Cook

Summary:

Cook performs various tasks or a sequence of tasks in food service preparation. Tasks consist of several steps that require attention to work operations and follow an established set of steps and sequence of work. These tasks fall into categories related to food preparation and service, kitchen maintenance, and food storage.

Salary commensurate with experience ($25.00 per hour)

• Plan nutritional menus in collaboration with the Child Care Director and prepare all types of meats, poultry, seafood, vegetables, fruit sauces, and gravies for menus.
• Prepare, cook, season, and portion food for all meals by following standardized recipes at different levels of difficulty and plan, regulate, and schedule cooking procedures so that numerous completed food products are ready at the appropriate temperature and time.
• Prepare menu items using special or difficult recipes that require numerous interrelated steps, many ingredients, and lengthy preparation time, using several different and complex methods of preparation such as cool or chill.
• Design, implement and maintain necessary specialized menus to ensure all children with allergies are served appropriate food and or drink alternatives.
• Monitor temperatures and steam pressures, evaluate the condition of food being cooked at frequent intervals, and turn and baste meat to add flavor and prevent uneven cooking and drying out.
• Modify recipes for ingredient quantities, the number of servings, and the size of the equipment available.

• Regularly and thoroughly clean serving carts, food preparation areas, cupboards, drawers, and dishwashing areas; set up and operate a mechanical dishwasher; scrape, soak, scour, and scrub heavier cooking utensils such as mixing bowls and pots; perform heavy‑duty cleaning tasks throughout the food service area, such as cleaning ceilings, exhaust hoods, spaces under and behind kitchen equipment, washing floors and walls with powered cleaning equipment;
  
  clean walk‑in refrigerators and freezers; and sanitize garbage room.

• Label and date all items in refrigerators and freezers and store leftovers in accordance with sanitation and health standards.
• Store canned, boxed, and/or frozen items in the food storage area at appropriate temperature.
• Unload food and supplies from delivery trucks.

• Responsible for complying with security, fire and sanitation rules, policies, procedures, and regulations.
• Ensures compliance with U.S. Agriculture (USDA) Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) and all pertaining standards, policies, and regulations.
• Maintains all documentation for the CACFP program.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

• Knowledge and understanding of food handling techniques, personal hygiene standards, and safe work procedures.
• Thorough knowledge of the full range of food preparation principles, including the techniques and procedures necessary to develop new or revise current recipes and to prepare and cook food in large quantities.
• Working knowledge of sanitation standards and procedures to prevent contamination, such as the need to clean equipment previously used for raw food before further use and the need to use a chemical sanitizer or maintain proper water temperature when cleaning dishes.

• Skill to perform tasks involving several procedures to prepare and cook food in large quantities.
• Skill to overcome practical production problems, evaluate final food products, and initiate corrective action when an item does not meet established quality standards.
• Skill to develop standardized recipes for quantity cooking; able to expand and modify recipes according to the capacity of the kitchen equipment as well as to adjustments in the number of servings required.
• Skill to manage various cooking processes so that food items are served at their peak taste, texture, and appearance with minimum holding periods and so that safe and critical temperature and time control points are met.
• Ability to coordinate a full range of food preparation activities involving quantity food production where many items are cooked simultaneously and require…