Sous Chef Job Description Templates for Restaurants
Sous chef job description templates for restaurants: 6 variants with service duties, FLSA classification, tip pool rules, and pay benchmarks. Free DOCX.
TL;DR
A sous chef is second in command: runs service, covers the head chef, and owns the line. Classification turns on duties, not the title. Management as the primary duty plus $684 per week points to exempt; mostly cooking a station means hourly and overtime. Supervisors cannot take tip pool money. Six templates below, downloadable as DOCX.
A restaurant owner I worked with lost her sous chef in March and did not replace him until August. Her head chef covered every close for five months, the line turned over twice, and the posting that finally worked looked nothing like the one she started with. The first version said sous chef, experience required, apply within.
The templates on this page start from one idea. A sous chef posting is not a shorter chef posting. It is a different job with a different center of gravity. The sous runs service while the head chef works the pass or the office, covers the head chef on days off and vacation, owns the line when the rush breaks a station, and is usually the person who decides whether a plate goes out or goes in the bin.
At FirstHR we build hiring templates for small restaurants that hire without an HR department. The six below cover a full-service sous chef, a working sous in a small independent kitchen, an executive sous, a junior sous, a banquet and catering sous, and a pastry sous, each with the classification and tip rules the generic versions leave out.
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A sous chef is the second in command of a kitchen and the person who runs service when the head chef is not on the line. The role splits into four parts that a good posting names explicitly, because candidates use those four parts to judge whether your kitchen is organized.
The mistake most small restaurants make is describing the sous chef by responsibilities that sound managerial and leaving out the physical reality of the shift. Cooks read that and assume the job is undefined. Undefined is the job they just left.
Owns the line
During service
The sous holds the pass or expedites, calls the board, controls ticket times, and drops onto any station the moment a cook falls behind. This is the part of the job a generic chef posting never describes, and it is the part candidates are judging you on.
Covers the whole kitchen
When the head chef is off
Ordering, receiving, the schedule, the prep list, food safety, and the standard on every plate. In a small restaurant this is a third of the year once you count days off, vacation, and sick days. Write the authority into the posting or nobody will use it.
Builds the crew
Between services
Training new cooks, running station checks, giving shift feedback, and telling the head chef which line cook is ready to move up. A sous who cannot train is a very expensive line cook, and that gap shows up in your turnover before it shows up anywhere else.
Protects the margin
On the numbers
Portion control, yield, waste tracking, inventory counts, and vendor orders inside a budget. Most owners hire a sous for the service coverage and only later realize this is where the role pays for itself.
Tip
Answer the Coverage Question in the First Paragraph
Every sous chef candidate is trying to work out one thing: how much of this kitchen is mine, and when. Say how many shifts they run alone, whether they hold the pass or work a station, whether they order and write the schedule, and what happens when the head chef takes two weeks off. Four sentences. That single block of detail will do more for your applicant quality than every adjective in the rest of the posting.
Sous Chef vs Head Chef vs Kitchen Manager
The head chef owns the menu and the numbers; the sous chef owns the execution of both; the kitchen manager owns the systems around them. In a small independent restaurant these three collapse into two people, and the posting has to say which combination you are actually hiring.
Get the boundary wrong and you lose the candidate early. A cook who expects to write menus and instead works garde manger every night leaves before the season ends, and you are back to covering closes yourself.
Role
Owns
Typical pay basis
Where the line blurs
Executive chef or head chef
Menu, recipes, food and labor cost, hiring
Salary
In a small kitchen the owner may hold this role
Sous chef
Service execution, the line, training, coverage
Salary or hourly
Often a working sous on a station in small restaurants
Junior sous chef
One station plus prep, training, and closing
Hourly
Effectively a lead line cook with a leadership path
Kitchen manager
Scheduling, ordering, inventory, compliance systems
Salary or hourly
Sometimes replaces the sous role entirely
Lead line cook
One station at full volume
Hourly
The natural promotion pool for junior sous
If your open role is mostly systems rather than service leadership, use the kitchen manager templates instead.
