Executive chef interview questions

What this hire must get done

Write the scorecard before you interview, then hire against it. Set the bracketed targets from your own numbers.

What to tell candidates before the interview

Say the hard parts plainly. People who wouldn't stay drop out early, and the ones who stay knew what they signed up for.

• Show the real week: [five] shifts including Friday and Saturday nights and most holidays, with ordering, scheduling and inventory fit in around service.
• Say what the chef owns and who signs off: [the menu, specials, vendors, hiring and the kitchen schedule], and who sets the food cost and labor targets.
• Explain the pay, [salary and bonus], and what the bonus is tied to. A chef who manages the kitchen, directs the cooks and hires or fires them counts as a manager under federal tip rules, so they can't take any share of employees' tips, tip pool included.
• Tell them the interview includes a costing exercise with made-up numbers and, if you want one, a paid tasting on a separate day.

How to run the interview

1. Same questions, same order. Ask every candidate the questions below and the same follow-ups. It is the only way to compare people fairly.
2. Two interviewers. An owner or manager and someone who does the work. Take notes on what the candidate says, not on how you feel about them.
3. Score right after each answer. 5 sounds like the strong answer, 3 like the mixed one, 1 like the weak one. Use 2 and 4 for answers in between.
4. Rate alone, then compare. Compare candidates question by question, and talk only after everyone has scored. Big gaps are worth a conversation.

1. Technical · Food and labor costs

   Your weekly count shows actual food cost [two points] over theoretical, and it was close last week. Walk me through how you find where it went.

   It shows whether they trace a cost gap to its cause or just tell the cooks to watch portions.

   Follow-ups

   • Which items do you look at first, and why those?
   • What would tell you the count is wrong, not the kitchen?
   • What do you change this week, and how will you know it worked?

   5Strong

   Checks the count first for missed items, wrong units and transfers. Then compares invoice prices with recipe card costs on the biggest-dollar items, reads the waste, comp and staff meal logs, weighs portions at the pass, checks protein yields and delivery credits.

   3Mixed

   Names likely causes, like waste or heavy portions, and would check them, but has no order to the search and never questions the count or the invoices.

   1Weak

   Tells the cooks to cut portions, or blames the vendor, without looking at anything.

2. Situational · Food and labor costs

   Kitchen labor has run over budget [three] weeks in a row. Your cooks say they're stretched thin, and the GM wants hours cut. What do you do?

   Labor is the cost a chef can move fastest. The answer shows whether they find the cause or cut hours where it hurts service.

   Follow-ups

   • Which report do you pull first?
   • Which shifts would you protect, and which would you change?
   • What do you take to the GM?

   5Strong

   Compares clocked hours with covers by day and shift to find where the hours go, like overtime from an open job, prep starting too early or a slow Monday staffed like a Friday. Fixes that, cross-trains, protects the busy shifts and brings the GM a plan with numbers.

   3Mixed

   Gets labor back under budget by trimming hours evenly across the week, so slow shifts and the Saturday line get cut alike.

   1Weak

   Cuts hours on the busiest nights, or ignores the budget and says the kitchen needs what it needs.

3. Situational · Buying and receiving

   Your main vendor's price on [your top protein] has gone up two weeks in a row, and the rep says it will stay high all season. What do you do?

   A price rise nobody acts on shows up weeks later as food cost. This shows whether they work the problem or absorb it.

   Follow-ups

   • How would you have caught it before the month closed?
   • What would you change on the plate, and what wouldn't you change without asking?
   • Who do you tell, and when?

   5Strong

   Recosts the dish right away, gets a second quote at the same spec, looks at a different cut or pack size the recipe allows, and brings [the owner or culinary director] options: a price change, a swap or a special. Never quietly shrinks the portion.

   3Mixed

   Recosts the dish and tells [the owner or culinary director] about the rise, but brings no options, like a second quote or a different cut, so the decision waits on them.

   1Weak

   Cuts the portion without telling anyone, or doesn't notice until the month-end report.

