The 4 Must Have Skills in order to be a BOH (Back of House) Restaurant Superstar
Working in the BOH takes a special set of skills to be successful–after all things are happening fast and you’ve got to create amazing food in a hectic environment!
Orders come at you in bulk, special requests are sometimes only verbal, there are ingredients that you need in various parts of the kitchen, and there are other kitchen team members running around doing their own jobs. You’ve got to work in (and through) all this while still creating winning dishes.
With so much pressure, you have a to have a diverse skill set. While these skills may not come naturally to you, the good news is that all 4 of these skills are learnable.
Here they are:
On-the-Spot Decision Making
Restaurants are dynamic environments where you will often have a solution to a problem or customer request pre-set for you.
But other times, there will be situations that are outside of the ordinary and you’ll have to decide the best course of action.
Being able to make the right decision in the moment is a skill that will set you apart from your coworkers now and in the future.
In fact, the reason businesses will always need people and can’t simply replace them with robots, is that people make decisions–they can think critically.
That said, some people are better at this than others.
So, what’s the difference? What makes one person better than another at this segregating skill?
Practice.
And in a restaurant, you will have plenty of practice to hone this skill for current and later use.
Excellent Organization and Planning
Kitchen are full-scale operations. They require supplies, preparation, organization, anticipation, timing, upkeep, and follow-through.
Look, when the orders come at you, they’re going to come at you.
You’re going to have a ton to do and it’ll all have to be done in a crunch.
In order to accomplish that, you’ll need to have your work, ingredients, and tools well organized and you’ll need a plan for how to carry out the order making process.
Trust on this: it’s fun.
If you can learn to organize a kitchen work-flow and get through volume shifts, then you can organize anything!
Be Able to Notice the Details
We’ve all been to a restaurant and gotten food that was not what we ordered. Maybe it was missing an ingredient, or maybe it was just a wop-sided whopper. Either way, the cause of the problem was a simple lack of attention to details.
When you are in the kitchen handling orders, you have to have a keen eye for details–you’ve got to know when food is getting done just by observing it. You’ve got to know when a plate is missing something or accidently received an extra ingredient that shouldn’t be there.
Too, you’ve got to keep track of all the little ingredients and accoutrements you need at any given moment.
Being able to recognize and keep track of the details of a process or job is a vital skill in life. If you can learn this, you will be miles ahead of your peers in your future career.
(And you’ll get plenty of practice while working in a restaurant!)
Think and Act Fast
What’s the most fun part of a kitchen?
When the rush comes its balls-to-the-wall! Restaurant kitchens ceratainly seem like a madhouse to an outsider–or to a rookie.
Now, there is actually a lot of organization and structure in a properly run restaurant kitchen. But that doesn’t mean that you will be able to take your time.
Fact is, you won’t have any time.
You’ll be flooded with orders and have to move fast, think fast, cook fast…all while still creating mouthwatering dishes!
If you’re looking for action, then you NEED to work in a restaurant!
