It takes more than just cooking skills to succeed as a chef.
It takes a lot more than the knack for whipping up a great gumbo or a marvelous marinara to qualify to be a chef. Cooking skills and the ability to follow a recipe are the foundations of a professional chef's abilities, but other less kitchen-centered skills such as a sense of business management, reliability and food handling abilities are also necessary to become a chef.
Kitchen Professionalism
Although the ability to execute a recipe is an obvious skill for chefs to possess, an eye for detail separates the professional chef from the home-kitchen cook. At the top of this list is efficiency; chefs need to cut, grate and prepare ingredients at a pace that seems relentless to the casual cook. As chefs prepare dishes with speed and efficiency, their efforts must remain consistent: Each time he prepares a meal, each carrot is cut to the same thickness and each cut of meat is chopped to the same size and shape.
Kitchen Maintenance Skills
Because kitchen equipment is the tools of a chef's trade, he must know maintain it and the proper way to use each one. A professional chef executes his duties not just quickly, but cleanly, leaving the work area ready for the next order with a minimum of clean-up. Chefs understand the finer operations of kitchen equipment such as ovens and mixers and use them without unnecessary wear and tear.
Business Acumen
Most professional chefs are employed by restaurants and have to know control costs in the kitchen. This includes understanding ways to manage and reduce waste, finding uses for leftover ingredients and being able to determine when it's appropriate to cut costs by substituting lower-cost alternative ingredients, and when those substitutions' detriment to a dish outweighs their financial gains. Chefs must understand efficiently staff and maintain a labor schedule in the kitchen.
Knowledge of Food Handling
Most state and local health inspectors have a checklist of seemingly innocent practices that, when performed in a professional kitchen, may lead to spoilage, cross-contamination or contribute to food borne illnesses. Chefs must be knowledgeable about safe food storage and, regulations and health requirements for food handling and preparation.
Leadership Skills
A chef is the ultimate authority in the kitchen, so he must know lead and manage a team of subordinate cooks. While this includes inspiring respect from his staff, it also requires a chef to know motivate workers and fairly deal with disciplinary issues without disrupting the flow of the kitchen.
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