Kitchen Staff Job Description

The Kitchen Staff in a Food Processing Industry

The kitchen staff works in front of cooks, waitstaff, and sometimes customers in restaurants, cafeterias, and catering kitchens. They work part-time or full-time, days, nights, weekends, and sometimes early in the morning to prepare food. The kitchen staff arrives early to organize the kitchen and do food prep to streamline cooking and meal presentation, including washing, peeling, and cutting fruits and vegetables.

The kitchen staff organizes customers plates before the waitstaff brings the final product to the customer. They know the day's meals and the menu before they are delivered. The kitchen staff works with management and head cooks to properly store food in kitchens, cold storage, and storerooms.

They transfer food and supplies to the kitchen when needed. If they are the first to arrive, the kitchen staff will turn on the lights and grills, start the kitchen prep work, and prepare the kitchen and customer areas for service. The kitchen staff cleans and turns off all the cooking equipment when they are the last to leave.

Some employers require a high school degree or GED, but the kitchen staff does not. Many employers look for at least one year of experience in the industry when they hire. The Bureau of Labor Statistics employment data shows the median annual pay for food preparation workers was $21,440 in 2016

The kitchen brigade system

Commercial kitchens can be found in small mom-and-pop restaurants to the high-volume production environments of convention centers and institutions. The tasks that the individual cooks and the staff do in the kitchen are consistent and so are the responsibilities of the kitchen staff. The kitchen brigade system was outlined by a French chef in the 19th century.

In modern restaurants, the roles of individual cooks are not clearly defined, and there are not as many single-purpose work stations. Line cooks are the most skilled and experienced in cooking, with more demanding jobs being handled by experienced cooks. First cooks are often given the responsibility of supervising the kitchen in the absence of the sous-chef.

The Chef of Cuisine

The head chef is the primary person in the kitchen. They are responsible for keeping the kitchen running. They are tasked with working with suppliers, keeping items stocked, keeping track of costs, creating menus and recipes, and training staff.

The sous chef de cuisine is the primary person in charge of the cuisine. They usually take over management when the chef is not available. They tend to work more closely with the other stations of the kitchen than they do the chef de cuisine.

They are seen as a way to communicate between the chef de cuisine and the rest of the kitchen staff. The chef de partie is the primary cook. They are responsible for preparing the food in the kitchen.

Depending on which station they work, their job title may be different. The kitchen can get busy. The kitchen staff needs to be calm and focused.

People are rushing to complete orders in the kitchen. All food items, dishes, tools and utensils need to be well organized to have the most efficient kitchen. Kitchen staff need to know how to organize food.

The Chef's Role in Fine Dining

You need a great staff to leave your customers with a good impression of quality, whether you serve take-out to a customer on-the-go or provide a five-star fine dining experience. There are some restaurant jobs that span the different types of establishments, but there are also some very specific and specialized jobs. You should read this to learn about the different positions in a restaurant and what type of restaurant you might find that position in.

Job title: Line cooks can be found in most restaurants, but they don't serve fast food. Depending on the size of the restaurant, a line cook may be responsible for one or multiple areas of the kitchen.

The dishwasher is responsible for keeping the kitchen clean and clear of garbage, but they are also responsible for making sure dishware is clean. Kitchen managers are responsible for hiring and firing employees, buying supplies and ingredients, and ensuring quality. A kitchen manager only manages back-of-house operations, whereas a general manager controls both kitchen employees and front-of-house employees.

Some restaurants use a food and beverage manager to manage inventory, ensure that the kitchen is compliant with health codes, and create drink menus that pair well with entree. The food and beverage managers may be in charge of some of the dining room responsibilities. Job title:

A good server can make or break a customer experience. The server is responsible for taking orders, reporting orders to the kitchen, and calculating the bill. Runners make it easier for server to deliver food from the kitchen to the table.

A Kitchen Operations Checklist

A kitchen operations checklist is a good tool for anyone in the food service or hospitality industry. It is used to make sure that kitchen procedures are followed by the staff and completed across different shifts. A kitchen operations checklist is helpful to any facility that prepares food.

Businesses can cut down on expenses, improve food safety and quality, and deliver stellar customer service by using regular kitchen walkthroughs. Kitchen operations checklists are needed to prevent incidents in the kitchen that can lead to food poisoning. The executive chef is in charge of the kitchen operations.

All kitchen staff have a share in that responsibility. Sometimes the executive chef has an assistant who acts as the kitchen manager when the executive chef is busy with food quality and safety concerns. Food safety should be a priority in the kitchen.

Businesses and consumers can be protected from getting sued or shut down if they focus on food safety. Ensuring that kitchen staff adhere to all hygiene and safety procedures is one of the preventative procedures that restaurants, hotels, and other commercial kitchens should take. The dishes should be prepared in a timely and appealing manner.

The health department requires that kitchen facilities be clean and well maintained. The kitchen staff can be more productive and efficient if the facility is clean. Cleaning should be done daily during opening and closing of the kitchen.