Looking To Hire a Chef For a Restaurant? Here’s what you need to know!

Hiring a chef can be expensive, but it’s an investment that should pay off in the long run if it ends up bringing in more customers and increasing sales. You shouldn’t hire just anyone, though; you need to find someone with the right combination of experience, talent, and personality to make your restaurant the talk of the town! Whether you already have an idea of what type of chef you want or you’re still looking, here are some things to keep in mind when hiring chef restaurants.

Frame a Profile Based on The Position

Becoming the chef at your restaurant is not as easy as it sounds. A lot of people think they are good chefs but don’t realize just how much goes into being in charge of the cooking staff, food inventory, and kitchen cleanliness. Here are some things you need to know before hiring that culinary genius for your business

Top Level Chef Positions

If you are hiring a chef for your restaurant, be sure that the top-level positions you’re advertising are clear and offer the right compensation.

Executive Chef

The executive chef is the most important person in any kitchen. They are responsible for not only running the entire show, but their dish usually gets featured on the menu. Therefore, chefs in this position will often take more chances with what they’re cooking as they have to give diners something unique and unforgettable. Unlike more accessible positions such as head chef or sous chef, you need years of experience before being considered an executive chef.

Head Chef

You will be interviewing the head chef, the person who oversees all kitchen operations and activities. The first thing you need to do is make sure that you have found the right person for your kitchen by taking note of their previous work experience. Once you’ve taken care of that, prepare for the interview with some research on what chefs think about their job.

Sous Chef

A sous chef can be someone who helps the head chef manage their kitchen. There are many different types of sous chefs, and they may have different titles depending on what they specialize in. They may also work at other levels within the restaurant’s hierarchy, like line cooks or even dishwashers.

Specialized Chef Roles

Specialized Chefs are the ones with specialized expertise, knowledge, and experience in a particular type of cuisine. They manage everything from overseeing inventory planning to food preparation and delivery. Here are some examples.

Sushi Chef: The chef is responsible for managing the entire range of Sushi offerings that your restaurant has on the menu.

Pastry Chef: The pastry chef can be responsible for anything that has to do with dessert, including planning menus, purchasing ingredients, making desserts, and more.

Entry-Level Chef And Cook Position

These are the people who do the actual cutting, grinding, boiling, and manual cooking work. They work as per the instructions of their supervisor chef. The entry-level chefs should have a certification in cuisine and 100+ hours of training. You can also hire trainee chefs who have just graduated from a culinary arts institution to manage the basic cooking tasks.

Identify Key Qualities, Skills, and Expertise Areas For The Position

Top Level Chef Positions

Knowledge of Restaurant Business Management

Restaurants looking to hire top-level chefs should definitely assess the restaurant business management skills. Head chefs and executive chefs have to manage everything from a managerial perspective: inventory, food production lines, quality, equipment, compliance with health and safety standards, delivery methods, etc.

Menu Engineering and Pricing

When chefs for restaurants, there should be an assessment to check menu engineering and pricing knowledge and skills. The revenue generation of your restaurant depends a lot on menu engineering and pricing. How a menu is planned to increase revenues and profit margins is one of the key responsibilities of top-level chefs.

Food Production Management

This is the biggest focus area of top-level chef positions such as head chefs and sous chefs. Frame your search criteria based on what are the primary and secondary duties of the position when you hire a chef for a restaurant. Food production lines and methods differ from one restaurant to another. During interviews, you need to dig deeper to understand the kind of background and experience a head chef or sous chef has and how much training time will be needed to fill gaps.

Inventory Management

When you hire a chef for a restaurant, inventory management experience cannot be ruled out. Top chef positions are about juggling different tasks at once, such as maintaining an inventory and ensuring that ingredients are available on time. The cost and storage of ingredients should not add to a restaurant’s overheads all the time.

Specialized Chef Positions

Extensive Experience in Specialized Cuisine

Finding the right chef for your restaurant can be an ordeal, especially if you’re looking for someone with extensive experience in specialized cuisine. For specialized chef positions, you need someone who has worked extensively in a specific cuisine, be it Sushi, Italian, Greek, French, Punjabi, or Bengali cuisines.

Certifications in Chosen Cuisine

It is wiser to hire certified chefs than those without professional training and certification. When it comes to specialized cuisine, experience counts, but it does not compensate for a lack of expertise.

Expertise in Ingredient, Oils, Herbs, Sauces, and Food Presentation

When you hire a chef for a restaurant, you need to have specialized sessions to check the chef’s knowledge and skills in handling ingredients, oil, sauces, etc. This step should be part of the assessment process.

A good meal can be messed up just because one ingredient is not properly cooked or when there is too much or too little of the right oils added at the right moments. Specialized sessions in the kitchen allow you to check your understanding and knowledge of food presentation as well as the ingredients and oils used in your dishes.

Entry-Level Chef And Cook Position

When it comes to hiring entry-level chefs, you might not need detailed interview rounds and assessments. You should definitely have a good screening and testing procedure in the hiring process. Here are some points you need to assess.

Training

Credentials from culinary school or other educational programs should be on the top of the checklist when hiring a chef for your restaurant. But training needs also need to be assessed. Some entry-level chefs might need longer to train but might have unique skills that could immensely benefit your restaurant while others might take less time to train and your expectations for the entry-level positions might be basic.

Attention To Detail

No matter the size of your restaurant, it’s important to hire someone who can meet the needs of your customers. It’s important that your chef be experienced and skilled enough so that you don’t have as many mistakes in food prep and execution. In order to hire the right person, make sure they’re detail-oriented, have experience with preparation, and are familiar with any special requests your customers may make.

Quick Learning Abilities

One of their most important traits is their ability to learn quickly. A new restaurant environment has its own set of challenges, as does every new kitchen. In order to ensure that your business succeeds, it’s essential that you choose chefs who are capable of learning and growing with your business. Be sure to ask prospective candidates how they react when faced with the challenge of cooking something they’ve never made before.

Ability to Accept Feedback and Criticism

When hiring chefs for restaurants, find out if the potential candidates have a good aptitude for learning and the ability to accept constructive criticism and feedback. In a fast-paced work environment, supervisor chefs might not have the time to sit quietly and offer advice. Corrective measures and feedback would be given quickly, and chefs have to deal with criticism from customers.

Conclusion

You now have the information you need before hiring a chef for your restaurant. Ensuring a smooth and hassle-free recruitment experience helps in attracting good chef talent. Finding a good chef can take months if you are searching on your own. Reach out to a chef recruitment agency to find the best-suited chefs for your restaurants within days or 1-2 weeks.

Alliance International

Alliance International is a company offering chef recruitment services in the USA, Canada, the UAE, other Gulf countries, India, South Asia, the UK, and several European countries. We offer excellent advice to help you frame the right chef search and recruitment approach. Our experience spans 1,000+ hiring projects. Let us help you hire a chef for your restaurant!