Lead Cook - Berryessa

Level Experienced

Job Location: 1300 Berryessa, San Jose

Salary Range: $29 - $34 Hourly

Job Categories: Nonprofit - Social Services

The Lead Cook is responsible for preparing healthy meals that adhere to USDA guidelines for people utilizing the Berryessa site (up to 120 people). The lead cook will prepare meals, plate meals, and clean their workspace daily to follow health and safety guidelines. Cooks follow recipes consistently, make adjustments based on customer requests, communicate with kitchen staff, and make an attractive presentation for each meal.

Primary Responsibilities:

  • Ensure ingredients and final products are fresh

  • Follow recipes, including measuring, weighing, and mixing ingredients

  • Bake, grill, steam, and boil meats, vegetables, fish, poultry, and other foods

  • Plate and arrange final dishes

  • Occasionally serve food

  • Maintain a clean and safe work area, including handling utensils, equipment and dishes

  • Handle and store ingredients and food

  • Maintain food safety and sanitation standards

  • Clean and sanitize work areas, equipment and utensils

  • Execute opening and closing procedures

  • Set up workstations with the required ingredients and equipment

  • Check the quality and freshness of ingredients

  • Monitor station inventory levels

  • Accommodate guests’ special requests

  • Operate kitchen equipment such as broilers, ovens, grills and fryers

Desired Qualifications:

  • Knowledge of safety procedures, including safe temperatures at which ingredients must be kept and to which food must be prepared to avoid foodborne illness

  • Ability to work as part of a team, collaborating on complex dishes

  • Interpersonal skills to interact with a variety of other people, such as waitstaff, dishwashers, management, and sometimes customers

  • Calm demeanor to work in a high-stress, fast-paced environment

  • Accountability for the dishes they prepare measuring up to the expectations of management and customers alike

  • Comprehension and organization to follow direct orders and recipes and correctly prepare dishes to the standards of the restaurant

  • Manual dexterity and hand-eye coordination to handle tools, such as knife techniques for chopping, slicing, cutting and dicing

  • Ability to stand in one place for hours at a time, handle extreme heat, and work shifts

  • Must have current California Food Handlers Permit.