What skills does an Exec Chef need?

To be an executive chef you will need:

• Prior experience of cooking and an experienced chef. Usually this is at least seven years of working in challenging environments in a professional kitchen. Formal culinary training is not always necessary.
• Good management skills to ensure that the kitchen is run efficiently. As Executive chef, cooking is now one part of what you need to do on a daily basis. Managing kitchen operations and other kitchen staff to ensure they are working at their highest level is a vital skill as Executive chef.
• Excellent knowledge of culinary ingredients and practices. You will need to keep up to date with new and emerging cooking practices and adopting and adapting these techniques for use in your kitchen.
• The ability to delegate tasks. In a fast paced kitchen you won’t be able to do everything so being able to direct your team effectively is crucial. Training staff to take more responsibilities is another crucial area.
• Organisation and administrative skills. From the moment you open until the last clean down, you will be called upon to organise your team. Getting the admin side right is as important as getting the food right.
• Great problem solving skills. With all the planning in the world, in most kitchens problems still arise. How you cope with these problems in a professional kitchen is the difference between sinking and swimming.
• Recently completed food hygiene, food safety and food preparation qualifications. Keeping your certs up to date is vital as an Executive chef.
• As Executive chef you will be responsible for controlling kitchen costs and working within a budget.