What Belongs in the Posting
A sous chef job description does four jobs at once: it sells the kitchen, it filters cooks who are not ready to lead, it protects you on classification and tips, and it closes the candidate. Most restaurant postings do only the first, which is why they produce volume and not fit.
What cooks read first
Concept, cover count, and how many stations
Scratch kitchen or partial prep, stated honestly
How often the menu changes and who writes it
Who the sous reports to and who reports back
The part most postings skip
How many shifts the sous runs alone
What happens when the head chef is on vacation
Whether the sous orders, schedules, and hires
Expected shift length and days per week
The parts that protect you
FLSA classification stated on the posting
Tip pool participation stated or ruled out
Physical requirements and essential functions
Equal opportunity statement
The parts that close the hire
Pay, or a good-faith range where required
Food protection certification: required or paid for
Meals, coverage, time off, and closed holidays
A paid stage and a real decision date
The omission that costs the most is the coverage schedule. Candidates want to know how many services they run alone before they know what the concept is.
6 Sous Chef Job Description Templates to Download
Download all six as one file or copy them individually. Each follows the same structure: an overview of the restaurant or role, a position summary, key responsibilities, required qualifications, a classification note, an equal opportunity statement, and how to apply. The bracketed fields are the only parts you change.
Download All 6 Sous Chef Job Description Templates
Full-service, working sous, executive sous, junior sous, banquet and catering, and pastry sous. All in one download.
Sous Chef, Full-Service· The standard posting
Start here when the sous holds the pass, covers the head chef, and takes on ordering and cost control. The classification and tip notes are already written in.
Choose this when you are promoting a strong line cook who is learning to lead. It is built as a non-exempt role, with a written review point and a stated path to sous.
Choose this for an event kitchen: timelines planned backward from service time, plate-up leadership, and holding and transport controls for off-site work.
Choose this for a dessert or bakery program, where the sous runs the production schedule, keeps recipes accurate, segregates allergens, and covers the pastry chef's days off.
The complete second-in-command posting: service leadership, team coaching, ordering, cost control, and food safety authority, with the classification and tip notes built in.
Sous Chef Job Description (Full-Service Restaurant)
SOUS CHEF JOB DESCRIPTION
Restaurant: ([City, State])
Reports to: [Executive Chef / Head Chef / Chef de Cuisine]
Direct reports: [line cooks, prep cooks, dishwashers]
Employment type: Full-time, [salaried / hourly]
FLSA status: [Exempt / Non-exempt] (see classification note)
Compensation: $ per [year / hour]
ABOUT [RESTAURANT NAME]
[Restaurant Name] is a [concept: New American, trattoria, steakhouse, bistro] in
[City, State] serving [number] covers on a busy night from a [scratch / partial
prep] kitchen. We run [number] stations across [lunch and dinner / dinner only],
[number] days a week, with a menu that changes [seasonally / weekly / rarely].
