Head Chef job description
The Head Chef runs the kitchen of a restaurant, cloud kitchen or hotel outlet. They own the menu, food cost, kitchen team and the quality of every plate that leaves the pass.
Why the role exists
The Head Chef sits between the owner or general manager and the kitchen brigade. In an Indian restaurant or cloud kitchen the role covers menu design, purchasing, rosters, hygiene and consistency across lunch and dinner service, including festival and weekend peaks.
What the person does
- Plan and update the menu with the owner, balancing taste, preparation time, ingredient availability and food cost.
- Write standard recipes with portion sizes so every outlet or shift produces the same dish.
- Place daily orders with vendors, check deliveries for quality and weight, and reject poor stock.
- Run the pass during lunch and dinner service and taste or inspect dishes before they go out.
- Prepare the weekly duty roster for cooks, commis and kitchen helpers, and cover absences.
- Train kitchen staff on knife skills, station set-up, cleaning routines and safe handling of raw food.
- Track wastage, stock counts and recipe costing, and report variances to the owner each week.
- Keep the kitchen ready for hygiene inspections and maintain temperature logs for cold storage and hot holding.
Skills and tools
- Menu planning and recipe costing with a clear view of margin per dish
- Hands-on command of Indian, regional or continental cuisines as the outlet requires
- Kitchen station planning and mise en place discipline for peak service
- Stock control, first in first out rotation and vendor negotiation
- Safe food handling, allergen awareness and cleaning schedules
- Leading and coaching a brigade of cooks, helpers and stewards
- Comfort with POS and kitchen display systems used in delivery-led kitchens
- Calm decision making when orders pile up or an ingredient runs out
Education and experience
Preferred, never a bar: equivalent experience counts.
- Diploma or degree in hotel management or culinary arts preferred, or equivalent kitchen experience.
- Experience as a sous chef or senior chef in a restaurant, hotel or cloud kitchen preferred.
- Food handling or hygiene training as the employer requires; confirm what applies with your own adviser.
- Experience building a menu or launching an outlet is preferred but not essential.
How the work is judged
- Consistency of dishes across shifts, judged by tasting audits and customer feedback
- Food cost against the plan the owner has set for each menu item
- Kitchen wastage and stock variance seen in weekly counts
- Hygiene audit results and completeness of temperature and cleaning logs
- Brigade stability, attendance and how quickly new cooks reach full station standard
Where the role can lead
- Executive Chef or Culinary Head across several outlets or a cloud kitchen group.
- Kitchen operations manager or food and beverage manager for a restaurant chain.
- Consultant chef who sets up menus and kitchens for new restaurants.
Interview questions to ask
Ask every candidate the same questions in the same order and score them against written anchors, so the decision rests on the work and not the impression.
- Describe how you would cut food cost on a popular dish without changing how it tastes to regulars.
- A key cook does not report on a Saturday night with a full booking book. What do you do?
- Walk us through how you check a delivery of fish, meat or dairy before accepting it.
- How have you built a recipe card so a new cook can reproduce a dish exactly?
- Tell us about a time a hygiene inspection or customer complaint exposed a gap in your kitchen. What changed?
- How do you plan a menu change when the supplier price of a main ingredient rises sharply?
Hiring tips for this role
- Ask the candidate to cook two dishes from your own menu with a stated cost limit. Taste, timing and station cleanliness show more than a speech.
- Many hires are strong cooks but weak at costing and ordering. Test recipe costing on paper before the cooking round.
- Check references with former owners, not only former chefs, about attendance, temper with staff and handling of walkouts.
- Match the cuisine and scale. A hotel banquet chef and a twenty-seat cloud kitchen chef need different habits.
Questions about hiring a head chef
In a small restaurant the Head Chef often cooks as well as manages. They plan the menu, order stock, run service, train the team and control cost. The owner usually expects them to keep quality steady when the crowd is large.
A line cook works one station and follows recipes. A Head Chef decides the recipes, controls cost and stock, sets the roster and answers to the owner for the whole kitchen, including hygiene and the staff.
Ask how the candidate keeps temperature logs, cleans between raw and cooked items and handles allergens. Any licence or certificate needed depends on your business, state and facts, so confirm it with your own adviser.
Yes. GullyHR supports permanent hiring for restaurants and kitchens. We agree the job description with you, find and screen candidates against it and support you through the offer. Cooking trials remain with your own team.
Hiring a head chef?
GullyHR runs talent acquisition for permanent roles. We agree the job description with you, find and screen candidates against it, and support the offer through to joining. We recruit permanent employees. We do not supply contract or temporary staff.