February 4, 2012

A Sous Chef is the actual assistant to the executive or head chef. They are the second in command in the kitchen. Some of their responsibilities in addition to cooking may be to schedule the kitchen employees and filing in when the executive chef is off. They also have a responsibility of filling in or helping out the line cooks when they need help.

In the smaller restaurants there may be one Sous Chef but in larger restaurants there may be many.

In order to get hired as a Sous Chef, you not only need the knowledge of the job but you also need years of experience. You typically can’t graduate from culinary school and expect to become a Sous Chef. As a Sous Chef you must also have complete knowledge of all of the stations on the kitchen. You must know what each section does and why.

Another responsibility of the Sous Chef is to act as a go between from the customers and the line cooks. Sous Chefs bear the brunt of customer complaints. They are the ones in charge of making sure that food is send out of the kitchen to the customers in a timely manner. In some restaurants a Sous Chef will also have a hand in ordering the kitchen supplies and menu planning as well.

In the larger restaurants where there is a large kitchen staff, there will be more than one Sous Chef and they will be responsible for a certain section of the restaurant. So overall a Sous Chef’s duties will include

1. Supervising the entire kitchen staff
2. Preparing and cooking the customers meals
3. Showing different cooking techniques and the correct way to use the kitchen equipment to the staff
4. Sometimes they will have a hand in menu planning
5. Sometimes ordering food and some kitchen supplies

But as we mentioned you can’t just become a Sous Chef, here is what you will need to follow your dream:

1. A formal education from a Culinary School
2. Many years of experience actually working in a kitchen
3. Good communication skills to talk to the staff and the customers
4. You must be able to work long hours if need be and work any shift either day or night. Weekends and holidays.

If you want to pursue a career as a Sous Chef then do some research for culinary schools and get started.