subject: The Role Of A Sous Chef [print this page] Working within a kitchen of a restaurant can be very busy and stressful. Depending on the size of the restaurant or how popular the restaurant is, the food orders can be consistent from the opening of the restaurant to the end of the restaurant.
There are several different levels of chefs within all restaurant kitchens and the one which has the best chance of being a head chef when the head chef leaves the business either by retirement or by being sacked, would be the sous chef.
Within the kitchen, a sous chef is the second in command. Whenever the head chef is absent, the sous chef will take his/her place and direct the kitchen staff. As with all chefs, the duty of the role is to prepare and cook food, working with the rest of the kitchen team to produce food within the best standard as possible. The sous chefs responsibility is no different, however they are also required to manage and lead the team as well as assisting chef de parties as and when necessary.
In the head chefs absence, the sous chef will also be responsible for the ordering of stock and fresh produce, reporting all stock and the maintaining within budget. Staff rota would also be the responsibility during the head chefs absence, so is the health and safety and food and hygiene regulations.
The sous chef will have come from the chef de partie level, after a few years or more experience, the chances of promotion to become the future head chef would be working from the bottom up. Not all chefs stay within the same restaurant, depending on the competition of the workers, opportunities elsewhere will always be available.
In order to become a sous chef, it is important to have passed and achieved certain chef qualifications, have a food and hygiene certificate, have previous experience within a similar role and be able to lead and motivate others. Being able to create menus and creativity within foods would be essential for the role as well. Within the job market, there are plenty of different chef roles available; however the numbers of chefs applying for jobs online are much less.
