Duties and responsibilities of a cook

The duties and responsibilities vary according to the setting that a cook works in. An institutional or cafeteria cooks who work in the kitchens of schools, businesses, cafeterias, hospitals and other institutions has certain responsibilities while a cook in a restaurant would have other kinds of responsibility.

Institutional or Cafeteria Cook

• Prepares dishes as per preset menus.
• Prepares meals in big quantities for a limited number of dishes whether they be entrees, vegetables or deserts.
• People using these facilities seldom have a choice of preparation they would like to order as they are cooked well in advance of the meal time.

Restaurant Cooks

• Restaurant cooks or line cooks work at stations.
• They prepare dishes as per the order they get.
• These stations have specific duties as a station preparing grills would have a cook who is well versed in the grilling department.
• Sometimes line cooks working at a particular station might have to look after more than one station.

Short-order Cooks

• Fast preparation of food in restaurants or in fast food joints or coffee shops are prepared by fast order cooks.
• They often work on several orders at the same time.
• They make sandwiches, grill, cook French fries, garnish hamburgers, and fry items.
• They cook and prepare items such as a hamburger or fried chicken and keep them warm to serve them immediately when ordered.

General Duties

• Keep the kitchen, utensils, equipment and the work area they are cooking in clean as well as their serving areas to ensure a safe healthy and sanitary place of work.
• Should see that food is cooked and stored at right temperatures by regulating it in refrigerators, ovens, grills, broilers and roasters.
• Should take daily stock inventory and keeping track of new and old stocks, thereby ensuring the freshness of food ingredients.
• Must check that the ingredients are taken in the correct quantity and as per the recipe by weighing, measuring and mixing the food or as per the personal judgement of an experienced cook.

Educational background for a cook

• For entry level jobs as a cook a high school diploma is not a necessity, but would be helpful if a career in food services is planned.
• To become a cook mostly all employers would give in-house training, starting with workplace safety regulations and sanitation, and goes on to food preparation and handling and onwards to cooking.
• Students in high school or vocational courses could take up basics of kitchen, food handling, safety and sanitation procedures, slicing, dicing methods for vegetables and different kind of meats; basic cooking methods such as grilling, broiling and baking.
• Local job counselling centres and state run employment services agencies also offer training facilities.
• There are other training programs which are of longer duration and could culminate in a degree or certificate.
• These taking programs are at independent cooking schools, colleges or universities degree programs and culinary institutes which turn the students into professionals.
• These courses are for people who are aspiring to become top of the line cooks in fine dining or upscale restaurants.
• Some of the larger hotels, restaurants and even the armed forces run their own training schools and job placement programs.

Skills and abilities needed for a professional cook

• Must be in good physical condition as the job requires long hours of standing.
• Must be able to handle pressure and stress as the working conditions during peak hours could be maddening.
• Must be efficient, quick and be able to work as a team as well as take orders from supervisors and chefs.
• Must be a creative person with a good sense of smell and taste.
• Must take care of personal hygiene as most State requires health certificates to prove that a person does not have communicable disease.
• Knowledge of one or more foreign language is an added advantage.

Certification and Licensure needed by a cook

• No license is required to become a cook.
• Certification can be opted for if the person is looking for advancement in their career.
• The American Culinary Federation offers certificates at various levels of the training to chefs.

How much money can a cook earn?

Cooks get salary according to their knowledge and education and training.

People tend to get paid more according to their years of experience in the trade, the city they work in, the setting of their job, the type of employer who hires them etc.

A cook in a restaurant would earn an average annual salary between the range of $ 15,711 and $ 30,851.

The details given below are for typically a cook working at a restaurant.

• Years of Experience

§  If the cook has an experience which is lesser than one year he would get a salary between the range of $ 8,400 and $ 47,800 and the hourly wage that he would get would be between the range $ 7.25 and $ 11.86.

§  If the cook has an experience which spans between the years one to four he would get a salary between the range of $ 10,012 and $ 48,500 and the hourly wage that he would get would be between the range $ 7.30 and $ 11.63.

§  If the cook has an experience which spans between the years five to nine he would get a salary between the range of $ 17,156 and $ 47,224 and the hourly wage that he would get would be between the range $ 8.10 and $ 13.41.

§  If the cook has an experience which spans between the years ten to nineteen he would get a salary between the range of $ 17,355 and $ 49,833 and the hourly wage that he would get would be between the range $ 8.00 and 14.36.

§  If the cook has an experience which is more than twenty years he would get a salary between the range of $ 19,266 and $ 89,790 and the hourly wage that he would get would be between the range $ 8.09 and $ 15.61.

• Industry

§  A cook working in a restaurant would earn an average annual salary between the range of $ 17,291 and $ 61,825 and an hourly rate range between $ 7.57 and $ 13.08.

§  A cook working in a food service would earn an average annual salary between the range of $ 14,795, $ 55,752 and an hourly rate range between $ 7.58 and $ 12.80.

§  A cook working in a deli or cafe would earn an annual average salary between the range $ 20,400 and $ 42,000 and an hourly rate range between $ 7.26 and $ 14.42.

§  A cook working in hotels would earn an average annual salary between the range $ 8,512 and $ 70,873 and an hourly rate range between $ 8.78 and $ 14.96.

There are more males than females working in this industry and the percentage of females are 29% and that of males are 71%.

The hourly wage rate range for females falls between $ 8.31 and $ 10.53.

Their male counter parts earn an hourly wage rate range between $ 8.30 and $ 11.35.

They also get the usual benefits that are prevalent in the industry such as 401(k), paid holidays and vacations, paid sick leave, reimbursement towards education, training or certification, life insurance and disability etc.

Some of them also get the common health benefits and 26% said that they get medical benefits, 19% said that they get dental benefits, 13% said that they get benefits towards vision and a whopping 72% said that they do get any health benefits.

About Cooks

Cooks as the very name suggests prepare, season and cook a variety of dishes and meals right from soups, salads, and snacks to entrees, side dishes, main courses and desserts. They work in different settings wherever food is cooked and served such as restaurants, grocery stores, schools, hospitals, food stalls and many other places. Cooks in some places might do work other than cooking, grilling and baking such as peeling, cutting vegetables, trimming, cutting and grinding meat, preparing poultry along with the other odd jobs like keeping the cooking area clean. The make use of ovens, grills, and large stoves for the preparation of their dishes. They generally also follow a set menu and prepare dishes as per recipes. But sometimes they prepare dishes off the menu and call them specials. When specials become really popular they might get added to the regular menu unless it is holiday fare.

Cooks work for long hours and most of the time they are on their feet. They might have to work early morning, afternoons, evenings, nights and even overnight as per the place that they work in. They prepare recipes according to the ingredients which are duly measured and weighed or if the person is a seasoned cook then he has it all in his head and does not require the traditional measuring tools.

Cooks wear many hats in their business and if they work in larger restaurants there might be a number of cooks called assistant cooks or line cooks who operate a particular station and prepare meals specific to that station. They have their ingredients and vessels required for that particular station. Within these stations some might perform particular tasks and may be called vegetable cooks, fry cooks or grill cooks. Over all these line cooks could be a head cook, sous chef or chief chef.