Sous Chef

How to hire a Sous Chef for your brigade

Before you write the job posting, settle three questions. They determine which profile you really need and help you avoid the most common scope mistakes in the German kitchen brigade.

Question 1: Sous Chef, Chef de Partie or deputy head chef under another name? The three roles overlap in part but are not equivalent. A Chef de Partie runs a station (saucier, patissier, garde manger, entremetier or rôtisseur) with 1-2 commis under them and is responsible for the mise en place and pass output of the station. A Sous Chef deputizes for the head chef, leads the whole brigade across stations, and has co-ownership of the menu, food usage, HACCP and people leadership. In some hotel chains or multi-outlet houses there is an additional junior Sous Chef level between Chef de Partie and Sous Chef; in others the head chef’s deputy role is led directly by a deputy head chef. Specify the function in the title itself: Souschef:in (m/w/d), not versatile kitchen profile, which says nothing.

Question 2: Which concept category? The German market has four clearly separate worlds. Independent restaurants (autonomous menu decisions, local suppliers, personal seasonality, often owner-run). Hotel restaurants (combined with banqueting, bar, breakfast, rating pressure via hotel-chain platforms like Booking, OTAs and Tripadvisor, F&B reporting to hotel direction). System gastronomy (60-150 seats, a standardized menu, central specs for food usage and mise en place, often multi-outlet). Fine dining (a smaller brigade, higher technical demands, deep station depth, rating pressure via guides). Look for a profile from a concept category at most one step away from your own. Lateral moves work but need 6-12 months of onboarding and a clear support model; in the interview the candidate must be able to explain what changes structurally in the new category.

Question 3: Which brigade size and which menu complexity? A Sous Chef who has led a 5-person brigade in a house with 60 seats and 800 k€ annual revenue works differently than someone with a 12-person brigade in a hotel restaurant with 150 seats, a banqueting operation and 3 M€ annual revenue. Brigade rituals, mise-en-place depth, station cross-training and menu collaboration differ. Look for a profile whose previous brigade size is at most 2x smaller or larger than yours; larger gaps require real re-adaptation. In the German SMB hospitality sector, a full-time Sous Chef role is justified from 60-80 seats or a brigade of at least 4-5 cooks; below that, a Chef de Partie with an extended scope or a deputy via the most experienced Chef de Partie is enough.

If the three answers converge on a full-time Sous Chef for a brigade of 5-15 cooks (and not a Chef de Partie or a direct deputy head chef), see the ready-to-use template on the Job description tab.