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The 5 signs of a successful chef

Knowing about food and cooking is just a single part of what makes a great chef. If you want to succeed in this career, you also need the following five skills.

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1. Determination

A successful chef is willing to start at the bottom and work their way up. According to BBC Good Food, even top chefs once had to learn the basics of cookery. If you want to climb the ranks of your career, you will need to put in long, unsociable hours; be willing to carry out repetitive and often mundane tasks; and have loads of stamina.

2. Organisation

If you possess excellent organisational skills, there’s a good chance you will thrive as a chef. Chefs work in a fast-paced environment where thinking on your feet, planning ahead and running a tight ship is essential. Being organised can ensure all of these elements work well together without resulting in a chaotic, disorganised kitchen.

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3. Open-mindedness

A successful chef should embrace changes and have an open-minded, flexible approach. This means they can react to trends and changes in the industry, so they’ll remain popular with customers. Whether this involves changing the menu to offer innovative new dishes or investing in equipment such as commercial wine coolers from https://www.fridgefreezerdirect.co.uk/commercial-wine-coolers, a top-notch chef should always be willing to learn, adapt and improve their skills.

4. Customer-oriented

As a chef, you might be primarily behind the scenes in the kitchen, but that doesn’t mean that you should ignore what’s going on at the front of the house. A worthy chef must take an interest in the opinions of their customers, reflecting these in menu choices and also in helping to solve any queries or complaints. To excel at this, a chef must also have good listening skills, empathy and the ability to solve problems.

5. Team player

Even as top dog in the kitchen, a chef never works in isolation and should always remember that the smooth running of a kitchen isn’t possible without staff from the bottom of the ladder to the top. Communication is essential if you want a kitchen to operate efficiency, but working well as a team is also vital. Even when under pressure, a good chef will not bark orders at their staff and create fear. Instead, they will offer support and encouragement at every level.