All our chefs have culinary degrees or are tested to have comparable knowledge, and all have multiple years of experience in scratch preparation kitchens. Our Director of Operations has both a Dietetics degree and a culinary degree and directly assists all our chefs and clients when needed.
Friend That Cooks is incredibly diligent in hiring only the most talented cooks. It takes a lot for a chef to make it through our hiring and training process, and before our clients ever see a chef, they have proven themselves to our team of chefs. Due to our process, there is no one more qualified to vouch for each of our chef's skills than us. To place a chef, we gather information from our potential clients about their tastes and dietary needs, and we choose a chef ourselves to make sure they have the best fit possible. We are only able to choose from chefs who have open availability in the area a potential client lives, which also has an impact on which chef is selected.
We can provide referrals for the chef we've placed you with upon approval from their clients. Not all our clients allow their personal contact information to be shared, so we get their approval with each individual request. Just let us know if you'd like to have those requests. The best indicator of their skill level is the fact they made it through our hiring and training process though. It's tough!
We conduct background checks on every chef we hire, as well as social media searches. We don't accept felons as employees due to the personal nature of the service we provide. We also do not hire chefs whose background shows poor judgment, bigotry, or hate. If you would like to see the background report on the chef we select for you, we will gladly provide it with their social security number redacted.
We have a very intense recruitment process. We only hire chefs who can create dishes without needing recipes, and who have a large repertoire of ethnic and classic dishes they can prepare from scratch. To make this happen requires a very selective hiring process. We interview and test every applicant extensively. Not only must they pass a culinary test, but they must also cook for us to prove their palate matches their knowledge. After they prove themselves and pass a background check, they are bonded and insured then undergo two full weeks of training on how to use their skills to provide our service to the highest standard. We utilize a lot of technology and communication to provide ongoing feedback and training to chefs who make it onto our training.
We take a lot of effort and resources to guarantee all the chefs we hire are very capable, professional chefs that can accommodate almost any need, BUT occasionally (rarely) a client and a chef just do not mesh. When an existing client is not getting everything they want from the chef we place them with, we will gladly find another chef that is better suited to their needs as soon as we have availability in another chef's schedule. Existing clients get top priority for placement when switching chefs.
All our chefs have culinary degrees or have been tested to show comparable knowledge, and all have multiple years of experience in scratch preparation kitchens.