Executive Chefs: Passion, Talent, And Leadership
Do you have a passion for the culinary arts along with great organizational skills? Can you offer vision and creativity within the restaurant business along with the leadership needed within the kitchen? You may have what it takes to become an Executive Chef. Executive Chefs generally act as operations manager within the kitchen and are often found within larger facilities. They tend have a very high skill level in food preparation and have had many years of experience as a chef. They’ve often worked previously under other executive chefs. Executive Chefs should be able to create an excellent meal with efficiency, quality and creativity. They should also be able to train and coordinate the kitchen staff to run proficiently and effectively.
Executive Chefs oversee all meal preparation and also plan restaurant menus taking into account the diners preferences. In planning successful menus many other factors also have to be considered including cost, food availability, waste management, creativity and marketing. They also set menu pricing and would have to be knowledgeable in this area. Sometimes they are responsible for tracking and reducing overall overhead within the kitchen, which involves food, materials and employment costs. They will also need to maintain overall food quality and be sure they are meeting food safety standards and regulations at all times. Executive chefs coordinate the schedules and job functions of the rest of the kitchen staff to keep things running smoothly. They manage kitchen staff employees and handle hiring, firing, training and employee evaluations. They often perform additional administrative and human resources functions as well. Sometimes in smaller facilities, the executive chef role and the restaurant manager role are combined into one position. In this case, the executive chef would also have many additional management responsibilities. Along with staff supervision, executive chefs also often supervise and track all inventory and materials used within the kitchen. Employment as an Executive Chef can be a very rewarding career and can offer you more visibility and opportunity within the industry. An Executive Chef must have passion, creativity and a great sense of taste and smell to be able to meet the high standards of quality food preparation required in this position. They must also possess great communication skills and the ability to work responsibly within a team environment while providing the leadership and direction needed to keep the kitchen running smoothly. To be an effective Executive Chef, great mix of high quality food preparation skills and expert knowledge within the kitchen are essential. You must also have the ability to manage employees and operations effectively. The right combination of talent and skills could mean that you have what it takes to become an executive chef.
Chefs jobs offer an exciting career choice for anyone with the desire and skill to cook well. Many distinct differences exist between catering jobs and restaurant positions. Although both types of work are fast-paced, caterers have the need for more personal customer-service skills, a greater variety of dishes, and an adventurous spirit since catering jobs do not provide the job security that working in a large restaurant offers. Both working as a caterer and working in a restaurant provide a fast-paced and highly coordinated work environment. However there are still major differences between the speed needed in a restaurant kitchen and the organization necessary to perform both jobs to the best of your ability. While a kitchen in a restaurant setting is filled with orders that must be prepared as soon as possible and the entire staff is running around like crazy trying to fill every order on time, a catering job is more about quickly preparing an entire meal, or several courses that all must be ready to go at the same time. This is where good organizational skills come into play, arranging cook times and dish preparation to all complete simultaneously. Catering jobs also require good time management when you consider that the food needs to be packed, transported and served in a timely and professional fashion.
Restaurant workers often get to stay in a kitchen and work behind the scenes to complete orders given from customers to waiters, from waiters to kitchen staff and then to the actual chefs. Caterers, on the other hand, spend a good deal of time working face-to-face with clients preparing menus and ironing out delivery and serving schedules. In this case, catering jobs require more work and a different set of skills than being hired by a restaurant and cooking what customers order. Many restaurants, even very high-class ones, have a menu that they mostly prepare every night with perhaps a couple of specials thrown in for good measure. Catering jobs require the ability to create a large variety of dishes in order to suit the needs of every client. No caterer wants to have to tell a prospective customer that they are unable to create an entire vegetarian menu or an ethically themed meal and watch that client move on to the next caterer on the list.
Catering jobs have the disadvantage of not being as secure as restaurant work. Whereas a restaurant is often established and has a brand and location with which to lure in customers, a caterer has to rely mostly on word of mouth and modest advertising methods like flyers or small newspapers ads. That’s why an adventurous spirit is a good thing to have if you wish to pursue catering jobs.
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