Top 5 Skills you need to be a chef

A chef looks after a restaurant's or a 5 star property’s kitchen. A career as a Chef means planning menus, managing budgets, evaluating menu items, preparing food, purchasing supplies, and thereafter ensuring the quality of service being provided to customers.

A career in this field is best suited for someone having an intrinsic interest in kitchens, food and cooking. But interest isn’t all. If this is a career that interests you, then check out these 5 top skills that every good chef has in common.

Top 5 skills that every good chef will have

• Organisation:

Organisation is the ability to track and keep in check multiple duties and responsibilities. Chefs at big hotels and properties often have many responsibilities to deal with, including food preparation, maintaining equipment and inventory, and making sure that the food served meets the health and safety standards. Being able to serve multiple customers within short periods of time also requires meticulous preparation before service starts and this is another area where organisation is absolutely essential.

• Ability to multitask:

Becoming a chef will require you to have strong multitasking abilities. In a professional kitchen, chefs are always looked upon to handle multiple duties simultaneously. Since there are multiple patrons who all need to be served within short periods of time, this also means that a chef has to be on top of more than one order received by the kitchen. Apart from addressing the different elements of preparing a platter, chefs also have to tackle internal kitchen staff issues and hence are expected to be great multitaskers.

• Knowledge and Flexibility:

Culinary know-how is an important qualification required as a chef. Chefs also need to have extensive knowledge of the kitchen, including knife skills, a refined palette, perfect ingredient judgment, and spice balance. Flexibility is another requirement, as restaurants run for long hours and chefs are usually allotted different shifts.

• Detail orientation:

Preparing food requires a great deal of attention to detail and precision. With strict competition in the hospitality industry, even the minutest details can turn out to make a big difference in taste and presentation. Being tuned in to every small detail also makes it that much easier to meet the quality standards that good kitchens must adhere to.

• Awareness of food safety:

Hygiene and food safety is one of the top most priorities of the food industry. Restaurants and kitchens are looked upon to be hygienic under all circumstances. Dirty and unclean kitchens not only reduce the quality of food, but also lead to bad reviews and negative impressionswhich can damage a restaurant's reputation and may even result in bringing about closure of the place. Therefore, hygiene management of the kitchen is a crucial responsibility of the chefs working there.

Professional chefs are in high demand all across the globe - they oversee food production and kitchen maintenance. A career as a chef can provide you with the right mix of creativity, challenge and an opportunity to pursue something you are passionate about. So are you ready to make decisions ranging from food production to managerial matters now?