4. Behavioral · Buying and receiving

   Tell me about the last time you changed how your kitchen orders, like resetting pars, adding an order day or dropping a vendor. What made you change it?

   Ordering habits decide how much cash sits on the shelves and how often a dish runs out. A chef who adjusts them on evidence keeps both low.

   Follow-ups

   • What numbers told you something was off?
   • What did you change, exactly?
   • What happened over the next month?

   5Strong

   Names what set it off, like the waste log, items 86'd on weekends, repeated shorts or product aging out. Describes the exact change and can say what happened to waste, outages or food cost afterward.

   3Mixed

   Made a real change, but because things felt off rather than from a number, and isn't sure what it did.

   1Weak

   Orders the way the kitchen always has and can't name a change they've made, or can't say why one was made.

5. Situational · Food safety system

   An hour before doors on Saturday, a cook tells you they threw up twice this morning but feel fine now. You're already a cook short. What do you do?

   The chef sets the real sick-worker rule by what happens on a short night. Cooks who see a sick coworker kept on the line learn to hide symptoms.

   Follow-ups

   • Where do you record the report?
   • How do you cover the station tonight?
   • What would make a cook keep quiet about being sick next time?

   5Strong

   Thanks the cook and sends them home, however short the kitchen is, then follows the reporting and return-to-work rules in your state's food code. Records the report, has their station sanitized, reminds the crew to report symptoms, and covers by moving people or trimming the menu.

   3Mixed

   Sends the cook home and covers the station well, but doesn't record the report or remind the rest of the crew to report symptoms.

   1Weak

   Keeps the cook working anywhere in the kitchen, including dish or prep, instead of sending them home.

6. Behavioral · Food safety system

   Tell me about the worst health inspection or internal audit a kitchen you ran has had. What did you change afterward?

   Every chef gets written up sometime. You want the one who fixed the system behind the violation, not just the item.

   Follow-ups

   • What was the cause underneath the item that got written up?
   • Who checks it now when you're not in the building?
   • What did the next inspection show?

   5Strong

   Names the violation and owns it. Traces it to a gap in the system, like a log nobody owned or a torn gasket never put on the repair list, assigns an owner and a daily check, trains the crew, and says what the next inspection found.

   3Mixed

   Fixed the item before the next visit, but the fix depends on the chef catching it in person.

   1Weak

   Blames the inspector or the crew, or says no kitchen of theirs has ever been written up.

7. Situational · Same plate every shift

   The GM forwards guest comments: the short rib is great on weekends and dry on Mondays, your night off. What do you do?

   Consistency breaks on the nights the chef isn't there. This shows whether they fix the cause or blame the Monday crew.

   Follow-ups

   • How do you find out what's different on Monday?
   • What do you change so it stays right while you're on vacation?
   • What do you tell the GM, and when?

   5Strong

   Comes in on a Monday or has the sous send photos, then checks the build card, the batch date, how it's held and reheated, and who's cooking. Fixes the cause, retrains with the sous, adds a check at the pass and tells the GM what changed.

   3Mixed

   Retrains the Monday cook on the recipe, but doesn't check whether prep, holding or the build card is the real cause.

   1Weak

   Blames the Monday crew or the sous without looking, or says the dish is fine when they taste it.

8. Behavioral · Same plate every shift

   Tell me about the last menu change you rolled out, from the first test to the first busy weekend.

   A new menu breaks the line if it isn't costed, timed and taught. This shows whether they plan the rollout or fix it during service.

   Follow-ups

   • What did you test before the first service, and how?
   • What broke in the first week?
   • How did you know the new dishes were making money?

   5Strong

   Costed and tested each dish, wrote build cards with photos, timed the dishes on the line to balance the stations, trained cooks, walked servers through the dishes and their allergens, reset pars and orders, ran a soft service, then checked sales mix, send-backs and ticket times.

   3Mixed

   Wrote good recipes and trained the cooks, but didn't time the dishes on the line or recost them, so problems showed up in service.

   1Weak

   Changed the menu on short notice with no build cards, and the cooks learned it during service.

9. Behavioral · Building the team

   Think about the cooks who left your kitchen in the last year. Why did they go?

