What kind of cook are you?

I have a special way to determine what kind of cook are you! Action speak louder than words, cooking staff meal is the perfect way to let me know are you a smart cook, dumb cook or a lazy cook.

I personally love to make staff meal, I call it family meal, my coworker will correct me every time when I call it family meal cause he said ain’t no family in this restaurant! But in America we will alway call it family meal, it will bond us together as a team. Making family meal for me is always fun,it is a platform for you to cook whatever you like to try your creativity, time control and organizing skills. I think for staging the new bees you should make them cook a family meal, to see where is his skills level and passion for food.

So I have found a certain kind of cooks through out my career life, the lazy, the all time fail, the boring and the passionate. How they cook staff meal will reflect strongly on how they work and their personality in the kitchen, and it never goes wrong.

The lazy - He is not bad, the food is standard but you can surely tell that he has no passion he just want to get it done. This type of person will always make curry, you know what I mean right, a sauce with meat and veggies. Either curry or cream sauce in a pot, like you don’t really have to cook is like a instant meal. Throw everything in the pot put the curry paste and you are done, family meal is serve in the next second.

The all time fail - OH BOY! I will never hire this guy fail big time! He does not know what to do his head is basically empty, can never finish cooking a dish on his own. I have this one guy in my work he is just a mess, personality just like his cooking skills clumsy and faltering. We usually eat family meal around 4pm , and yet he haven’t start anything at 3:30pm not even the rice. Then he suddenly pull out pumpkins from the walking trying to cook it at 3:45pm, the funniest things is the pumpkins is his mise en place, oh Lala! That day we had our family meal at 4:30pm with rice and roast chicken, which the whole kitchen stepped in and help finished.

The boring - he will only cook one dish and it will be the same dish every week. He cook tomato and eggs every week, never change. I asked him why tomato and eggs, he responded is easy, saucy and fit every dietary for the team, he left me speechless. This situation has highly reflect on his work, his creation is dull. He has build up a certain habit for making new creation, he like to be in his comfort zone. Flavor of the creation is very uniform, is missing wow factor, just basic.

The passionate - This the the kind of guy I will love and die to hire, he is the diamond in the sea. Clever, vibrant and organized. He is fast, have idea what to make and there will be 2 to 3 dishes for the team and it fit every dietary needs. He put effort and heart to the food that is a respect for the team. He is the one who always correct me when I say family meal instead of staff meal, but his action has truly shown he cares and respect us. How can I not love him, when your teammate is excited for your food, you will have a good future as a chef.

Bonus - My old boss love to buy fast food for our family meal, I do not mind having fast food for staff meal. But he is super weird with the orders! He will order a bucket of fried chicken and like 6 burgers, we have 12 people in the restaurant and we share a bucket of chicken and 6 burgers. The hell is he Jesus? He knows how to make miracle of the five loaves and two fishes? I truly believe he is abnormal, some problem in within.

Is fun to chill with your coworker talking shits! Always remember food bring people together, so put some love and effort to your staff meal. And of cause I am the loving and passionate type of cook.