Goodfit

How to hire a Chef

Chefs run the kitchen. They plan menus, write standard recipes and manage food cost. They lead the kitchen team, keep it clean and safe, and make each service taste the same. Hotel kitchens often feed several restaurants: all-day dining, specialty restaurants, banquets and room service. Standalone restaurants may serve 200-400 covers a night. A good chef balances creative cooking with tight cost control and strict food safety.

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Chef

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What is a Chef?

A Chef is in charge of the food a kitchen makes. That covers the recipes, whether each plate comes out the same, the cost, food safety and the team that cooks it. The title covers many ranks. A commis is still learning one section. An executive chef runs several kitchens. As chefs move up, the work moves from cooking to running service. Then it moves to menu design, costing, buying and managing people. One thing never changes. The food has to come out the same way every time.

Also called
Head Chef, Chef de Cuisine, Sous Chef, Executive Chef (by rank)
Function
Kitchen and culinary operations
Level
Commis through Executive Chef
Reports to
Head Chef, F&B Manager, or owner, depending on rank
Measured on
Food cost, consistency and guest ratings, wastage, hygiene audits, ticket times, attrition
Next step
Sous Chef, Head Chef, Executive Chef, or Culinary Director

The hiring challenge

Hiring a chef is hard. Cooking skill and running a kitchen are two different skills, and interviews rarely test both. Some cooks have great technique. They may still be unable to control food cost or lead 10-20 cooks. They may not be able to serve a banquet for 500 guests without the quality dropping. That person is not ready to be a chef. Interviews that only ask about cuisine miss the business side. Find out if the candidate can manage food cost percentage and keep dishes the same across locations and shifts. Then check if they can lead a kitchen team at peak service without losing control.

What to look for in a Chef

Four traits matter. Food cost discipline. Do they track food cost every week? Do they control portions, cut waste and plan the menu for profit as well as taste? The best chefs know the cost of every dish. They can tell you whether a best-seller makes money, and why. Consistency. Does a dish from the morning shift taste the same as one from the night team? That comes from standard recipes, careful mise en place and training. Personal cooking skill is not enough. Team management. A kitchen team mixes experienced sous chefs, junior commis and contract staff. Can they train, hand off work and manage performance under stress? Food safety and hygiene. Food safety is a legal requirement, and it protects the brand. Do they keep daily temperature logs, run hygiene checks and make sure staff health checks happen? Is food safety part of every day for them, or only when an audit is coming?

Also test for banquet experience. Large events bring in a lot of money for hotels and banquet halls. Can they scale a recipe from 50 to 500 portions and keep the quality? Test their vendor and buying knowledge. Buying fresh produce every day means market visits, quality checks and price negotiation. Check their range of cuisines, since many hotel kitchens need chefs who can cook several.

Strong candidates talk about their kitchen with specific numbers. They know food cost percentage by restaurant and plate cost for key dishes. They know covers per shift, kitchen staff attrition and food safety audit scores. Weak candidates talk about their "passion for cooking" and say little about how they run a kitchen.

Common mistakes when hiring Chefs

Hiring on creative cooking alone. A chef who makes beautiful dishes but runs food cost at 40% loses money on every plate. Test their cost control as well as their cooking.

Not testing consistency and standard recipes. Ask how they make a signature dish taste the same when they are not in the kitchen. Some answers depend on the chef being there in person. Good answers mention written recipes, portion guides and trained staff. Without those, the kitchen falls apart on their day off.

Ignoring how they lead under pressure. Ask how they handle a cook who keeps falling behind during dinner service. Ask how they deal with conflict in the kitchen team. Kitchens are intense places to work. A chef who cannot lead under pressure will lose their team.

Key skills for a Chef

  • Menu planning and recipe standardization
  • Food cost control and plate costing
  • Kitchen hygiene and food safety compliance
  • Brigade management and team training
  • Banquet and large-scale event execution
  • Vendor management and produce procurement
  • Consistency across locations and shifts
  • Inventory management and waste reduction

What a great interview looks like

Voice

"Your food cost is running at 36% and the target is 30%. How would you find the problem and bring it back down?"

Scenario

"You have a banquet for 400 guests tomorrow. Your tandoor cook calls in sick. Two key ingredients did not arrive from the vendor. What do you do?"

Roleplay

"A guest sends back a dish. They say it tastes different from their last visit. Your commis says they followed the recipe. How do you handle the guest and the team?"

