Types of Kitchen Jobs: Cooks, Prep and Line Workers

In the professional kitchen the process of prepping and cooking various menu elements lies in the hands of a corps of cooks and kitchen assistants. Depending upon the type and size of kitchen there could be one or two assistants or there could be many.

Chefs direct high-level culinary creation and are responsible for the final presentation and taste of the dishes. Executive chefs carry reputation with them, often rising to celebrity status. But cooks and other staff carry off some of the more essential prep tasks that chefs simply could not manage alone.

Kitchen Cooks

In the kitchen there are chefs and then there are cooks. Many cooks aspire to chef and take direction the way students take assignments, expecting to better their skills and culinary savvy with each new dish. In a formal European kitchen in which the traditional hierarchical roles preside—the Brigade System—you would see a few top-level chefs followed by possible scores of cooks, each assigned one specific specialty.

But even in a fast food restaurant the cooks take direction and often have culinary experience learned on the fly.

• Fry Cook is solely responsible for fried menu items and various duties related to it.
• Sauce Chef specializes in sauces and marinades.
• Roast Chef oversees roasted dishes.
• Grill Cook manages the kitchen grill(s).
• Line Cook is a common name for a cook that works among many such assistant/apprentice cooks assigned to specific parts of the cooking and preparation process.
• Short Order Cook is commonly found working a large grill in a fast food or casual restaurant. Many short order cooks are nearly expert at precision turnover of food orders, often single-handedly preparing dozens of orders at one time.
• Other types of cooks may work in specialty grocery stores where food prepared to-go has become commonplace.

Cooking Versus Preparation Jobs

You could almost split kitchen duties down the middle: those that require cooking skills and those that are preparation duties.

• Chefs and cooks employ cooking skills and their tools include grills, ovens, friers, rotisseries, grills and pots and pans.
• Prep workers wash, cut, clean, shape, season and otherwise make ready food items to be used in the cooking processes.
• Assistants may wash dishes, prepare meals for the kitchen help, bus tables, inventory goods for ordering and much more.
• Line workers are common in institutional kitchens where they serve food.