   A chef who knows why cooks leave can fix the reasons. One who doesn't will keep hiring for the same stations.

   Follow-ups

   • Which of those departures could you have prevented, and how?
   • Walk me through how you hired your most recent cook.
   • What does a new cook's first two weeks look like with you?

   5Strong

   Knows roughly how many left and why, separates the ones they wanted gone from the ones they lost, and names something they changed, like posting the schedule earlier, a written training plan or a talk with the owner about pay. Hires with set questions and a short paid stage.

   3Mixed

   Knows the reasons in general, mostly pay and hours, but can't point to anything they changed.

   1Weak

   Doesn't know, or says cooks always leave and nothing can be done about it.

10. Situational · Leading through the sous chef

    Your sous chef cooks beautifully, but on your nights off ticket times climb, and the cooks say the sous yells and jumps on stations instead of running the pass. What do you do?

    A sous who can't run the kitchen ties the chef to every service. This shows whether they can coach a leader, not just a cook.

    Follow-ups

    • What do you tell the sous first, and where?
    • How do you teach someone to run the pass?
    • When would you decide it isn't working?

    5Strong

    Watches a night firsthand, then talks privately with specific examples. Sets the standard: run the board and correct cooks calmly. Has the sous run the pass with the chef beside, then alone on slower nights, tracks ticket times and what cooks say, and sets a date to decide.

    3Mixed

    Talks to the sous, but in general terms like "be calmer", with no plan or follow-up.

    1Weak

    Lets it go because the sous is a great cook, or replaces the sous without any coaching.

Work exercise: cost a plate and fix a losing dish

Give finalists a calculator, a made-up recipe card with case prices and trim yields, and a target food cost. In [25] minutes they cost the plate and set a menu price. Then hand them a made-up dish that sells well but earns too little, with its plate cost, price and weekly sales, and allow [20] minutes to rework it and explain the change. No cooking. If you also want a tasting, hold it on another day and pay for the time.

Use made-up materials, never real customer work, and keep it to the time shown. Follow your own safety rules for anything hands-on.

Reference check questions

Tell finalists you'll call a former manager, and get their permission first. Ask about what they did, not whether they were nice.

• How did their kitchen's food cost and labor compare with your targets, and how did they respond when either ran over?
• Tell me about their inspections and your own audits. What happened after something was written up?
• Who did they hire or train who's still cooking for you, or now runs a kitchen?
• How did the kitchen run on their nights off, and would you hand them a kitchen again?

Questions to skip, and what to ask instead

Ask only what the job needs. Questions that touch age, health, family or pay history can break federal, state or local law, even when you mean well.

• SkipWhat are you making now, and what was your bonus last year?

  AskAsk what their last bonus was tied to, like food cost, labor or inspections, not how much it paid. Then share [your salary range and bonus] and ask whether it fits what they're looking for. California, for one, bars asking applicants what they were paid before, but lets you ask what they expect.

• SkipHave you ever had hepatitis or a stomach bug that kept you out of work?

  AskBefore an offer, don't ask about illness or sick days. Ask how they've run a sick-worker rule with a crew, as in the question above. After a conditional offer, any illness reporting your food code requires applies to every new food employee the same way.

• SkipWith kids at home, can you really work every holiday?

  AskThis job works [Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve and most Saturdays]. Can you work that schedule?

Common mistakes when hiring an executive chef

• Hiring on the tasting alone

  A great tasting shows a chef can cook a few plates on a good day. It doesn't show they can cost a menu, run an inventory or keep cooks. Run the costing exercise and the reference calls before you book a tasting.

• Taking "I ran food cost" at face value

  Some chefs were handed a food cost number by an owner or a group's office and never did the count or costed a recipe. Ask who counted, who built the recipe costs and what they changed when the number was off.

• Promoting the sous without the same test

  Your sous chef knows your food, and that counts. But many sous chefs have never set pars, costed a plate or built a schedule against a budget. Give an internal candidate the same questions and exercise as everyone else.

Executive chef interview FAQ