Grill chef Review

I prepare the kitchen for the shift ahead, cook, garnish and plate the meals to send out to the guests in the restaurant. I mainly am on the hot plate serving up the food but sometimes I am on the grill cooking the steaks and accompanying side rushes for this.

I have been trying to learn how to complete the food orders, counting the stock, have been given opportunities to run the shift deciding who goes where. I have developed my self confidence, leadership skills in doing so, have had weekly reviews with my kitchen manager about how this is going, and in doing so going both support and knowledge from him.

I enjoy the program, completing the online activities and getting the support from the tutor. I enjoy my progress review meetings also . What I do not enjoy is not being given the necessary opportunities needed to pass my qualification by doing the off the job hour activities. This is in no way the fault of my trainer or kitchen manager, I need to make that clear, they are both so supportive and as frustrated as I am that these cannot be completed.

Very well organised from the programs side of things, but in house it is a very different story unfortunately. There is no allowance of time to those of us on an apprenticeship and we are not allowed or given the needed opportunities to complete activities to progress needed to support this.

The support I receive continuously from my kitchen manager is brilliant, he has all the time in the world for me, will explain things in detail to aid my understanding, answers all my questions throughly to help build my knowledge, he will give me small tasks and activities to complete for him to build my confidence in those areas.

Absolutely loads. My tutor is very informative and communicates often. I feel she sets me realistic expectations and makes it all clear what she wishes me to complete. I can contact her at any time with any questions, or if I need support snd or clarification on something. I am given all the materials I need to complete the theory side of my apprenticeship.

This is a hard question to answer, because I don’t really feel it has changed my role in work in any way.. there are a few activities I now complete because it aids my apprenticeship, such as food logs (for bought in stock from the supermarket) but that’s about all that is different.

Nope, there is nothing at all. Work is just work. People have friendship groups within the team and will socially do things outside of work, but there are never any team social outings or activities outside of work. The only exception would be team member funerals, and a member of managements wedding

Yes

As a company they offer good opportunities to progress, a fair wage for the job you do, and they do look after you, with regular communication about wider things happening within the company, we get 2 pay rises a year and also have had a summer bonus, a Christmas bonus and a cost of living payment within the past year.

Be open in what you want to get out of working for them, and explain in detail why you want to work for them. Your hopes and dreams career wise, what you can offer, lay out your expectations from the start, explain your personal circumstances such as family life, needed income, previous experience and where your aiming to get to/be.