training.   

2. Take Help From The Recruitment Agencies

One of the best solutions to your answer to “how to find cook for restaurant”, is you can hire a recruitment agency, which can erase all your effort of searching for a cook manually. 

3. Hire Participants From The Cooking Shows Or Competitions

Another solution of “how to find cook for restaurant” is that you can hire a cook from different cooking shows or competitions. It could also be a good idea for your restaurant.

You just have to closely monitor who achieved the top 3 positions, what culinary they’re experts at, and the reviews given by the expert judge. You can follow cooking shows such as Master chef Australia, Hell’s kitchen, chopped, etc   

4. Use Social Media To Post The Job Offer

Now social media is considered one of the biggest distribution channels of all. Moreover will help to spread the need for a chef for your restaurant. You can also apply the “blind ads” policy so that you can get an anonymous applicant without revealing current staff and competition.

5. Arrange A Chef Special Conference

It’ll be a kind of get-together program for all the chefs from all over the world. A program, where all chefs will gather and discuss their experience of their restaurant, share tips about cooking, etc. 

The organizer of this program will also make arrangements for new chefs, giving them a platform to share their inventions, and get judged by prestige guests.     

Let’s List Down The Interview Question. You May Ask In The Interview

One of the major parts of “how to find cook for restaurant?” is the interview and screening process and the interview questions. Interview questions are the major part of “how to find cook for restaurant”. Here is a list of interview questions, which you can use in your interview session:

1. How many years of working experience in the restaurant?
2. Which culinary school did you go to?
3. What institution did you take training in? 
4. Do you have any management skills? The number of members was there in your team?
5. How do you manage the kitchen?
6. What do you do, when you have to work under pressure? 
7. What are your career objectives?
8. What strategy do you apply, to improve your skills?
9. Can you share the reason behind leaving the past job?
10. Why did you choose us? 
11. What is your expertise?

Core Responsibilities And Duties Of A Cook

One of the major parts of the “how to find cook for restaurant” is to understand the responsibilities and duties of a cook, especially before sitting for the recruitment process. Here, I’m going to share the core responsibilities and duties of a cook:
 

1. Menu development: check out our blog on Restaurant menu design ideas 
2. The invention of new dishes and presented to restaurant owners for approval 
3. Keep the calculator of cost per item.
4. Track the suppliers and maintain the freshness of the food quality 
5. The head chef will train other team members on the intricacies and nuances of every cooking process.  
6. The chef can use the restaurant POS system for recording the recipes, and the procedure of making and instructions, so that other co-chef can access it. 
7. List down and purchase the necessary kitchen equipment 
8. Head chefs sometimes have to pay the managerial duties 
9. A final check must be done by the chef before it serves to the final customers 

Before You Select A Cook For Your Restaurant: Cross-Check Cook’s Soft And Hard Skills

Apart from any other profession, chefs have some specific trademarked soft skills and hard skills; which can give you a clear indication of the good kitchen staff. And if you’re searching for the answer to “how to find cook for restaurant?”, then you must ensure that your chef must have the listed soft and hard skills; given below: 

Hard skills:

• Ability to do multitask and work under pressure
• Have some basic-level experience in cooking 
• Have a brilliant sense and knowledge of the flavor and spice 
• Knowledgeable enough to use restaurant management system or kitchen display system 

Soft skills:

• Problem-solving skills, adaptive to any kind of situation or environment 
• Hire a reliable skilled chef or very much dedicated to their profession, one person whom restaurant owners can trust blindly. 

Let’s Analyze The Categories Of Chefs, You Wanna Hire

Before you start hunting for a good chef for your restaurant, you have to understand your own requirements and needs in your kitchen. List down the categories of chef positions needed in your kitchen. 

Give a broad and clear job description about the requirements and qualifications you expect from the applicant chef. Here is the list of kitchen chefs and cooks, who will play a major part in your kitchen:

1. Executive Chef

The main head of the kitchen. “Executive chef”. Every chef’s dream position. Executive chefs have some serious responsibilities such as maintaining the food cost, recipe monitoring, structuring the menu, etc. In short, he is the main face of the kitchen, and also a secret weapon of a restaurant owner.

Moreover, also responsible for bringing out the maximum productivity of the kitchen staff, chefs, cooks, culinary assistants, and dishwashers. Also, oversee every supply entering the kitchen, always work on new inventions, and supervise other superior chefs. So we can say an executive chef works 12 hours a day.