MCQ

"A dish uses 200g of protein at $12/kg, 100g of vegetables at $3/kg and 50g of dairy at $8/kg. What is the food cost per portion? At a selling price of $18, is the margin acceptable?"

Voice

"How do you keep dishes the same across shifts when you are not in the kitchen? Walk me through your process for standard recipes."

You can use these questions in Goodfit as they are, or edit the questions and the scoring for your team.

Recommended interview process

  1. 1

    Round 1: AI Voice Interview15 to 20 min

    A food cost problem, how they keep dishes the same, and how they manage the kitchen team. Scored on cost thinking and leadership.

  2. 2

    Round 2: Practical Cooking Test60 min

    The candidate cooks 2-3 dishes from a brief. Judged on technique, presentation, taste, hygiene and time management.

  3. 3

    Round 3: F&B Director Interview30 min

    Menu engineering, banquet experience, vendor management, and how well they know food safety rules.

In Goodfit, the AI interview runs the first round for every applicant. Skill tests, coding tests and roleplays can run in Goodfit too. Your team reads the scorecards and joins for the later conversations.

FAQ

Chef hiring questions

What does a chef do?
Below head chef, they run one section. They prepare mise en place, cook to order during service and keep their station clean and up to standard. From sous chef up, the job changes. They run service and manage the pass. They train and roster the team. They order and control stock, cost dishes and design or update the menu. They enforce food safety. A head chef is a manager who cooks. They are no longer just a cook.
What is the kitchen brigade hierarchy?
The classic structure starts with the commis, who is a trainee. Next is the chef de partie, who runs a station such as sauce, larder or pastry. Then the sous chef, who is second in command and runs service day to day. Then the head chef or chef de cuisine, who owns the kitchen, its menu and its costs. At the top is the executive chef, who oversees several restaurants or a whole property. Most kitchens today use a simpler version. The titles and reporting lines are still the same.
What is the difference between a chef and a cook?
A cook makes food from set recipes and instructions. A chef has professional training and more responsibility. A chef keeps the food the same across a team, develops menus and recipes, and costs dishes. They answer for food safety and manage other kitchen staff. The difference is responsibility. Skill at the stove is only part of it. That is why chefs are tested on cost and team questions as well as cooking.
What is mise en place and why does it matter when hiring?
Mise en place is the prep done before service. Ingredients are portioned, sauces are made and the station is set up and in order. It is the clearest sign of whether someone can handle service. A cook with tidy mise en place stays calm at peak. A cook without it is fast until the tickets pile up. In a trial shift, watch how they set up and keep their station. It tells you more than the taste of any one dish.
How does a chef control food cost?
Standard recipes and portion control make the same dish cost the same every time. Careful buying and supplier negotiation keep prices down. Yield management matters on expensive proteins. Chefs track waste, including what is thrown away during prep. Menu engineering pushes dishes that sell well and make the most money. Stock rotation cuts spoilage. Kitchens that only work on purchase price are using the smallest of these levers.
What skills does a chef need beyond cooking?
They need to understand cost and yield. A beautiful menu that loses money on every plate is a failure. They need to keep dishes the same every time. That is what turns a good dish into a kitchen guests can trust. They need to lead a team under pressure where people leave often. Shouting now drives staff away. They need food safety habits that hold at the busiest moment. They need to roster and order against forecasts. They also need to stay calm, because the whole kitchen follows the mood of the person on the pass.
What qualifications do you need to become a chef?
A culinary degree or apprenticeship is the usual path, but not everyone has one. Many chefs rise only through kitchen experience. Anyone in charge of a kitchen usually needs a food safety certificate. Employers mainly judge the trial shift and work history in similar kitchens. For senior roles, they check whether the candidate can talk clearly about food cost, menu design and running a team.
How should a trial shift be run when hiring a chef?
Give a real task during a real service. A showpiece dish in an empty kitchen tells you little. Put them on a section during a busy period, or ask for a set of dishes to the house recipe. Watch their mise en place, station setup, timing under pressure and cleanliness. Watch how they talk to the team and whether they take direction. Pay for the trial. This is standard practice, and it shows candidates how your kitchen treats people. Taste matters, but consistency and conduct tell you more about the hire.
What interview questions should I ask a chef?
Ask how they would cost and price a dish, and what margin they would aim for. Ask what they do when a key ingredient has not arrived an hour before service. Ask how they train a new commis, and how long until that person can run a station alone. Ask how they handle waste. Ask about a hygiene finding and what changed. Ask how they run the pass when service is behind. That tells you what it is like to work in their kitchen.

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