A restaurant sous chef runs the line during service, calling tickets at the pass with the expeditor and jumping on any station that falls behind. They write the prep lists, train cooks, keep the food safety logs and run the kitchen on the executive chef's days off.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
Median pay, full-service restaurants · BLS, May 2025
We're hiring a Sous Chef to run the line during service and the kitchen when the Executive Chef is off. You'll write prep lists, work the pass with the Expeditor, check every station before service, train cooks, and keep the kitchen's food safety logs complete. You'll also help with ordering, receiving and weekly inventory.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Run the line during service from the pass with the Expeditor: watch ticket times, pull plates that miss spec, and control the pace.
Do line checks before each service: temps, taste, portions, labels and station setup.
Write daily prep lists from pars, reservations and events, and assign them to prep and line cooks.
Train new cooks on recipes, station setup and food safety, and sign off when they can work a station alone.
Help with ordering and receiving, and count inventory with the Executive Chef each [week].
Lead the kitchen as the chef in charge on the Executive Chef's days off.
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Check overnight cooler temps, cooling logs and walk-in labels at the start of the shift.
Taste sauces, soups and dressings before service and fix what's off.
Call the 86 list to servers and the host stand the moment an item runs out.
Jump on any station that falls behind during the rush.
Close the kitchen: break down stations, wrap and label product, check the cleaning list and log closing temps.
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Average ticket time during peak service: [your target].
Line checks completed and signed: [your target].
Prep list accuracy against pars: [your target].
Food waste logged per shift: [your target].
Cooks trained and signed off: [your target].
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
[3+] years cooking in full-service kitchens, including time as a lead line cook or Sous Chef.
Can run every station on the line and expo.
ServSafe Manager or equivalent certification within [60] days, so a certified manager covers every shift.
Can scale recipes, portion by weight, and build a prep list from a par sheet.
Keeps calling tickets clearly when the board is full.
6. Preferred Experience
Culinary school or apprenticeship training.
Experience ordering from broadline distributors and checking invoices.
Has trained cooks using written recipes and station guides.
7. Physical Requirements
Stand at the pass or on the line for most of a [10]-hour shift.
Move quickly between stations, walk-ins and the pass, lifting full stock pots up to [50] pounds.
Work in heat near open flame and fryers, and in walk-in coolers and freezers.
With or without reasonable accommodation.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
Nights, weekends and holidays, including closing shifts.
Longer days during events, menu changes and inventory.
Loud, hot kitchen with tight spaces and wet floors.
9. Compensation and Benefits
Pay: [range and hourly or salary basis].
Additional pay: [overtime, bonus or incentive terms, or none].
Benefits: [health, dental, vision, retirement, paid time off, and when they start].
10. Company Culture and Overview
[Two or three sentences on what your company does, the area you serve, and the support a new sous chef gets in the first 90 days.]
11. How to Apply
[Apply link or email]. Our process: [phone interview, in-person interview, and next steps]. Contact [hiring contact] if you need an accommodation during the application process.
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Every sous chef backs up the head chef. In a group's full-service kitchens, the job centers on the pass: tables fire in courses, the group's specs leave little room to improvise, and the sous is often the only kitchen manager in the building at night.
The pass sets the pace
Tables order in courses. The sous chef decides when each table's entrées fire, watches the screen for tickets running long, and pulls any plate that doesn't match the photo. Standing next to the expeditor, the sous also tells the floor manager when the kitchen needs a few minutes before the next big table sits.
Often the certified manager on duty
The template gives a new sous 60 days to earn a food safety manager certificate, so a certified manager covers every shift. Some places leave less room. Colorado, which adopted the 2022 FDA Food Code, requires every retail food establishment to have a certified food protection manager on site during business hours. There, a sous who will close alone needs the certificate before the first solo shift. On the chef's night off, that manager is usually the sous. Source: Larimer County, Colorado: certified food protection manager requirement.
Tomorrow's prep starts with the book
The sous chef writes the prep list from pars, the reservation count and the private events on the calendar. A forty-top in the private room or a holiday weekend changes everything. Too little prep and dishes get 86'd halfway through dinner. Too much, and it lands on the waste log the next morning.
Cooks work alone only after a sign-off
New cooks learn each station from the group's written recipes and station guides, then work it alone only once the sous chef signs them off. In a group, a cook trained at one restaurant may cover a shift across town, so the sign-off uses the same checklist at every location.
The close and the next morning
Most nights the sous closes: breaking down stations, wrapping and labeling product, checking the cleaning list and logging closing temperatures. The next shift starts with the overnight cooler readings and the cooling log, so a batch that missed its times gets caught before it reaches the line.
How much restaurant sous chefs make
The closest BLS group for restaurant sous chefs is chefs and head cooks. Chefs and head cooks who work for full-service restaurants earned a median of $29.24 an hour ($60,820 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s about the same as the $62,470 median for chefs and head cooks in all industries. About 101,850 of the 200,040 chefs and head cooks in that survey work for full-service restaurants.
