Culinary Specialist

Job Summary

The ideal candidate will have experience in food preparation and cooking, with a focus on maintaining a clean and safe kitchen environment. The selected individual will be responsible for preparing and cooking food products, including dough products, non-pizza food products, vegetables, and other foodstuffs for consumption in the restaurants, carryout, and/or delivery. Key Responsibilities

• Adjusts thermostat controls to regulate temperature of oven, steam kettles, steam tables, and hot holding equipment, and pasta cooker.
• Measures and mixes ingredients according to recipe, using a variety of kitchen utensils and equipment to prepare soups, salads, sauces, dough, cheeses, pizza crust, vegetables, sandwiches, and casseroles.
• Bakes, fries, and microwaves main dishes and cooks or heats other foods.
• Observes and tests food being cooked by viewing, smelling, piercing with fork, and testing temperature with a thermometer to determine that it is cooked.
• Provides guidance to other kitchen employees during the preparation of food.
• Washes, peels, cuts, dices, and shreds vegetables and fruits to prepare them for use.
• Maintains cleanliness and sanitation of the food preparation containers and areas, including washing/sanitizing of all containers and utensils, preparation counters and tables, cleaning walls and shelves, clearing crumbs away, and wiping ovens and microwave, drain oil from, dissemble, clean, and reassemble fryer, and sweep and mop floors.
• Monitors equipment conditions and holding temperatures and reports malfunctions or needed repairs to management.
• Records product usage and waste on charts.
• Operates dishwasher.
• Delivers clean plates, utensils, glasses, etc., to service areas either at the counter or dining room.

Qualifications

The candidate will require the equivalent completion of 9th grade in school in order to apply common sense understanding to carry out instructions furnished in written or oral form, to solve simple problems requiring standardized solutions, add, subtract, multiply, and divide all units of measure, compute ratio, rate, and percent, recognize words and word meanings commonly found in procedural instructions, business reports, and food and non-food product labels, and restaurant menus, construct and write simple sentences containing subject, verb, and object, series of numbers, names, and addresses, and speak simple sentences, using normal word order and present and past tenses.

Preferred Qualifications

No previous experience is required for this position, but a Food Handler's permit may be required dependent upon the laws of the county in which the restaurant is located.

Machines, Tools, Equipment, and Work Aids

The successful candidate will be required to operate a variety of kitchen equipment, including can opener, charts, pizza wheels, colanders, dicer, dishes, dishwasher, dockers, dough roller, forks, hot plates, kettles, knives, measuring cups, mixing bowls, mixer, ovens, paddles, pans, pizza pliers, pots, processor, scales, spatulas, spoons, recipes, rolling pin, slicers, storage bins, storage tank, fryers, pasta cookers, microwaves, and warmers.

Working Conditions

The worker is subject to inside environmental conditions, which are protected from the weather, but not necessarily temperature changes, and occasionally exposed to extreme heat and wet and/or humid conditions.

Environmental Hazards

The position is not subject to any significant environmental hazards.

Physical Demands – Strength

The Cook exerts up to 50 pounds of force occasionally, and/or up to 20 pounds of force frequently, and/or up to 10 pounds of force constantly to move objects.

Physical/Sensory Demands

• Reaching, stooping, kneeling, handling, fingering, feeling, lifting, carrying, standing, walking, pushing, and pulling is required frequently in the preparation and cooking of products.
• Normal visual acuity is required to read labels and menu instructions.
• No special hearing requirements are associated with the position.
• Taste and smelling senses are required to determine the quality of the food product.

Supervision and Guidance

The position provides guidance to other restaurant employees in the daily preparation of food.

Interpersonal Contacts

Regular internal contacts with management personnel and co-workers to give and exchange information, and occasional external contact with guests/customers that requires friendly, pleasant, enthusiastic, understandable, and clear communications to transmit and receive information and to maximize the customer's positive feeling about their dining experience.