Sous Chef

Sous Chef Interview Questions:

The Sous Chef has a high status and responsibility in your organization as they are the second-in command after the Executive Chef. They have usually started their career as a line cook and are expected to have the best cooking skills in the kitchen. Moreover,They may have completed a formal apprenticeship or received professional chef certification. You can utilize the interview questions listed below to employ the best sous chef for your team. It is also important to recognize that working as a Sous Chef in a fine dining restaurant is very much different from working as a Sous Chef in a private environment, such as a party or a family dinner.

Sous Chefs support the Executive Chef and help them in a lot of tasks such as administrative work and bookkeeping. Additionally, they help with training and instructing new cooks of specific techniques, if there is a need to do so. Furthermore, it is the Sous Chef’s responsibility to step in and take the responsibility of leading the team when the Executive Chef is not available. Therefore, the Sous Chef should have features that characterize them as a strong leader and should be capable of deserving the trust and respect of their team members. 

The answers of your prospective candidates reflect their ambitions, expertise, communication skills and their readiness to commit to good work. Keep in mind that it is important to have actual examples and proof of their hard skills, therefore, for this position both their physical work and answers will be considered. Some companies assess the skills of their candidates by including a working interview, that contains a part where these candidates follow restaurant staff while they are on a work shift. Additionally, they should be able to prepare a market test, pre-preparing and delivering a menu or a “secret basket”, therefore you could test these skills by asking candidates to prepare a meal on the spot during the interview. This hands-on interview component alongside the conventional question component is a hybrid method that is useful to interview prospective candidates because it will result in a successful and well-rounded hire.

Operational and Situational questions:

• What are the tips and pieces of advice you would offer someone who is a new Sous Chef?
• What are the practical steps you have taken in your previous positions to reduce food and labour costs?
• What are your career aspirations? How would this job help you to advance in your career?
• What are the steps that you would take if you see a coworker breaking food safety regulations?
• How would you assess your own abilities to teach cooking techniques? Give us some examples of some of these techniques that you shared with your coworkers.
• What are your previous work expertise working with multicultural or multilingual teams?
• Have you ever had to discipline a coworker’s behavior? What was the scenario back then? What was the end result?
• How would you ensure that the food provided to clients is of high quality?
• What would you do if you were in the kitchen and there was an emergency or a safety hazard? For instance, a grease fire?
• When you were in charge, tell me about an occasion when a customer returned food back to the kitchen. How did you react and what did you do?
• What are your strategies for dealing with ingredient substitutions?
• What steps have you taken to accommodate particular diets, such as gluten-free eating?
• Describe an instance when you went out of your way to satisfy a customer.