Luxury Hoteliers Magazine 1st Quarter 2017 | Page 36

5 Steps to Correctly Interview a Chef

By Barak Hirschowitz
For more than 12 years I have had the pleasure of recruiting chefs for top kitchens across the globe . Sourcing kitchen talent for the world ’ s best hospitality hotels , restaurants and cruise lines keeps me close to the kitchen trade , where I started my hospitality career in the early 90 ’ s . By now I must have interviewed over a 1000 chefs . They have a variety of different specialties and skills , Michelin star chefs , banquet chefs , pastry chefs , chefs that specialize in exotic cuisines like Thai , Arabic , American South , hotel chefs , restaurants chefs . . and well you get the idea .
All this interviewing has taught me a few things on how best to interview a chef to identify where their talent lies . Chefs have a special blend of skill , personality , experience , motivation , passion , leadership and technique that rarely identifies itself clearly on a resume .
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