How To Become A Catering Assistant With Surrey County Council

What is a Catering Assistant?

Are you interested in a hospitality career? In this junior role, you’ll learn a lot about catering to scale by assisting catering or care staff in preparing and cooking nutritional, well presented meals for residents.

Tell me more…

Reporting to the Chef Manager (which could be you one day) you’ll be shown how to maintain menus and stock control in a fully safe working environment.

What will this role involve?

Based in a 50 – 65 bedded care home kitchen environment, you’ll take a professional approach when dealing with residents, staff and suppliers to ensure that catering services are
delivered in a professional manner and communications are of a high quality.

You’ll be working in a high-energy catering environment, helping the staff to prepare and cook meals, so expect to be always on the go – just as you would be in any well-run restaurant kitchen!

You’ll present a professional image, so you’ll be wearing kitchen whites, protective footwear and observing good hygiene standards when it comes to e.g. nails and hair.

You’ll maintain menu systems and stock control in order to ensure resources are used wisely.

You’ll help to keep kitchen equipment, crockery and utensils clean and hygienic and report concerns to your manager, for example if you think any equipment may not be fit to use.

What skills do you need?

The most important thing you need is a willingness to learn and a desire to prepare food well and quickly to the best of your ability. You will also need:

• Basic numeracy and literacy.
• Ability to understand basic health and safety and hygiene and other relevant procedures.
• Able to operate basic equipment.
• Good listening skills and enthusiasm to learn.
• Accuracy and ability to follow instructions.
• Able to exchange basic information verbally or in writing.
• May be required to undertake manual handling and physically demanding work.

You may find previous catering experience is useful.

As part of your role you may be asked to work towards a recognised food hygiene / food safety award – so that will be fantastic new qualifications to add to your CV!