Some groups keep the sous on an hourly wage so overtime is simple; others salary the job and add a small bonus when food cost or the inspection comes in on target. BLS counts sous chefs with executive chefs, so expect sous chef pay toward the low end of those figures.
Full-service restaurants
$60,820$60,820 median Middle half $46,700–$77,160 10th–90th $37,310–$94,380
All industries
$62,470$62,470 median Middle half $48,440–$78,750 10th–90th $37,900–$98,560
$0k$25k$50k$75k$100k$125k
10th–90th percentileMiddle halfMedianAnnual pay, May 2025. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics.
Annual pay by percentile
Group
10th
25th
Median
75th
90th
Full-service restaurants
$37,310
$46,700
$60,820
$77,160
$94,380
All industries
$37,900
$48,440
$62,470
$78,750
$98,560
Skills to hire for, and what you can teach
Hire for these
Works every station and expo, and sees which cook is sinking before they ask
Keeps calling tickets in a clear, even voice on the busiest night of the week
Builds a prep list from pars, covers and the event calendar
Teaches a station step by step and holds cooks to the spec
Keeps temperature and cooling logs honest and complete
Teach these on the job
The group's recipes, plating photos and station guides
Your order days, vendors and receiving checks
How the chef runs inventory counts
The screens and timers on your kitchen display system
Scheduling and the kitchen labor budget, before running the kitchen alone
A sous chef's shift runs on the ticket screen at the pass, a calibrated probe thermometer, a label printer or day dots, a kitchen scale and the line check sheet. If the job also places orders or counts inventory in software, name the system in the posting.
Restaurant sous chef interview questions
They have their own page: 6 questions that test this job, what strong and weak answers sound like, and a work exercise to run with your finalists.
Set each target from what this kitchen already does on a packed Saturday and a slow Tuesday. Sign off on them with the executive chef and look at them together each week.
Average ticket time during peak service
Pull the kitchen display system's fire-to-pass times for the busiest stretch of dinner and compare nights with similar covers, not a Tuesday with a Saturday.
Line checks completed and signed
Count signed line check sheets against services run. Now and then, probe the line yourself to see whether the sheet matches the food.
Prep list accuracy against pars
Compare what was prepped with what sold. Items 86'd early and items thrown out at close both count as misses on that day's list.
Food waste logged per shift
Read the waste log after each shift for what was thrown out, how much and why. A shift with nothing logged usually means nobody wrote it down.
Cooks trained and signed off
Keep a sign-off sheet by cook, station and date, and check it against the cooks hired or moved to new stations in the same period.
Career path
Prep cookLearns knife work, recipes and how the walk-in is organized.
Line cookWorks several stations and becomes the strongest cook on the line.
Sous chefRuns the line during service and the kitchen on the chef's days off.
Executive chefTakes over a kitchen in the group, often at a new opening.
What's the difference between a sous chef and an executive chef?
The executive chef answers for the whole kitchen: ordering, food cost, labor, hiring and the link to the Culinary Director. The sous chef runs the line during service, writes prep, trains cooks and acts as chef in charge on days off. BLS calls sous chefs a kitchen's second-in-command. In a group, the culinary director usually works through each executive chef, not the sous.
How much does a restaurant sous chef make?
Chefs and head cooks who work for full-service restaurants earned a median of $29.24 an hour ($60,820 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $46,700 and $77,160 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and overtime.
Is a sous chef exempt from overtime?
It depends on the duties and the pay, not the title, and a salary alone doesn't settle it. The federal executive exemption fits someone whose main job is managing the kitchen, who regularly directs two or more employees, and whose say in hiring and firing is taken seriously. Chefs with a four-year culinary arts degree generally meet the duties test for the learned professional exemption. Cooks doing mostly routine work don't. A sous who spends most shifts on a station looks more like a cook. State law can be stricter, so check it too.
Can a sous chef share in the kitchen's tip pool?
Not if federal law treats them as a manager or supervisor. That test has three parts. Managing is their main duty. They direct at least two full-time cooks, or the same hours from part-timers. And they can hire and fire, or their hiring advice gets real weight. Managers and supervisors can't take tips from any pool. A sous who runs the line and helps pick new hires may well pass that test, so check the duties before adding the sous to a back-of-house pool.
Should a sous chef have ACF certification?
It's voluntary. ACF, the American Culinary Federation, offers a Certified Sous Chef credential. It asks for two years supervising a shift or station within the past ten years, plus written and practical exams, and it renews every five years. Use it to break a tie between two close candidates, not to rule people out, since many strong sous chefs learned entirely on the line.
Should your next sous chef come from your own line?
Promoting your best line cook keeps your recipes and habits in the kitchen, but cooking one station well differs from running everyone. Before promoting, let them run the pass on slower nights, write a week of prep lists and close with the executive chef. Hire from outside when no one inside has trained other cooks yet.
