The Job of Sous Chef 

If you are a cooking enthusiast or interested in the cooking industry as a whole then you have heard the word sous chef. Many people first experience with the word was watching iron chef; they always wonder what the word meant. If you are curious of what a sous chef is and what they do then you’re in luck.

First let us tackle the basic definition

According to dictionary.com a sous chef is -  the second in command in a kitchen; the person ranking next after the head chef. This makes sense because “sous” is the French word for under. 

So now we know a sous chef is under the executive chef but what exactly is the job of the sous chef? As a sous chef your job is to bring order to kitchen, you are the bridge between the line cooks and the executive chef. As such the sous chef job is a balancing act.

The sous chef has a great deal of power in the kitchen but not totally dominance. Therefore it is essential to find a happy medium with your executive chef. Also the sous chef must be well verse in every form of cooking that will be taken place. Not only will he/she delegate to the line cook what to do, but they will be cooking a great deal themselves.

Other duties that a sous chef will participate include the planning of the menu, managing of the material. For example, it will be the sous chef duty to balance the cost of the food to be cooked and in what portions etc. Quality control will be a major responsibility of the under chef, making sure the area is clean by making sure that the staff is obeying the various sanitary rules is a top priority.

The sous chef is the right hand man of the kitchen. The duty is to keep things moving smoothly. Being verse in the manners of the kitchen the chef can fill any rule and delegate to other cooks what need to be done. It is essential to be quick and your feet and be able to make good decisions in various situations.

So as you can see the life of a sous chef can be difficult, there are a lot of things to juggle. However, the diverse circumstances will only better prepare you to be an amazing executive chef.

Don’t forget that while you are training to be the best executive chef known to man, you will be living off the average sous chef salaryof $47,000 per year.