Cook

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Cooks are responsible for delivering food that is not only delicious and cooked to the specifications of the customer but that is safe and fresh as well. They often have the following 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

• Present, garnish 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

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Skills and qualifications

Cooks must exercise the following qualities and skills:

• 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 to 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