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Sous Chef: The Top Tips to You Need to Succeed

by | CAREER GUIDANCE, Career Paths

By the time you’ve become a sous chef, you will have a sharp and significant set of culinary skills. But being a great cook is just the tip of the iceberg if you want to succeed in this role. 

While our advice for commis chefs and chefs de partie focused more on developing hard skills, we want to give you some top management tips to help you out in your new role as sous chef.

Be professional

Restaurant kitchens have a reputation for sometimes being a rowdy place to work. The quirky line cooks running around with knives and pans, loud heavy metal music, shouting. 

It can be quite chaotic if there isn’t someone there to establish a professional environment where the team can stay calm in the face of pressure.

As the sous chef, you will often be the most senior person in the kitchen so you should lead by example. It’s up to you to set the tone and show the brigade how you want them to conduct themselves

Everything from the way you talk to others to how you dress for work or organize yourself expresses your values to your team. For example: if you expect your staff to be punctual, then you should be arriving first every day

This professionalism will show your team and the restaurant upper management that you are taking the job seriously. The head chef will be delighted to know that they can rely on you to lead the kitchen when they’re not around.

Get organized

As a chef de partie you had it easy when it came to organization. Before, you were only responsible for organizing and keeping track of your station in the kitchen. Now, in your new sous chef position, you are responsible for keeping track of all the stations in your kitchen. Your organizational skills will be put to the test.

Your responsibilities now include hiring or training new chefs in the kitchen, tracking and ordering inventory, and creating shift schedules.

To stay organized in the face of all these new duties, it is a good idea to start bringing a notebook with you to work

This will allow you to keep track of everything you need to do on a daily or weekly basis. It’s great for drawing up schedules, writing down important numbers, or sketching up new ideas for dishes and recipes. Afterall, the shortest pencil is stronger than the longest memory!

Passion is contagious

If you’ve found your way to becoming a sous chef then there is no question about your culinary passion.

The key detail to be aware of as a sous chef is the way that you communicate that passion to your team. Having a confrontational attitude, shouting at people, or being loud in the kitchen isn't the right approach, despite what TV tells us.

However, being energetic is a good and, more importantly, necessary trait to have in this role. Your energy should always be as positive and supportive as possible. That positivity will spread to the rest of your team and affect how they feel working about working under you. You want your brigade to wake up happy each day they come and cook in your kitchen.

Be a confident leader

When you were a chef de partie, you may have had some assistants helping you out from time to time but the sous chef is the first true leadership position in the kitchen

This means that when the executive chef is not in the restaurant, the brigade will be looking at you to steer the ship.

You should be comfortable giving instructions and orders, pointing out chef’s mistakes, and reprimanding employees who don’t follow the restaurant’s protocol.

Being a confident leader in a pro kitchen requires you to stay calm under pressure, especially during busy dinner services where you may need to go from expediting, to the dining room, to jumping in on the line to help them get through a rush of tickets. If you keep a cool head it will help the rest of your team stay under control and keep the quality high.

By now you should have all the information you need to smash it as second in command in a pro kitchen. Check out the open sous chef positions available now on Hosco and find your dream job today!

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