Find out the top 10 core skills you need to master as a head sous chef and what hard skills you need to know to succeed in this job.

A head sous chef manages the kitchen and ensures that it runs smoothly by taking charge of its operations under the leadership of the head chef. He/she is in charge of the kitchen staff and makes sure that the food is of high quality as well as taking charge when the head chef is away.

Other responsibilities include scheduling kitchen staff, making sure quality ingredients are used, ensuring cost standards of food are maintained, planning the menu, purchasing ingredients, taking charge of supplies, controlling the inventory, ensuring that safety standards are maintained in the kitchen and sanitation rules are observed, maintain communication with staff, discover and train kitchen talent and ensure kitchen equipment is functional.

Core Skills Required to be a Head Sous Chef

Core skills describe a set of non-technical abilities, knowledge, and understanding that form the basis for successful participation in the workplace. Core skills enable employees to efficiently and professionally navigate the world of work and interact with others, as well as adapt and think critically to solve problems.

Core skills are often tagged onto job descriptions to find or attract employees with specific essential core values that enable the company to remain competitive, build relationships, and improve productivity.

A head sous chef should master the following 10 core skills to fulfill her job properly.

Public Speaking:

Public Speaking though closely related to presenting differs in that it is the process of performing a speech before a live audience with the purpose of informing, persuading or entertaining.

A Head Sous Chef must be equipped with good public speaking skills to be able to address an audience through presentations or talks to drive the point home and create a reputable record.

Motivating others:

Motivating is using persuasion, incentives and mental or physical stimulants to influence the way people think or behave individually or in groups.

A Head Sous Chef ought to learn how to tap into the employee's enthusiasm as well as motivate the staff not just with money but with a motivation that comes through the daily relationship with each employee and creating an environment that fosters employee engagement and motivation.

Managing at team:

Managing is the administration of an organization which includes activities of setting the strategy of an organization and coordinating the efforts of the employees to accomplish its objectives.

A Head Sous Chef must learn the art of creating corporate policy, organizing, planning, controlling and directing organization resources to achieve the aims of the policies formed while making decisions to oversee the enterprise.

Work Attitude:

Work Attitude is one's feelings towards and beliefs about one's job and their behavior that can tell how it feels to be there.

A Head Sous Chef ought to encourage his workers and provide all the requirements for the workplace to ensure a positive attitude is maintained by the employees that can help them get a promotion, succeed on projects, meet goals and enjoy the job more.

Emotion Management:

Emotion Management is the ability to realize, readily accept and successfully control feelings on oneself and sometimes in others around you by being in complete authority over your thoughts and feelings that are generated whenever your values are touched.

A Head Sous Chef must be able to manage his emotions as well as assist the staff to control their emotions to ensure that the professional reputation, the efficiency, and productivity is not compromised.

Emotional Intelligence:

Emotional Intelligence is the capability to identify your emotions, understand what they are telling me and realize how the feelings are affecting you and the people around you.

A Head Sous Chef should be wise to handle different personalities that carry different emotions presented in the workplace while ensuring relationships are managed more efficiently by respecting your perception and the employee's as well.

Enjoyment of the Job:

Enjoyment of the Job is the ability to enjoy what you do rather than enjoying what you earn from it.

A Head Sous Chef needs to creatively learn of ways to motivate his employees to benefit from the workplace by matching their personality to the culture of the organization where they fit best and allowing them to explore their hidden talents to grow and mature with the team.

Personal Commitment:

Personal Commitment is an obligation that you have voluntarily agreed to fulfill without being cajoled or threatened and are willing to be held accountable for the results.

A Head Sous Chef ought to understand that though adopting new policies and procedures will be met with resistance, the approach by which safety standards are implemented and enforced influences employee's attitudes and commitment towards the organization.

Practical Thinking:

Practical Thinking is the skill to think creatively about projects or work that requires your full attention to be completed and to bring great results.

A Head Sous Chef must ensure the decisions he makes are well sought after using professional characteristics for employees with high-level responsibilities to feel included and to allow growth for everyone in a constantly changing world that requires creativity.

Managing Details:

Managing Details is the skill of paying close attention to details of every element of your job performance to ensure nothing is overlooked.

A Head Sous Chef should be keen to handle every detail using strategic planning and organizational techniques that make it easy to keep track of everything that is happening in the organization consistently desiring to improve their knowledge and skills.

Hard Skills Required to be a Head Sous Chef

Hard skills are job-specific skill sets, or expertise, that are teachable and whose presence can be tested through exams. While core skills are more difficult to quantify and less tangible, hard skills are quantifiable and more defined.

Hard skills are usually listed on an applicant's resume to help recruiters know the applicant's qualifications for the applied position. A recruiter, therefore, needs to review the applicant's resume and education to find out if he/she has the knowledge necessary to get the job done.

A head sous chef should have a good command of the following hard skills to succeed in her job.

Head Sous Chef: Hard skills list

Accounting
Administration and Management
Administrative Tasks
Baking
Baking Techniques
Banquet
Budgeting
Business
Business Acumen
Business Sense
Catering
Cleanliness
Commitment to Quality
Communication
Computer
Cooking
Control Labor Costs
Cost Control
Cost Reduction
Culinary Expertise
Customer and Personal Service
Demonstrate Techniques
Developing menu
Dexterity
Economics
Education and Training
Equipment Selection
Estimating Costs
Food Inventory
Food Preparation
Food Pricing
Food Production
Food Safety
Food Sanitations
Food Regulations
Food Science
Food Service Management
Forecasting supply needs
Grilling
Ingredient Selection
Instructing
Inventory Methods
Management
Inventory Rotation
Kitchen Management
Kitchen Safety
Kitchen Tools
Knife Control
Knife Cuts
Knife Skills
Management
Management of Financial Resources
Management of Material Resources
Management of Personnel Resources
Marketing
Mathematics
Measurements
Menus
Menu Planning
Monitoring
Nutrition
Ordering
Operations Analysis
Organization
Organizing
Pastry
Physical Stamina
Planning
Portion Control
Preparing Various Cuisines
Precision
Presentation
Production and Processing
Product Selection
Purchasing Methods
Recipes
Restaurant
Safe Food Handling
Safety
Sales
Sanitary Practices
Sanitation
Seasoning
Source Ingredients
Techniques
Temperature Control
Time Efficient
Time Management
Well-Tuned Palate

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