POSITION SUMMARY
The Sous Chef is second in command of the kitchen. You run service on the nights
the [Executive Chef] is not on the line, hold the pass, expedite tickets, keep
the stations stocked and clean, and step into any station when the rush breaks
it. When the [Executive Chef] is off, on vacation, or out sick, you carry the
kitchen: ordering, scheduling, food safety, and the standard on every plate.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Service and the line
•Run service on [number] shifts per week, holding the pass or expediting
•Cook any station on the line when a cook goes down or the ticket rail backs up
•Call the board, control ticket times, and hold plate standards on every cover
•Taste and check every component before service opens
Team
•Direct and coach [number] line and prep cooks during the shift
•Train new cooks on recipes, station setup, and our plating standards
•Contribute to hiring decisions, write shift feedback, and flag performance
issues to the [Executive Chef]
•Build or contribute to the kitchen schedule and manage break coverage
Cost and inventory
•Place [daily / weekly] orders with approved vendors within budget
•Receive and check deliveries for temperature, count, quality, and price
•Run inventory [weekly / monthly] and track waste against a target
•Support food cost targets of [percent] through portion control and yield
Food safety and facility
•Serve as person in charge during assigned shifts
•Keep temperature logs, cooling logs, and cleaning schedules complete and
accurate
•Enforce allergen handling, labeling, dating, and rotation procedures
•Lead the kitchen through health inspections and correct findings immediately
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years of professional kitchen experience, including [number] in a
lead or sous role
•Ability to run every station on our line to standard
•Current [ServSafe / state-approved] food protection manager certification, or
ability to obtain within [number] days of hire
•Available [nights, weekends, holidays] and able to work [number] hour shifts
•Able to stand for a full shift, lift [number] pounds, and work in a hot,
wet, high-noise environment
•[Culinary degree preferred / not required]
CLASSIFICATION NOTE (read before posting)
Decide exempt or non-exempt on the actual day, not on the title. A sous chef may
qualify for the FLSA executive exemption only if the primary duty is management
of the kitchen, the role customarily and regularly directs the work of two or
more other employees, the role either holds the authority to hire or fire or
makes recommendations that are given particular weight, and pay is on a salary
basis of at least $684 per week. A working sous who
mostly cooks a station is non-exempt: track hours and pay overtime past forty in
a week. State law may set a higher salary floor. This is general information,
not legal advice.
TIPS AND GRATUITIES
[If your kitchen participates in a tip pool, state it here.] Federal rules bar
employers, managers, and supervisors from keeping tips from a tip pool, whether
or not the restaurant takes a tip credit. If this role meets the executive
duties test, it cannot receive money from the pool. Use a service charge, a
bonus, or a higher base rate instead.
EEO STATEMENT
[Restaurant Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $ per [year / hour], [bonus structure], [meals, health
coverage, paid time off, closed holidays]
To apply, email with your resume. Trade test: [number]
hour paid stage on the line.
Template 2: Working Sous Chef, Small Independent Restaurant
For an owner-operated kitchen where the sous cooks a station and leads at the same time. Written hourly, because that is what the duties usually support. Pair it with the line cook templates when you staff the rest of the line.
Working Sous Chef, Small Independent Restaurant
WORKING SOUS CHEF JOB DESCRIPTION (SMALL INDEPENDENT RESTAURANT)
Restaurant: ([City, State])
Reports to: [Owner / Chef-Owner]
Employment type: Full-time
FLSA status: Non-exempt (hourly, overtime-eligible) unless the executive
exemption clearly applies
Compensation: $ per hour
ABOUT THIS ROLE
[Restaurant Name] is an owner-operated [concept] in [City, State] with a small
kitchen crew and no corporate office behind it. This is a working sous chef job:
you are on a station for most of the shift and leading the kitchen at the same
time. If you want a clipboard role, this is not it.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Working Sous Chef cooks a station through service, runs the kitchen when the
[Chef-Owner] is off, keeps prep lists and orders moving, and holds food safety
and cleanliness standards without being asked twice.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Cook [station] through service and cover any other station as needed
•Run the kitchen on [number] shifts per week when the [Chef-Owner] is off
•Write and assign the daily prep list, then check it before service
•Place orders with [number] vendors and receive deliveries
•Train new cooks on recipes, specs, and setup
•Keep temperature, cooling, and cleaning logs current
•Close the kitchen: breakdown, deep clean, walk-in organization, next-day prep
•Flag equipment problems and food cost drift early
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years of line experience in a scratch kitchen
•Can run [our stations] to standard without supervision
•[ServSafe / state-approved] food protection manager certification or ability
to obtain within [number] days
•Available [nights, weekends, holidays]
•Comfortable in a small crew where everyone touches everything
CLASSIFICATION NOTE
Most working sous chefs in small independent restaurants are non-exempt. The
executive exemption requires that management be the primary duty of the job. If
the sous spends the majority of the shift cooking a station, that is production
work, and the exemption is a hard argument to win. Paying a salary does not
change the answer by itself: the salary basis test is one part of a test the
duties still have to pass. Track hours, pay overtime past forty in a week, and
check your state overtime rules, which may be stricter than federal law. This is
general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Restaurant Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $ per hour, overtime at time and a half past forty hours,
[shift meal, health coverage, paid time off]
To apply, email with your resume and availability.
