How To Select a Prep Cook

A prep cook should have a solid set of culinary skills. But hiring a prep cook on these skills alone is not enough.

Everything starts with the prep team. In the early morning, the prep crew rolls in; hot coffee mixes with loud rock music or tuba-thumping Ranchero on the boombox. As the delivery trucks begin to load off the day's product, convection ovens are getting hot and clean cutting boards are positioned in each prep person's favorite spot. This is the start of promise. What the restaurant does best during service, it's doing first with bravado, knifes flying. The prep team is the key to getting the menu up and running, so choosing a good prep cook is crucial.

Decide first what skills the new prep cook needs. If chopping is all that is required, consider the dish person who is ready to move up. But if this cook needs the skills to braise lamb shanks, make soups or stocks or butcher fish, a closer look at culinary skills is necessary.