Head Chef Interview Questions

---

Head Chef Interview Questions

Your ideal candidate is someone who is creative and top of the industry. You’ll also want to look for someone who possesses leadership qualities and has a positive attitude. Coaching and managing others is an important part of this role. Not only will this Head Chef be responsible for creating dishes your customers will rave about, but they’ll also need to maintain a happy and competent kitchen staff. Even with the best menu, an unhappy staff with communication issues and improper leadership will slow down your service and eventually damage your brand. Make sure to ask questions that give you a sense of the candidate’s ability to lead and work with others.

Here are some other fantastic questions we suggest for hiring a Head Chef:

• What is your usual role in teams?
• Can you tell me what you think are the two most important aspects of this role?
• Who is a chef that you look up to, and why?
• What culinary trends have you been following lately? What are your thoughts on these trends?
• Have you led a team before? Tell me about this experience.
• What does your ideal kitchen team look like?
• How do you address miscommunications in the kitchen?
• Tell me about a situation you experienced where there was a miscommunication between the kitchen and serving staff. How did you address it?
• Do you have experience training others?
• Tell me about a recipe or menu item you created that was a flop. What did you learn from this experience?
• What could have made it better?
• Have you won any awards? When, and for what?
• Please tell me about your experience with managing a budget, purchasing, and inventory control.