• The sous chef works under the executive chef to keep the kitchen running.Finger food - finger food pieces at Mediterranean wedding image by FotoWorx from Fotolia.com
  
  Many restaurants employ several levels of kitchen staff and management. The lower levels of staff are usually comprised of cooks who do most of the cooking and food preparation. The person in charge of a kitchen is the executive chef, who creates the menus and keeps the kitchen going. The sous chef combines cooking and administrative duties. The sous chef is an assistant to the executive chef and is one of the kitchen managers.
  
  

Under the Executive

• "Sous," (pronounced, "soo," with a silent final "s") means "under" in French, so sous chef literally means "under the chef." In this capacity of the job, he is assisting the chef in all of their daily duties. This can include anything from choosing menus, coming up with new dishes, and ordering food and supplies. He is the one who runs the kitchen as the de facto executive chef on nights when she is not there. This means coordinating the kitchen to get the food out to the diners in an efficient manner without any loss of quality. In this capacity, the sous chef is also gaining experience potentially to take on an executive chef position one day.
  
  

Employee Management

• The sous chef is also responsible for managing employees. If the executive chef is too busy to hire and deal with the day-to-day employee issues, this may fall to the sous chef. She has to make decisions on employee issues to protect her team and the restaurant. During a meal service, the sous chef will have to coach the employees and counsel them if there are discipline issues. The staff needs to feel that they can come to the sous chef with issues and give her the respect which is due management.
  
  

Food Preparation

• Just because the sous chef is a management position, doesn't mean that he doesn't cook. On evenings when both the executive chef and sous chef are there, the sous chef may take a food station to work for an evening. While he is in the kitchen, he needs to be assisting other cooks with the preparation of their dishes and teach them the right processes and procedures to make the food. He needs to lead by example in setting up and cleaning the food prep areas. He also needs to be a leader in the kitchen, keeping the timing of the stations in sync and making sure that all plates which go up to the window are complete and meet the standards of the restaurant.