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Template 3: Executive Sous Chef, Hotel or Multi-Outlet
The deputy across several outlets and banquet volume, with purchase authority, hiring input, and full standing for the executive chef in their absence.
Executive Sous Chef Job Description (Hotel or Multi-Outlet)
EXECUTIVE SOUS CHEF JOB DESCRIPTION
Property: ([City, State])
Reports to: [Executive Chef / Director of Food and Beverage]
Direct reports: [sous chefs, cooks, stewards]
Employment type: Full-time, salaried
FLSA status: Exempt (executive; confirm against the duties test)
Compensation: $ per year
ABOUT THIS ROLE
[Property Name] operates [number] food and beverage outlets plus [banquet /
room service / in-house catering] in [City, State]. The Executive Sous Chef is
the [Executive Chef]'s deputy across the whole operation, not the leader of a
single line.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Executive Sous Chef manages daily culinary operations across [outlets],
supervises the sous chef team, and acts with full authority for the [Executive
Chef] in their absence, including scheduling, purchasing, discipline, and
hiring recommendations.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Manage daily production across [outlets] and [banquet] volume
•Supervise, schedule, and evaluate the sous chef and cook teams
•Interview candidates and make hiring and termination recommendations that
carry weight with the [Executive Chef] and HR
•Own food cost, labor cost, and waste targets for [outlets]
•Approve purchase orders within a limit of $
•Run menu costing, recipe cards, and yield testing
•Lead food safety compliance and coach the team through inspections
•Deputize as [Executive Chef] on [days off, vacation, leave]
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years in progressive kitchen leadership, including sous chef
•Experience with [banquet volume / multi-outlet operations / union kitchens]
•Valid driver license and comfort with off-site logistics [if applicable]
•Available [evenings, weekends, holidays, and seasonal peaks]
CLASSIFICATION NOTE
Event work creates long weeks, which makes classification expensive to get
wrong. If this role is genuinely managing production and directing staff as its
primary duty, the executive exemption may apply, subject to the federal salary
floor of $684 per week and any higher state floor. If the role is mainly
cooking, plating, and driving, it is non-exempt and every hour past forty in a
workweek is overtime. Off-site travel time rules are their own subject: get them
right before a busy season, not after. This is general information, not legal
advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Business Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $ per [year / hour], [event bonus], [mileage or travel
policy], [health coverage, paid time off]
To apply, email with your resume and event experience.
Template 6: Pastry Sous Chef
For a dessert or bakery program: production scheduling, recipe accuracy, allergen segregation, and coverage for the pastry chef on days off. See the pastry chef templates if you are hiring the top of that program.
FLSA status: [Exempt / Non-exempt] (see classification note)
Compensation: $ per [year / hour]
ABOUT THIS ROLE
[Business Name] runs a [dessert program / bakery / viennoiserie] producing
[items] for [restaurant service, retail case, wholesale accounts]. The Pastry
Sous Chef is second to the [Pastry Chef] and runs production when they are off.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Pastry Sous Chef executes and supervises daily pastry production, maintains
recipe accuracy and consistency, manages the production schedule for [service
and retail], and covers the [Pastry Chef] on days off.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Produce [breads, laminated doughs, plated desserts, cakes] to spec
•Run the daily production schedule and adjust for par levels and orders
•Supervise and train [number] pastry cooks
•Control tempering, proofing, baking, and holding parameters
•Manage allergen segregation, labeling, and cross-contact prevention
•Order dry goods, dairy, chocolate, and packaging within budget
•Keep production, temperature, and cleaning logs complete
•Cover the [Pastry Chef] on [days off, vacation, leave]
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years of professional pastry experience
•Proven accuracy with scaling, hydration, and lamination
•Food protection manager certification or ability to obtain within [number]
days
•Available for [start time] starts, [days], and holiday production peaks
•[Pastry program certificate or degree preferred]
CLASSIFICATION NOTE
Classify on duties. A pastry sous chef who mostly produces product is
non-exempt: hourly, with overtime past forty hours in a workweek, and early
starts make hour tracking essential. A pastry sous chef whose primary duty is
managing a production team may fall under the executive exemption if the salary
and duties tests are both met. Allergen handling is the compliance risk that
matters most in this role: document the process and train against it. This is
general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Business Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $ per [year / hour], [shift differential for early
starts], [health coverage, paid time off]
To apply, email with your resume and a portfolio of
your work.
