What are the responsibilities and job description for the Kitchen Team Member position at The Wooden Spoon?
Love restaurant work, but tired of restaurant-kitchen culture?
You might belong at The Wooden Spoon.
We’re a small, family-owned restaurant serving homemade food in Northwest Arkansas. We work hard, move fast, and have high expectations—but we believe a great restaurant kitchen can operate without the yelling, cursing, drama, and plate-slamming that too often come with this industry.
We love God. We love others. And we serve some of the best home cooking in Northwest Arkansas.
We're looking for an experienced Line Cook who wants to be part of that.
EXPERIENCE WE’RE LOOKING FOR
Ideally, you have experience working the line in a family restaurant, diner, café, or other high-volume scratch kitchen. You should be comfortable with:
- Working multiple stations during a busy service
- Grill, fryer, flat-top, sauté, and general line-cook responsibilities
- Timing multiple tickets and getting complete tables out together
- Prep work and basic knife skills
- Food safety, cleanliness, and organization
- Working quickly without sacrificing quality
- Staying calm and communicating well when the kitchen gets busy
Experience matters—but who you are matters more.
We can teach our recipes, our systems, and the Wooden Spoon way of doing things. It's much harder to teach someone to care about the people working beside them.
OUR CULTURE IS DIFFERENT
We're not trying to operate like every other restaurant.
No cursing at each other. No screaming. No throwing or slamming plates. No kitchen drama.
We believe you can work with urgency without treating people badly.
Kindness isn't weakness here. We expect a lot from one another, and that includes treating each other with respect.
We're also a small family business, which means "that's not my job" doesn't work very well here.
Some days the person beside you may need help prepping. Another day the dish area may be buried. Someone may need to run food, grab something from the cooler, clean something up, or jump onto another station.
We cross roles because the success of the whole team matters more than whose job something technically is.
YOU'LL PROBABLY LOVE WORKING HERE IF...
You genuinely enjoy restaurant work.
You like the energy of a busy kitchen.
You take pride in sending out great food.
You notice when a teammate needs help—and help without being asked.
You can receive correction without creating drama.
You hold yourself to a high standard even when nobody is watching.
And maybe you've spent years in restaurants and love the work but are tired of the culture that sometimes comes with it.
If that sounds familiar, we'd really like to meet you.
WHO WE ARE
The Wooden Spoon is a small family business, and we operate a lot like a family.
That doesn't mean expectations are low. They're high—for all of us, including the owners.
It means we work hard, help each other, laugh together, take care of each other, and remember that how we treat people matters just as much as how well we cook their food.
We love God.
We love others.
We work hard.
We serve great food.
And we try to do all of it with love and kindness.
If you're an experienced line cook looking for a restaurant where you can work hard, be proud of what you serve, and actually enjoy the people you work with, we'd love to hear from you.
Pay: $11.00 - $14.00 per hour
Benefits:
- Employee discount
- Paid time off
Work Location: In person
Salary : $11 - $14