Chefs and Head Cook Direct and may participate in the preparation, seasoning, and cooking of salads, soups, fish, meats, vegetables, desserts, or other foods. May plan and price menu items, order supplies, and keep records and accounts.
Chefs and Head Cook is Also Know as
In different settings, Chefs and Head Cook is titled as
- Banquet Chef
- Certified Executive Chef (CEC)
- Chef
- Cook
- Executive Chef (Ex Chef)
- Executive Sous Chef
- Head Cook
- Kitchen Manager
- Pastry Chef
- Sous Chef
Education and Training of Chefs and Head Cook
Chefs and Head Cook is categorized in Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed
Experience Required for Chefs and Head Cook
Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations. For example, an electrician must have completed three or four years of apprenticeship or several years of vocational training, and often must have passed a licensing exam, in order to perform the job.
Education Required for Chefs and Head Cook
Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.
Degrees Related to Chefs and Head Cook
- Bachelor in Cooking and Related Culinary Arts, General
- Associate Degree Courses in Cooking and Related Culinary Arts, General
- Masters Degree Courses in Cooking and Related Culinary Arts, General
- Bachelor in Baking and Pastry Arts/Baker/Pastry Chef
- Associate Degree Courses in Baking and Pastry Arts/Baker/Pastry Chef
- Masters Degree Courses in Baking and Pastry Arts/Baker/Pastry Chef
- Bachelor in Culinary Arts/Chef Training
- Associate Degree Courses in Culinary Arts/Chef Training
- Masters Degree Courses in Culinary Arts/Chef Training
- Bachelor in Restaurant, Culinary, and Catering Management/Mana
- Associate Degree Courses in Restaurant, Culinary, and Catering Management/Mana
- Masters Degree Courses in Restaurant, Culinary, and Catering Management/Mana
- Bachelor in Culinary Science/Culinology
- Associate Degree Courses in Culinary Science/Culinology
- Masters Degree Courses in Culinary Science/Culinology
Training Required for Chefs and Head Cook
Employees in these occupations usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.
Related Ocuupations
Some Ocuupations related to Chefs and Head Cook in different industries are
- Cooks, Restaurant
- Cooks, Private Household
- Bakers
- Cooks, Institution and Cafeteria
- Cooks, Short Order
- Food Service Managers
- First-Line Supervisors of Food Preparation and Serving Workers
- Food Batchmakers
- Waiters and Waitresses
- Dietetic Technicians
- Food Preparation Workers
- Fast Food and Counter Workers
- Cooks, Fast Food
- Baristas
- Butchers and Meat Cutters
- Food Cooking Machine Operators and Tenders
- Food Servers, Nonrestaurant
- Food and Tobacco Roasting, Baking, and Drying Machine Operators and Tenders
- Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop
- Dining Room and Cafeteria Attendants and Bartender Helpers
What Do Chefs and Head Cook do?
- Check the quality of raw or cooked food products to ensure that standards are met.
- Monitor sanitation practices to ensure that employees follow standards and regulations.
- Check the quantity and quality of received products.
- Order or requisition food or other supplies needed to ensure efficient operation.
- Supervise or coordinate activities of cooks or workers engaged in food preparation.
- Inspect supplies, equipment, or work areas to ensure conformance to established standards.
- Determine how food should be presented and create decorative food displays.
- Instruct cooks or other workers in the preparation, cooking, garnishing, or presentation of food.
- Estimate amounts and costs of required supplies, such as food and ingredients.
- Collaborate with other personnel to plan and develop recipes or menus, taking into account such factors as seasonal availability of ingredients or the likely number of customers.
- Analyze recipes to assign prices to menu items, based on food, labor, and overhead costs.
- Prepare and cook foods of all types, either on a regular basis or for special guests or functions.
- Determine production schedules and staff requirements necessary to ensure timely delivery of services.
- Recruit and hire staff, such as cooks and other kitchen workers.
- Meet with customers to discuss menus for special occasions, such as weddings, parties, or banquets.
- Demonstrate new cooking techniques or equipment to staff.
- Meet with sales representatives to negotiate prices or order supplies.
- Arrange for equipment purchases or repairs.
- Record production or operational data on specified forms.
- Plan, direct, or supervise food preparation or cooking activities of multiple kitchens or restaurants in an establishment such as a restaurant chain, hospital, or hotel.
- Coordinate planning, budgeting, or purchasing for all the food operations within establishments such as clubs, hotels, or restaurant chains.
Qualities of Good Chefs and Head Cook
- Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
- Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
- Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
- Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
- Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
- Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
- Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
- Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
- Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
- Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
- Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
- Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
- Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
- Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
- Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
- Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
- Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
- Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
- Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
- Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
- Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
- Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
- Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
- Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
- Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
- Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
- Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
- Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
- Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
- Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
- Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
Tools Used by Chefs and Head Cook
- Apple corers
- Blast chillers
- Blenders
- Bone saws
- Boning knives
- Box graters
- Braziers
- Bread slicers
- Broilers
- Cake decorating tools
- Cappuccino makers
- Carbonated beverage dispensers
- Chefs' knives
- Commercial coffee grinders
- Commercial coffeemakers
- Commercial dishwashers
- Commercial microwave ovens
- Convection ovens
- Conveyer ovens
- Cream whippers
- Desktop computers
- Double boilers
- Dry or liquid measuring cups
- Electric deep-fat fryers
- Electric ovens
- Electric stoves
- Fire suppression blankets
- Food dicers
- Food processors
- Food shredders
- Food smokers
- Fruit zesters
- Garbage compactors
- Gas ovens
- Gas stoves
- Gas-powered deep-fat fryers
- Griddles
- Grills
- Hot dog cookers
- Ice shaving or crushing equipment
- Ice-making machines
- Infrared heat lamps
- Instant-read pocket thermometers
- Juice dispensers
- Juice extractors
- Kitchen fire extinguishers
- Kitchen shears
- Kitchen tongs
- Knife sharpeners
- Laptop computers
- Mandolines
- Meat grinders
- Meat slicers
- Meat thermometers
- Melon ballers
- Mixers
- Oyster knives
- Paring knives
- Parisian cutters
- Pasta machines
- Personal computers
- Pizza ovens
- Plane graters
- Portion scales
- Pressurized steam cookers
- Refrigerator thermometers
- Rice cookers
- Rolling pins
- Rotisserie units
- Salamanders
- Serrated blade knives
- Sieves
- Sifters
- Slicing machines
- Steam kettles
- Steam tables
- Strainers
- Toasters
- Vegetable brushes
- Vegetable peelers
- Waffle makers
- Woks
Technology Skills required for Chefs and Head Cook
- ADP eTIME
- Axxya Systems Nutritionist Pro
- Barrington Software CookenPro Commercial
- CostGuard
- Culinary Software Services ChefTec
- Delphi Technology
- EGS CALCMENU
- Email software
- Enggist & Grandjean EGS F&B Control
- GNOME Gnutrition
- Google Sheets
- GroupMe
- Internet browser software
- IPro Restaurant Inventory, Recipe & Menu Software
- Menu planning software
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Office software
- Microsoft Outlook
- Microsoft PowerPoint
- Microsoft Word
- Nutrition analysis software
- ReServe Interactive
- Sage MAS 90 ERP
- SoftCafe MenuPro