Overtime and the Sous Chef Exemption
A sous chef is exempt from overtime only when the facts of the job clear the test, and the title contributes nothing. The federal executive exemption requires management as the primary duty, customary and regular direction of the work of two or more other employees, the authority to hire or fire (or recommendations on hiring and firing that are given particular weight), and a salary basis of at least $684 per week.
The 2024 rule that would have raised that threshold was vacated in federal court and then formally rescinded by the Department of Labor, effective May 15, 2026. The rescission restores the $684 weekly floor and the $107,432 highly compensated employee level, at or above which a lighter duties test applies. Our breakdown of exempt versus non-exempt classification works through the full test.
Exemption
Title does not decide exempt status
The word sous chef carries no weight under federal wage law. All four parts of the executive exemption have to be met together: three are about the duties of the job, and the fourth is pay on a salary basis at or above the federal floor of $684 per week. A sous who spends most of the shift on a station is doing production work, and production work is not management. Paying that person a salary does not fix it. The salary basis test is one leg of the test, not a shortcut around the duties, and getting it wrong means back wages for every overtime hour worked. Several states set a higher salary floor than the federal one, so check yours before you write the number. This is general information, not legal advice.
Chef exemption
There is a separate chef route
Federal regulation 29 CFR 541.301(e)(6) recognizes a professional exemption for chefs specifically. It states that chefs, such as executive chefs and sous chefs, who have attained a four-year specialized academic degree in a culinary arts program generally meet the duties requirements for the learned professional exemption, and that the same exemption is not available to cooks who perform predominantly routine mental, manual, mechanical, or physical work. That is a narrow door. It turns on a four-year specialized culinary degree, not on a certificate, an apprenticeship, or fifteen years of experience, and most sous chefs in small restaurants will not hold one. If you plan to rely on this route, keep the transcript in the file and write down your reasoning at the time of hire.
Tip law
Supervisors cannot keep tips
Federal law keeps a sous chef who counts as a supervisor out of the tip pool, whether or not the restaurant takes a tip credit. A restaurant that pays full minimum wage with no tip credit may open its pool to back-of-house employees such as cooks and dishwashers, and the supervising sous chef still stays out. The rules judge a supervisor by duties alone, so a sous chef paid below the salary floor can still be barred. To reward the role, use a higher base rate, a service charge distribution designed with counsel, or a bonus tied to food and labor cost.
Hourly pay
Non-exempt means every hour counts
If the sous chef is non-exempt, the clock covers more than the printed shift. Pre-shift prep, waiting for a delivery, the post-service breakdown, the deep clean, and required meetings are hours worked. Kitchens run long and they run late, so an hourly sous chef routinely crosses forty hours in a workweek, and overtime at time and a half is owed on every hour past that. Off-the-clock work is a common wage claim in food service, and the record you keep is the record that decides the case. Set a real timekeeping system, make managers enforce it, and never let a sous chef clock out and keep working. This is general information, not legal advice.
The practical consequence for a small restaurant is that most sous chefs are non-exempt. If the sous spends the majority of a shift on a station, track the hours and pay overtime past forty in a workweek. Kitchens under the Fair Labor Standards Act owe that regardless of how the pay is labeled.
Tip Pools and the Supervisor Line
A sous chef who meets the federal definition of a supervisor cannot take money out of a tip pool. The federal tip pooling regulation bars employers, managers, and supervisors from keeping tips, and it applies whether or not the restaurant takes a tip credit.
