“How do we get the best chefs?” We hear variations of this question every day – evidence of the pressure contract caterers are under in light of industry talent shortages.

It’s obviously a multi-faceted answer (encompassing salary, benefits, location, culture and more), but your approach to CV review and interviewing plays a vital role.

This checklist summarises best practices for assessing chef skills – helping you go beyond trial shifts to increase your chances of hiring people who stick.

Skill 1: Communication – including stakeholder management and customer engagement

There’s so much front of house work in contract catering, whether it’s theatre-style cooking or client engagement. The requirements increase as chefs move up the ranks, but these skills often aren’t evaluated systematically during interview.

This can be an area where people outside of contract catering excel, bringing expertise from restaurants and hotels that have a big emphasis on customer experience. A top tip we give contract caterers is to consider candidates who bring these transferable skills – because they can end up adding tremendous value.

To assess communication skills, probe into experience involving customer contact and stakeholder management.

Questions like these will help you extract the right information:

• Describe a situation where you worked with people outside the kitchen to resolve an issue
• Describe a situation where you had to give bad news to a customer or colleague
• What’s your approach to building rapport with people?
• Give an example of a time that your communication skills made a difference

Skill 2: Flexibility – looking at willingness to adapt

It’s worth delving into the job description a bit to consider how the role might evolve. For example, will it involve being front of house? What are hours like at the site? How flexible is the menu? How much client contact is there?

When you’re reviewing CVs and considering interviews, have these elements in mind. Some chefs, for example, don’t want to be front of house. Others put a lot of value on work-life balance, and want specific hours. Recruitment is a two-way street, and you need to know that your chosen candidate will give you the flexibility you need, and vice versa.

Here are some ways to assess flexibility:

• During the trial shift, throw a curve ball to see how people adapt under pressure
• Ask questions like:
• Describe a time you had to work outside your comfort zone
• What do you find most motivating and demotivating?
• Give an example of a situation where you had to do something you had never done before

Skill 3: People management – including leadership and professional development

When you’re assessing the contribution a senior candidate will make to the site and the company, consider the HR hat they’ll wear. After all, head and exec chefs play a role in junior chef retention – and you need people who will foster the right culture (inside and outside the kitchen).

Success in this area does depend on the business’ processes and structures, but here are questions that will help you assess candidates’ approach to performance management:

• Describe how you’d conduct an effective appraisal
• How do you go about assessing and managing personalities within the team?
• How would you support an under performing colleague?
• How would you support a high-performing colleague?

(We run HR courses for chefs specifically focused on conducting appraisals and putting together personal development plans. Get on the email list so you find out about the next date.) 

Skill 4: Finance – including cost control and budget management

With contracts being run on increasingly tight models, financial skill assessment is a valuable addition to your senior-level hiring process. This means probing into areas like how savvy they are with ingredient procurement and how comfortable they are with terminology.

Questions to ask include

• What budgeting and reporting tools have you used in the past?
• Give an example of a situation where you helped control costs creatively
• Explain how you’ve worked with colleagues and clients to manage finance-related processes
• Describe a situation where you designed a menu to a tight budget

For more tips on honing your hiring practices to get the right people (and retain them), download our latest contract catering insight: