Head Chef - A Brief Introduction

Are you passionate about food? Do you have a knack for cooking and keeping things organized in your kitchen? Do you dream of running your own restaurant someday? If your answer to all these questions is yes , then you are capable of being a chef. Since there are several kinds of chef, let us focus on the one who has the highest position in the restaurant kitchen - the head chef. Here is a brief introduction about this job.

What Is A Head Chef?

Head Chef is the highest position or rank within a restaurant kitchen. This person is responsible for coordinating various tasks as well as activities inside the kitchen. He will be the one to assign which person will do the sauce, cook the pasta, prepare the dessert, etc. Also, he is the last person who has the last say whether the food is good to go and if tastes superb!

This is what most people who love cooking want to reach to be on the top position manning the entire operations inside the kitchen.

Educational Background

With regard to educational background, the requirement would be a graduate of Culinary Arts or have extensive and great culinary skills obtained through experience. It would be much easier to climb the ladder and reach this position through earning a diploma in Culinary Arts. However, those who would like to start at the bottom; they can still achieve it through achieving skills through working inside a restaurant kitchen, internship, and training.

For people who are at this position, most of them are experts in cooking variety of cuisines such as Mediterranean, Japanese, Indian, Chinese, American, Mexican, and much more. The more cuisines they know how to cook or prepare the better.

Skills and Qualifications

To qualify for this position, a person must be a graduate of Culinary Arts (4-year degree). However, for those who do not have the diploma, they can still apply for this job if they have enough culinary skills and experience under their sleeves. This is easily achieved through undergoing internship, training, or perhaps working inside a restaurant kitchen for quite some time.

Since this is a top position, it is also relevant that you do have good supervisory, communication, and leadership skills to man the entire operation within the kitchen. One wrong move, and the entire operation might be put to halt or the reputation of the restaurant might be hampered.

One very important skill or trait of a person fit for this job is the ability to solve any problem in a cool manner without having any form of pressure ruined everything.

Conclusion

The usual salary of a head chef would range around $40,000 up to $100,000. But the figure would depend on several factors such as the size of the restaurant kitchen, location, experience, and how well-established the restaurant is among others.

Jane Sanders writes at Job Descriptions about finding a great career. Learn more about finding a great career here: http://www.jobdescriptions.net