What makes this trap specific to sous chefs is the definition. The tip regulations define a manager or supervisor by the duties test of the executive exemption alone, with the salary test left out.
The same facts that make a sous chef exempt therefore lock that person out of the pool, and a sous chef paid below the salary floor can still be barred. Our guide to tip pooling rules covers the mechanics.
Warning
Two Decisions, One Set of Facts
Restaurants often make the classification decision in one meeting and the tip pool decision in another, months apart, without noticing that federal law ties them together. If you decide a sous chef is exempt because they manage the kitchen, you have also decided that person is a supervisor for tip purposes. Paying that sous chef out of the pool anyway exposes the restaurant to the tips unlawfully kept and any tip credit taken, plus an equal amount in liquidated damages under the FLSA remedies section. Write both decisions down on the same day, with the same facts, and revisit them when the job changes.
Sous chef pay sits between the line cook rate and the head chef rate for your market and concept. Federal wage data publishes no separate sous chef figure: the Bureau of Labor Statistics counts sous chefs inside its chefs and head cooks occupation, alongside executive chefs.
The honest approach is to bracket the role, using the chefs and head cooks median as the upper reference and the supervisor and cook medians below it as the lower ones.
By the numbers
National Medians That Bracket Sous Chef Pay
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025), the national median annual wage was $62,470 for chefs and head cooks ($30.03 per hour), $44,080 for first-line supervisors of food preparation and serving workers ($21.19 per hour), and $37,390 for restaurant cooks ($17.98 per hour). In a separate projections program, the same agency expects employment of chefs and head cooks to grow 7 percent from 2025 to 2035, much faster than the average for all occupations, with about 25,200 openings a year (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook).
Benchmark
National median (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
How to use it for a sous chef posting
Chefs and head cooks
$62,470 per year
The BLS group that counts sous chefs alongside executive chefs; treat it as the ceiling reference
First-line supervisors, food prep and serving
$44,080 per year
A lower reference for a working or junior sous who leads part of the shift
Cooks, restaurant
$37,390 per year
The floor; a sous chef premium above this is what you are pricing
Cooks, restaurant, hourly
$17.98 per hour
Anchor for an hourly working sous rate before the leadership premium
Chefs and head cooks, hourly
$30.03 per hour
Upper anchor for an hourly sous in a high-volume kitchen
Publish a good-faith range wherever pay transparency laws apply. Then compete on the things a small restaurant can actually offer: a predictable schedule, real days off, closed holidays, a shift meal, and a decision made in a week instead of a month.
Kitchen leadership is a fixed cost against a variable cover count, so watch the labor line as you set the offer. Our note on restaurant payroll percentage covers the math.
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The sous chef is usually the person in charge on the shifts when the head chef is not there, and that carries real regulatory weight.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Food Code framework that most state and local health departments adopt expects a person in charge to be present at the establishment during all hours of operation. The current 2026 edition ties the credential to that same person: the person in charge is the one who has to be a certified food protection manager, tested through an accredited program.
Adoption varies by jurisdiction, so confirm the specific requirement with your state or local health department before you write it into a posting. Wherever the rule applies, the practical point is the same: if your sous chef covers the head chef, your sous chef needs the certification, and the posting should say whether you require it at hire or pay for it after.
Good to know
Put the Certificate and Its Expiry in the Employee File
Food protection manager certifications expire, typically on a multi-year cycle set by the accrediting program and your jurisdiction. The failure mode in a small restaurant is not that nobody gets certified, it is that the certificate expires quietly and the lapse gets discovered by an inspector. Store the certificate against the employee profile with the renewal date attached and a calendar reminder set before it, the same way you would track a food handler card or an alcohol service permit.
Hiring a Sous Chef Without an HR Department
Sous chef hiring fails in three predictable places: the posting is a shorter chef posting, the trade test gets skipped because the kitchen is already short, and the paperwork arrives in the middle of service. Each one has a straightforward fix.