2. Sous Chef 

You can consider a sous chef alternative to an executive chef. the right hand of the executive chef. A kitchen can have multiple sous chefs, who are responsible for the intricacies of the kitchen, and look after every small detail of a dish that goes out of the kitchen.  

3. Pastry Chef

To become a pastry chef, one should be passed from culinary school or from baking school. A pastry chef is responsible for cooking pastries, bread, and desserts. 

4. Station Chef 

Station Chefs work under the Sous Chef and Executive Chef. Station Chefs usually handle one side of the kitchen area of the kitchen, and also take care of the quantity and quality of each item that comes out from their designated area. Station Chef's major duties are to grills, the toppings, or the salads, and are responsible for their designated station

5. Saucier 

A saucier's main responsibility is to create or cook all kinds of sauces that can take your dish to another level. They are very skilled in maintaining the right consistency of each ingredient.

6. Fish Cook And Meat Cook

Fish cooks' duties are to prepare all kinds of seafood. The meat cook's duties are to prepare all kinds of meat dishes and their preparations. 

These chefs will also be involved in roasting and braising, broiling, and grilling the seafood and meat.

7. Fry Cook 

Fry cooks’ duties are to prepare all kinds of dishes, which involves fried items. Whether or not you’ll hire Fry cooks actually depends on your menu. If you offer fried items, hire a fry cook, otherwise no need. 

8. Pantry Cook 

The pantry cook is usually assigned to monitor the kitchen inventory and usually works under the executive chef. Pantry chefs monitor and track the quality and quantity of each item inside the pantry. Pantry items include seafood, sausages, spice and dressing ingredients, etc.  

9. Line Cook 

Take care of every task involved in the kitchen; from chopping meat/vegetables to garnishing. 

10. Expediter

The expediter is called kitchen staff and waiters. Their duty is to deliver the dish to the customers' table.

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Highlight Point To Ensure: While Hiring A Chef For Your Restaurant

Since above I have described the types of cooks you might require in your kitchen and what kind of interview questions your interview board can ask the applicant chef. Now I'm going to share the mandatory skills, you MUST ENSURE, before hiring: 

1. Hire a cook, who can tackle and handle any kind of difficult situation and at the same work under pressure.
2. Hire an executive chef, because an executive chef plays a role of a head chef and a leader in the kitchen. Who can drive the other chef in the right direction, train them to enhance their skills, etc? 
3. Hire someone who never compromises with the quality, even if it takes time to prepare. Because even after the restaurant owner provides a great POS billing service, ambiance, and customer service, if your customer got served with some rubbish on the plate, then it’ll hugely turn down your brand. 
4. Chef, who knows how to control the food cost. And it’s the chefs’ duty to cover everything on budget, that has been provided by the restaurant owner. But a chef can use a google spreadsheet, which can help a chef to keep track of the recipe cost, daily ingredients cost, menu cost, etc.
5. Cook keeps every subtle detail of everything in the kitchen and restaurant. For instance quality assurance, customer satisfaction, inventory management, menu redesign, etc. 
6. Hire a cook, who is expertise in time management. Time management is exceptionally important in restaurants. If your customers have to wait for a long time, it might lead to dissatisfaction. So the executive chef has to make sure the customer isn’t served food on the table. 
7. Before you hire a cook, taste their food. This step is especially necessary since your customer satisfaction depends on the food taste. Moreover, you’ll also be able to assume the time he/she takes to prepare a dish, the consistency of the dish, the percentage of wastage, the presentation of the dish, and how well he/she managed the kitchen while cooking. 
8. Cross-check the reference of the applicants. It's sort of a mandatory step before hiring anyone, to check the applicant's background, qualification history, degrees, etc.

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Conclusion 

“How to find a cook for a restaurant” is one of the basic requirements for all restaurant owners. Hiring a head chef or any other supporting chef is obviously a difficult and challenging task. 

Always remember, if a good cook can maximize your revenue, the same as a bad cook can destroy your reputation and restaurant business; so it’s better for you to hire a cook wisely. 

After all, a chef is the most important part of the restaurant, even more, important than the restaurant owner. And their salary range is set based on the experience, expertise, and leadership they can put in the kitchen.

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