Production Chef

What is a production chef?

Production chefs play a crucial role in a professional kitchen environment, preparing items ahead of service for the senior chefs to easily and efficiently cook. You’ll find them in settings including restaurants, hospitals, the armed forces and schools.

A production chef will typically work during the daytime ahead of the evening service. Their role is to assist in the overall efficiency of a kitchen by ensuring the environment is clean and that the necessary foods are prepared for each section of the kitchen. This overall creates a more efficient environment for chefs to work from, which is ultimately conducive to a smooth-running, high-quality kitchen during a business’s busiest hours.

This role is particularly great for individuals emerging into the culinary industry. It allows them to gain the hands-on experience of a kitchen environment whilst refining their skills. This provides the needed experience for people to then graduate into a role like a chef de partie, who runs their section of a kitchen.

Skills required of a production chef

Working as a production chef necessitates a certain standard of culinary skills to deliver consistently on the job. Some of the skills that are essential for this role include:

• Proficient knife skills
• Strong understanding of culinary hygiene, which encompasses their personal, food and kitchen hygiene
• Excellent communication skills
• A proactive attitude and the ability to learn on the job
• Abide by and maintain documentation for schedules, legislative, and quality standard documents
• Teamwork and collaboration skills
• Following recipes accurately
• Ensure consistency in work with quality control, whether that be through keeping flavour profiles consistent or ensuring that any ingredients are chopped uniformly

Salary of a production chef

This can vary from business to business, but most entering the role of production chef can expect a salary of approximately £25,000.