The posting reads like a shorter version of the head chef job
Most sous chef postings are a head chef posting with the menu-writing bullets removed. Strong candidates read that and assume the job is undefined, which is exactly the job they left. What a sous chef wants to know is specific: how many shifts do I run alone, do I hold the pass or work a station, do I order, do I write the schedule, do I have a say in hiring, and what happens when the head chef is out for two weeks. Answer those six questions in the posting and you will get fewer applicants and better ones. Vagueness is not neutral in a kitchen hire; it reads as a warning.
The trade test is skipped because the kitchen is short-staffed
The exact moment you most need a stage is the moment you feel you cannot spare the time for one. A paid trade test on a real service tells you what no interview can: whether the candidate holds ticket times, whether the station is clean at the end, how they speak to a line cook under pressure, and whether they taste before they send. Pay for the stage, tell the candidate up front that it is paid and how long it runs, and treat the hours as hours worked. Pair the stage with a structured conversation using our sous chef interview questions and scorecard so two people can compare the same candidate honestly.
The paperwork lands in the middle of a Friday service
Restaurant hiring never happens at a convenient time. The offer goes out on a Tuesday, the new sous starts Thursday, and someone has to collect the tax forms, the direct deposit details, the handbook acknowledgment, the food protection certificate with its expiration date, the allergen and knife safety training, and the signed job description, all while a full book is coming in. FirstHR was built for that pattern. The onboarding wizard runs the same sequence every time, e-signature handles the offer and the acknowledgments, document management stores the certification against the employee profile with a renewal date attached, and training modules cover food safety and harassment prevention before the first shift. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR. FirstHR is an onboarding and HR platform, not a payroll provider.
Once the offer is signed, the work shifts to a repeatable sequence. Our restaurant employee onboarding checklist covers what to collect and in what order, and the same discipline applies earlier, since pairing the posting with the sous chef interview questions and scorecard keeps the evaluation consistent between the owner and the head chef.
1A sous chef posting is not a shorter chef posting: the job is running service, covering the head chef, and owning the line, and the posting should say how many shifts the sous runs alone.
2Classification turns on duties, not the title: management as the primary duty plus a salary basis of at least $684 per week points to exempt, while a working sous who mostly cooks a station is non-exempt and owed overtime past forty hours.
3Federal law bars managers and supervisors from keeping tip pool money whether or not a tip credit is taken, and it defines supervisor by the same executive duties test used for the exemption.
4National medians (BLS OEWS, May 2025) bracket the role: $37,390 for restaurant cooks, $44,080 for food service supervisors, and $62,470 for chefs and head cooks.
5The sous chef is usually the person in charge when the head chef is off, so a certified food protection manager credential belongs in the posting and its expiry date belongs in the employee file.
6Pay for a real trade test on a live service and score it on the same sheet as the interview, because ticket times and station cleanliness tell you what no conversation will.
Good to know
Track Food Protection Certificates and Renewals
Restaurant hires never land at a convenient hour. FirstHR runs the same onboarding sequence every time, with e-signature for the offer and the handbook acknowledgment, document storage for food protection certificates with renewal dates attached, and training modules for food safety before the first shift. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a sous chef do?
The sous chef is the number two in a kitchen, the person who takes charge of service whenever the head chef is away from the line. The job has four parts. During service, the sous holds the pass or expedites, keeps ticket times under control, and steps onto any station that falls behind. When the head chef is off, on vacation, or out sick, the sous takes over ordering, receiving, scheduling, food safety, and plate standards for the whole kitchen. Between services, the sous trains cooks, checks stations, and tells the head chef who is ready to move up. On the numbers side, the sous controls portions, yield, waste, and inventory counts. Small restaurants hire a sous for service coverage and usually discover later that cost control is where the position earns its keep.
What is the difference between a sous chef and a head chef?
The head chef owns the menu and the finances of the kitchen, while the sous chef owns day-to-day execution. A head chef, executive chef, or chef de cuisine writes the menu, sets recipes and specs, negotiates with vendors, owns food and labor cost targets, hires and fires, and answers to the owner for the kitchen as a business. The sous chef turns that plan into service shift after shift: running the line, holding the standard, training the cooks, and covering when the head chef is out. In a small independent restaurant the two jobs blur, and the sous is often a working sous who cooks a station while leading. Write the posting for the job you actually have, since a cook who expects to write menus and ends up on garde manger every night will leave before the season is over.
