Sous Chef
Frequently asked questions about hiring for the Sous Chef role, plus the mistakes that most often derail it.
Common hiring mistakes for this role
The Sous Chef role is one of the most demanding in the kitchen brigade, because it requires culinary technique, deputy maturity and a commercial instinct at the same time. Four traps appear repeatedly in recruiting processes.
Confusing Sous Chef and Chef de Partie
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 personnel. Blending the two in one ad produces two classic outcomes: either you pay 42-48 k€ for a profile who knows only one station and cannot lead the brigade, or you pay 30-32 k€ for a profile who takes station responsibility in service but cannot act as deputy. Frame the scope explicitly in the ad.
Hiring on experience in the wrong concept category
A Sous Chef from system gastronomy (60-150 seats, a standardized menu, central specs for food usage and mise en place) works with different reflexes than a Sous Chef from an independent restaurant (autonomous menu decisions, local suppliers, personal seasonality), from a hotel restaurant (combined with banqueting, bar, breakfast, the rating pressure of hotel-chain platforms) or from fine dining (a smaller brigade, higher technical demands, station depth). Look for a profile from a concept category at most one step away from your own. Hiring a system-gastronomy Sous Chef into a fine-dining house produces friction in the first six months and often a separation in the first year.
Skipping the trial cooking or service test
The Sous Chef is a role where mise-en-place discipline, pass instinct and deputy maturity are central and hard to test in a classic interview. Many candidates talk very well about seasonality and brigade leadership without acting in a structured way under pressure or being hands-on at the pass. The trial cooking or service test is the only reliable way to distinguish a methodical candidate from someone who talks about method. Skipping this stage means hiring blind into a role where lack of quality gets expensive (unreliable pass output, food usage derailing, the brigade leaving the house).
Ignoring the collective agreement, the Working Time Act and the Youth Employment Protection Act
Hospitality is bound in most German states by a DEHOGA state-level collective agreement that governs minimum-wage grading, special payments, shift and weekend bonuses, and vacation entitlements. An ad or contract that does not respect these requirements is challengeable and can trigger back-payments over 12-24 months in a social-security audit. The Working Time Act (ArbZG) also sets hard limits: a maximum of 10 hours per day, at least 11 hours of rest. If apprentices are in the brigade, the Youth Employment Protection Act (JArbSchG) additionally applies, with stricter shift, break and rest rules. As deputy to the head chef, Sous Chefs share responsibility for compliance in the brigade.