Looking to Hire a Chef for a Restaurant? Here’s What You Need to Know

Hiring well-qualified chefs for your restaurant can be a difficult task, and it becomes even more daunting once you realize that chefs are vital to the success of your business.

Be it fast food or Chinese, Thai or Italian, all kinds of gastronomy have their own nuances, and it takes an expert to turn ordinary cooking into fine art. Below we’ll be examining the things you should keep in mind while hiring chefs for restaurants. We should be quite clear on the different chef roles. Before hiring chefs for restaurants, clarity on the needs is essential.

What Are The Types Of Chefs?

Like all other jobs, not all chefs in the kitchen are the same. They do different tasks and focus on specialized areas to work together in an organic manner and bring your restaurant to life. Before recruiters hire a chef for a restaurant, they would first understand the job details and decide the kind of chef a restaurant owner needs.

Executive Chef

Executive chefs carry out the managerial tasks of the restaurant. They set the prices of the menu and revise them according to the economic conditions. If the restaurant has multiple outlets, the executive chef manages and coordinates with them as well. Generally, executive chefs are uncommon in smaller establishments and are likely to be seen in bigger restaurants that have a larger team or multiple outlets.

Head Chef

The head chef tops the hierarchy in the kitchen. They generally ensure that the food meets the standards of the restaurant while also taking care of all kinds of safety regulations inside the kitchen. They also create new food entrees by being aware of culinary trends, monitoring inventory, and helping coordinate the entire kitchen. Most importantly, they hire and train new staff about cooking as well as sanitization methods.

Sous Chef

The sous chef ranks below the head chef and has similar functions to the head chef, i.e., ensuring the quality of the food, managing inventory, teaching staff new recipes, and giving progress reports about other chefs to the head chef. They also take care of kitchen equipment and do minor repairs if necessary.

Specialist chefs

Specialist chefs are what the name suggests: they specialize in creating a certain type of cuisine depending on the menu. Restaurants can hire patissiers who specialize in confectioneries, sauciers who specialize in making sauces, and so on.

How Many Chefs To Hire?

When hiring a chef for your restaurant, a chef recruiter makes sure that the chef candidate’s expectations and profile match the restaurant’s business scenario and needs. Small restaurants looking to executive headhunters Dubai will not be able to afford the services of an executive chef who has worked for restaurants or five-star hotels.

To Hire a chef Dubai for your restaurant, a chef recruiter will look into and analyze several factors.

Also, different restaurants have different requirements, and a number of factors play into such decision-making. Restaurants looking to hire chefs might have diverse needs and customer demands. How many chefs will a restaurant need, and what would be the monetary compensation the restaurant is prepared to pay depends on several factors?

Generally, the number of chefs to hire depends on three major factors.

Restaurant Size

Depending on the size of your restaurant, you might need more or fewer chefs. Biggar restaurants, as well as those with multiple outlets, will definitely need an executive chef, a head chef as well as a sous chef, along with other junior chefs. But smaller restaurants might not need a big chef staff. Smaller restaurants can also make a contract with virtual kitchens, which reduces the number of chefs needed.

Types Of Restaurant Business Streams

Another factor is what kind of restaurant it is. A restaurant that has dine-in options will have different staffing needs than one that takes only online orders. If the restaurant also takes catering orders, then staffing needs to be increased further, and more chefs are needed.

Types of Food And Dishes Offered

If your restaurant offers a wider variety of food, you might need to hire more specialist chefs as well as a head chef to be able to deliver every option on the menu. The more niché the items on the menu are, the more necessary specialist chefs become.

What Are Different Chef Hiring Models And Types?

Like all other jobs, employment as a chef comes in various ways. Depending on your preferences or budget, you should choose the kind of employment your establishment will be the most comfortable providing.

Contractual or temporary:

You can hire a chef on a contractual or temporary basis, which means that the chef can be employed in your restaurant for a set period of time. If you need their services further, you can increase the duration of their contract when it expires.

Freelance:

You can also choose to hire freelance chefs, especially to deal with busier times like preparing a big catering order. Freelance chefs will either take a fixed price for a set amount of work or ask for hourly rates.

Part-Time:

Part-time chefs can work in your establishment for smaller shifts, as compared to the rest of the staff. They might be particularly useful if your restaurant is burdened with too many customers at a certain time of the day, but you don’t want to hire a full-time employee.

Full Time:

Full-time chefs are your primary employees – they will work at your establishment for long shifts and are expected to work with you for longer periods of time.

What Are The Costs Of Hiring Different Ranks Of Chefs?

Depending on the type of chef, salaries vary. Executive Chef Dubai is the most expensive to hire at around $65,000 a year, which is why only big establishments need and hire them. A head chef makes, on average, USD$49,000 a year, and a sous chef $48,600 a year. The salaries of chefs below the sous chef can vary according to the policies of your restaurant. Some provide a minimum wage to them, while others have a fixed monthly salary.

How To Find Great Chefs? – Consult With Chef Recruiters

Keeping all the above aspects in mind, it is obvious that recruiting chefs can be a difficult task. But reliable and experienced chef recruiters can make it ridiculously easy. There are numerous advantages of taking the help of professionals.

Find The Best-Qualified, Right-Fit Chefs

Chef recruiters can seek out the best talent who is hand-picked for your business. Instead of picking any qualified chef, it is important to pick one that matches the standards of your establishment and is able to cook the food you want your restaurant to be known for. The right fit can be sought out by asking recruitment agencies to help.

No Delays, Less Time To Hire

If you are urgently looking for a chef, finding the right one can be near impossible in a shorter period. Chef recruiters can help with this without any drop in quality. They can reduce the time taken to give by 40-70%, and they can ensure quality through a smooth, efficient, and thorough screening and interview process to ensure you get the best talent.

Optimize Chef Recruitment Processes

Recruitment agencies can not only make the process faster but also provide great flexibility. They can offer in-house as well as virtual or mobile recruitment methods, and their organized management can allow for fast-paced recruitments in addition to other perks.

Minimize Hiring Risks

Obviously, no one wants bad talent, and doing background checks on your hires by yourself can be stressful and time-consuming. A recruitment agency can take this burden away by thorough assessment and reference and background checks to ensure your hires are of top quality.

Conclusion

To hire a chef for a restaurant, there are so many factors to consider. It is best to consult with a competent chef recruiter before you hire a chef for your restaurant. Meeting all criteria can get hectic while running an establishment as well, so a little professional help can come a long way in making your restaurant successful.

Alliance Recruitment Agency-UAE

The Alliance Recruitment Agency in UAE is based in Dubai and has global networks to get the best talent at your fingertips. Our global manpower agency has a separate team of specialized experts working in the hospitality and chef recruitment sector to look for the best candidates, and we provide services on an end-to-end basis.

Our recruitment drives are cost-effective and can bring you world-class chefs, at a low expense. Connect with us if you’re looking for a hospitality recruitment agency with both expertise and experience in your industry.