Is a sous chef exempt or non-exempt under the FLSA?
It depends entirely on duties, not on the title or on whether you pay a salary. Under the executive exemption, a sous chef must have management of the kitchen as the primary duty, customarily and regularly direct the work of two or more other employees, have the authority to hire or fire (or have hiring and firing recommendations given particular weight), and be paid on a salary basis of at least $684 per week under current federal rules. A working sous chef who spends most of the shift cooking a station is doing production work rather than management, so that role is normally non-exempt: paid hourly, with overtime at time and a half after forty hours in a workweek. Federal rules also include a separate learned professional route for chefs with a four-year specialized culinary arts degree, but that route is narrow. Several states require a higher salary than the federal floor. This is general information, not legal advice.
Can a sous chef receive tips from the tip pool?
Not if the sous chef meets the federal definition of a manager or supervisor. The law prohibits employers, managers, and supervisors from keeping any part of the tips in a pool, and that holds with or without a tip credit. The definition of a supervisor looks only at the duties test of the executive exemption and ignores the salary test. In practice, the same duties that make a sous chef exempt also keep that person out of the pool, and a sous chef whose pay is too low to be exempt can still be excluded. A restaurant that pays full minimum wage and takes no tip credit may run a mandatory pool that covers back-of-house staff such as cooks and dishwashers, and many kitchens do exactly that to narrow the gap between front and back of the house. The supervising sous chef is still left out. Pay that person through a higher base rate or a bonus tied to food and labor cost instead.
How much does a sous chef make?
A sous chef usually earns more than a line cook and less than a head chef, with the exact figure set by your market and concept. The Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025) puts the national median at $62,470 a year ($30.03 an hour) for chefs and head cooks, $44,080 ($21.19 an hour) for first-line supervisors of food preparation and serving workers, and $37,390 ($17.98 an hour) for restaurant cooks. Sous chefs have no wage line of their own, because the Bureau counts them with executive chefs as chefs and head cooks. For an offer at a full-service independent restaurant, a practical range runs from the supervisor median up toward the chef median. Setting matters too: the Bureau reports a May 2025 median of $74,380 for chefs and head cooks in traveler accommodation, against $60,580 in food services and drinking places. Benchmark against your own market and concept rather than the national figure, publish a good-faith range wherever pay transparency rules require one, and remember that a shift meal, predictable time off, and closed holidays win kitchen candidates as reliably as base pay.
What qualifications should a sous chef have?
Start with demonstrated ability and treat credentials as secondary. The non-negotiables are the skill to run every station on your line to standard, several years of professional kitchen experience that include time in a lead role, availability for nights, weekends, and holidays, and the stamina for long shifts in a hot, wet, noisy kitchen. Food safety certification is the one credential worth requiring. Under the current FDA Food Code framework that most jurisdictions follow, the person in charge of the establishment must be a certified food protection manager, and that person is usually the sous chef whenever the head chef is off. A culinary degree is optional in most kitchens, although it matters if you plan to rely on the learned professional exemption. Because adoption of the Food Code varies, check the certification rule with your state or local health department.
How do I hire a sous chef for a small restaurant without an HR department?
Use a short, fixed sequence and pay for a real trade test. Start with a specific job description that spells out how many shifts the sous covers alone, whether the role orders and schedules, and who runs the kitchen when the head chef is away. Screen by phone for availability, station coverage, and food safety certification. Then book a paid stage on a real service, which tells you more in four hours than three interviews: ticket times, station cleanliness, how the candidate talks to a line cook under pressure, and whether they taste before a plate goes out. Score the stage and the interview on one sheet so two people can compare candidates fairly. Move quickly, because strong sous chefs are usually employed elsewhere and rarely stay on the market long. After the offer, run onboarding as a checklist instead of a pile of forms. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
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