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There are many vital culinary skills that extend well beyond being able to cook. A successful kitchen relies on excellent management and leadership, as demonstrated by the head chef/owner and the rest of the team as a whole. What are the best skills you can have as a successful head chef with a head for management? From excellent front and back of house leadership to understanding how a business (especially a restaurant) actually works, here are some examples.

Respect for the Kitchen

A professional kitchen is a living, breathing space that demands respect. Carelessness causes injury and can even result in death. Sharp objects, bacteria, and slippery floors are just some of the hazards in a modern kitchen. From the grease traps to kitchen exhaust hood cleaning, everything must be taken into consideration and attended to. Excellent chefs and staff understand this and focus on every part of the kitchen as a whole, and not just the cooking.

Vital Culinary Skills Include Leadership

A UK survey found that 30% of kitchen staff leave within the first year. A professional kitchen is a hard place to work and requires many soft skills aside from technical skills. Chefs and sous chefs understand that they are leaders that the team looks to for guidance during a crisis:

• Chefs must be able to articulate instructions to the team, including complex recipes.
• A good leader in any situation listens to those around them to improve operations.
• Excellent chefs foster a sense of belonging by treating everyone with respect.

Effective Team Communication

A kitchen is a high-pressure environment, as you might have seen on TV. Of course, not every head chef shouts and screams like a child, like Jean-Christophe Novelli, as most understand that this leads to poor results and is even dangerous. Excellent chefs who command respect are excellent communicators, being able to delegate tasks based on the skills of each individual within the team. But they are also masters at assisting those under them to develop their skills.

Conflict Resolution Skills

Because of the stress of the kitchen, tensions can run high. This is pretty common in any high-pressure environment and can even be a valuable learning experience. However, too much tension breaks the wire! Effective leaders such as chefs, restaurant managers, and head waiters understand how to resolve issues quickly and fairly. This usually happens by calmly addressing the issues between staff members in a way that brings harmony back to the environment.

Emotional Checks are Vital Culinary Skills

According to statistics from The Burnt Chef Project, 84% of hospitality workers (UK) have experienced burnout at some point. There is a proven link between burnout and substance abuse, even in the restaurant industry, but there are also other things at play. Emotional intelligence is one of the most overlooked but vital culinary skills that anyone in the industry will benefit from, and is a critical soft skill that many employers in all sectors actually look for.

Self-awareness and Regulation

This is the ability to recognize your own emotions and understand how they affect your behavior. When you have this skill, you know when you are becoming stressed and can take action.

Empathy Towards Others

It is hard to know what others are feeling, but this skill can be a massive advantage. With this skill, you can spot when a line cook is stressed, and you can step in to offer support.

Relationship Management

Building a rapport with front and back of house staff is essential. When you can effectively build relationships, it is easier to give instructions, encourage positivity, and mediate a disagreement.

Correct Organization Procedures

A disorganized kitchen is very dangerous, as any chef will tell you. The French concept of Mise en Place, or “Everything in its Place,” is a mantra in most successful kitchens. Chefs often work under pressure, and something out of place can disrupt the entire workflow, which leads to tension, mistakes, and injuries. Therefore, kitchen harmony goes well beyond ingredients and cooking technique, and extends to efficient management to maintain a hazard-free workspace.

Time Management Skills

Timing is one of the most critical skills you have as a chef. Personal time management for attendance is obvious. But in the kitchen, you must understand prep times and cooking execution to effectively manage the harmony between the front of house and the kitchen. If this is off in any way, you will end up with undue stress, angry customers, and stressed-out servers. Therefore, excellent delegation skills and an ability to prioritize tasks are highly sought after.

Vital Culinary Skills in Business

Around 56% of new restaurants don’t make it to their fifth year. One of the biggest reasons is that chef-owners are usually only great at cooking and not at business. It is rare to find a chef who is excellent at both, but there are some critical things you need to understand:

• As a chef-owner, you are responsible for the financial success of the restaurant.
• One of the biggest challenges is understanding food percentages for profit. 
• You also need to be able to design recipes that cost less and will sell more.

Solving Problems on the Fly

Effective management can resolve most issues, but kitchens are dynamic and unpredictable. For example, you can run out of ingredients even if you planned ahead. Even worse, an oven could break down. Knowing how to resolve issues on the fly is one of the hallmarks of a talented leader. You can substitute an ingredient for something similar, and there are always stove-top variations of oven dishes. Knowledge and experience will get you out of a jam.

Summary

Respect for the safety and hygiene of a kitchen is one of the most vital culinary skills every team member and leader needs. However, you will also need a high level of emotional intelligence to deal with some of the things that can happen during a cover. When things do go sideways, such as an oven breaking down, it helps if you have the ability to solve problems on the fly.