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, and are summarized below.

Salary commensurate with experience ($ $21.00 $23.38 per hour)

Duties and Responsibilities:
Food Preparation and Service

• 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, lengthy preparation time.  They prepare a variety of menu items using several different and complex methods of preparation such as cool or chill.  
• Designs, implements and maintains 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 to prevent uneven cooking and drying out
• Modify recipes for ingredient quantities, the number of servings, and the size of the equipment available
  

• In accordance with applicable ServSafe Certification regulations, policies and procedures:  regularly and thoroughly cleans serving carts, food preparation areas, cupboards, drawers, and dishwashing areas; set up and operate a mechanical dishwasher; scrapes, soaks, scours, and scrubs the heavier cooking utensils such as mixing bowls and pots; performs heavy-duty cleaning tasks throughout the food service and related areas, such as cleaning ceilings; exhaust hoods; spaces under and behind kitchen equipment, including moving the equipment; washing floors and walls with powered cleaning equipment; cleaning walk-in refrigerators and freezers; and sanitizing garbage room
  

• Labels and dates all items in refrigerators and freezers and stores leftovers in accordance with sanitation and health standards
• Stores canned, boxed, and/or frozen items in food storage area at appropriate temperature
• Unload food and supplies from delivery trucks