Chef Interview Questions

I track food cost weekly by comparing theoretical cost against actual usage, and I investigate any variance above 2%. The biggest lever is ordering discipline: I base orders on projected covers and adjust for seasonal specials rather than guessing. I also build menus that use whole animals or full cuts, so trim from one dish becomes the base for a stock or a staff meal rather than going in the bin. At my last kitchen we ran a prep sheet system where each section logged waste by category daily, and I used that data in my weekly team briefing. Over six months we brought food cost down from 34% to 29% without changing the menu price or quality. Communication with the team matters just as much as systems: when cooks understand why waste costs jobs, they take it seriously.

I believe the best training happens during service, not in a classroom. When I take on a new junior, I spend the first two weeks working alongside them on their section, correcting technique in real time rather than waiting for a debrief. I also pair them with a more experienced cook who can answer day-to-day questions without always coming to me. I set clear benchmarks: by the end of month one, they should be able to prep their section independently; by month three, hold it during a full service. I do a short one-to-one every two weeks to check in on how they are finding it and what they want to learn next. People stay longer in kitchens where they feel they are growing, and that directly reduces the cost and disruption of turnover.

The first thing I do is assess the gap honestly, because the right response depends on which position is empty and how busy the service is. If it is a section I can consolidate with one other cook, I do that immediately and adjust the prep list. If it is a critical role on a high-cover night, I call my shortlist of trusted freelancers first: I keep two or three reliable agency contacts for exactly this reason. While I am making calls, I brief the rest of the team so nobody is blindsided when service starts. I also look at the reservation sheet and, if needed, I will work the section myself rather than drop standards. The one thing I do not do is panic in front of the team: the tone I set in those first ten minutes determines how everyone else handles the shift.

Consistency comes from preparation, not from talent alone. Before service I check that every section has everything it needs, that mise en place is at the right standard, and that the team has tasted the specials so they understand what they are plating. During service I call the pass and check every plate before it leaves the kitchen: I am looking at portion weight, sauce coverage, temperature, and presentation against the reference image we have for each dish. If a plate is not right, it goes back. I also do a post-service debrief where I call out three things done well and one thing to fix tomorrow: that keeps standards front of mind without demoralising the team. When I introduced reference photos at my last restaurant, the number of returns from the dining room dropped by about 40% over the first month.

At one restaurant, two senior cooks had ongoing friction that was starting to affect the whole brigade: one accused the other of consistently being late with prep, which put pressure on service. I pulled each of them aside separately first, to hear both sides without making it a confrontation. It turned out one cook was struggling with a personal issue that was affecting their focus, which they had not told anyone. I adjusted their section responsibility temporarily to reduce pressure, and I was explicit with both of them that the friction had to stop because it was making the kitchen worse for everyone. I followed up individually every few days for the next two weeks. The conflict resolved, and both cooks stayed for another eight months. The lesson was that visible conflict in a kitchen usually has a cause that is not immediately obvious: finding it is faster than managing around it.

Three days before a private event for 80 covers, our fish supplier called to say the turbot we had specced was no longer available due to a weather-related catch issue. The menu had already gone out to guests. I called two other suppliers within the hour, found that brill was available at a similar price point, and made the decision to switch immediately. I then contacted the event organiser, explained the change, and reframed it as a positive: brill is actually more delicate and arguably better suited to the preparation we had planned. The organiser was happy with the explanation. On the night, the dish was one of the most commented on positively. The learning was that how you communicate a problem matters as much as how you solve it.

When I joined my last restaurant as head chef, prep was being done in an ad hoc order decided individually by each cook. The result was frequent bottlenecks where cold section was waiting on stocks that were not ready, and the starter section would be scrambling 45 minutes before service while the grill section had been ready for two hours. I introduced a master prep sheet with a time order built in: each item had a start time and a completion deadline based on the sequence the sections needed for service. Within three weeks the scrambling before service dropped significantly, and we started sending the team home 30 minutes earlier most nights. That was a direct saving in labour cost. The key was involving the section heads in designing the prep sheet rather than imposing it, so they owned the system.

I start with the season and what is available at the best quality and price, then think about the story the menu tells as a whole: does it have balance across proteins, techniques, and textures? I write the dishes first, then I cost every recipe by listing the ingredients with their yield after prep, pricing each per gram or per portion, and summing the plate cost. I target a food cost of 28 to 32% depending on the style of the restaurant, and if a dish comes in above that I look at where I can substitute an ingredient or adjust the portion before I cut the dish entirely. I also road-test every dish with the kitchen team before service, because a dish that looks great on paper but is slow to plate or difficult to execute consistently under pressure will cause problems. The menu exists to be delivered reliably every night, not just on the day I invented it.

I treat allergen management as a kitchen discipline, not a box-ticking exercise. Every dish on our menu has a full allergen matrix that I review whenever a recipe changes. All staff are trained on the 14 major allergens before they work a service, and I run a refresher every six months. When a guest has an allergen requirement, the ticket is flagged by front-of-house and I personally oversee the preparation: separate board, separate utensils, and the dish is checked by me before it leaves the pass. I also label every container in the prep kitchen with ingredients and allergens, so there is no ambiguity when a cook is plating up quickly under pressure. The one thing that causes allergen failures in kitchens is assuming someone else has checked: I build systems that remove assumptions.

I build a prep plan the night before or first thing in the morning based on the reservation count and the current mise en place levels. I assign sections based on the most time-critical items first, so stocks and braises that need hours are started before quick-prep cold items. I use a whiteboard in the kitchen with a prep countdown so the team can see how the day is tracking without needing to ask me. I walk each section at the halfway point of prep to check progress and flag anything that is falling behind early enough to redirect resource. I also keep a buffer list of prep that can absorb spare capacity if a section finishes early. The goal is that when service starts, no section is under-prepped and no cook is standing around.