Lead Cook

Okemos Public Schools • Okemos, MI

8d • Onsite

About The Position

Responsible for all levels of food production, ensuring quality food and service availability within program guidelines. This role involves training and coordinating staff and production operations, including working on the line during meal service times. The Lead Cook must follow the regulations and goals of the Child Nutrition Program at the State and Federal level, and adhere to local health code food safety regulations. Key responsibilities include preparing food in an appealing manner, maintaining sanitation of the work area and equipment, preparing proper quantities of food in allotted time, and assisting with catering orders. The position also involves recipe creation, editing, testing, and coordination of prep efforts with the food service supervisor. Training staff on proper food preparation and cooking techniques, inventory maintenance, and assisting with mealtime coordination are also crucial aspects of this role. The Lead Cook will also coordinate and order products with purveyors and assist with yearly inventory. The ability to self-organize daily, weekly, and monthly responsibilities, along with coordinating supplemental staff, is essential. The role requires following oral and written instructions.

Requirements

• Completion of Serve Safe certified program with a valid certificate is required.
• Minimum of two years cook experience as an OPS Employee.
• Working in the Elementary Hot Food preparation Room, or Middle school services a minimum of 1 year required.
• Ability to read, analyze and interpret general Point of Sale reports and recipes.
• Ability to effectively communicate with others.
• Daily use of e-mail and basic data input.
• Ability to read and write recipes in the English language.
• Ability to add, subtract, multiply and divide.
• Ability to perform these operations using units of American currency, US units of volume, weight and distance.
• Mathematical aptitude involving basic arithmetic skills and use of culinary math to adjust and write standardized recipes.
• Ability to understand common sense reasoning and to carry out detailed or basic written or oral instructions with minimal or no supervision.
• Ability to deal with problems involving a few concrete variables in standardized situations.
• Ability to aide by standards of professional behavior and treating everyone with kindness and respect.
• Ability to make split second decisions especially when involving safety issues.
• Ability to work in a friendly manner with co-workers and students.
• Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with students, staff and community.
• Ability to operate a personal computer and related software.
• Ability to perform duties with full awareness of all district requirements and the Board of Education policies.
• Ability to taste and evaluate all types of foods in order to create and accurately adjust recipes.
• Frequently required to walk and to stand for long periods of time.
• Ability to work in extreme hot and cold temperatures, high humidity and congested work areas.
• Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision and color vision.
• Manual dexterity: Ability to move quickly and efficiently in a fast paced environment including but not limited to grasping, bending, twisting, lifting at least 50# without assistance, pushing and pulling heavy loads on carts.
• Manual dexterity: Ability to move quickly and efficiently in a fast paced environment.
• Ability to meet deadlines with severe time constraints.
• The noise level in the work environment is frequently loud to where you have to raise your voice to be heard.

Responsibilities

• Follows the regulations and goals of the Child Nutrition Program set forth on the State and Federal level.
• Knows, understands and practices food safety regulations as prescribed by the local health code.
• Prepares food in an eye appealing and appetizing manner.
• Responsible for sanitation of work area and proper care of equipment as well as training other staff in proper sanitation practices.
• Prepares proper quantity of food in allotted time.
• Performs all other duties, as assigned including but not limited to working in other positions or alternate locations.
• Creation of, editing and following standardized recipes.
• Recipe testing including tasting and adjusting ingredients.
• Assist with preparation of catering orders and deliveries as needed.
• Coordinates prep efforts on a daily basis in conjunction with the food service supervisor.
• Trains staff on proper food preparation and cooking techniques based on industry standards.
• Inventory maintenance and reporting including labeling, dating and proper storage of on- hand products.
• Assists food service supervisor with mealtime coordination of food production and flow to the serving line.
• Coordinates and orders products and purchases with Food Service purveyors as needed.
• Responsible for helping of yearly inventory of all food service products.
• Ability to self organize daily weekly, monthly responsibilities along with coordination of supplemental staff to complete those responsibilities.
• Follows oral and written instructions.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed