Important Chef Interview Questions
Q – 1 What areas do you service?
Ans- Kingwood, Humble, Atascocita, Houston, Conroe, Livingston any area within 70 miles but there is a fuel charge for over 30 miles travel distance. I charge according to the market price of fuel and it varies.
Q – 2 Why use a personal chef service?
Ans- Many people use the service for their families when they are too busy to cook a healthy meal due to hectic schedules.
One client used my services for her daughter who just had a baby and wanted to free her up to play with her newborn.
Perhaps you know an older person who doesn’t eat or eat healthy because they say ” I don’t want to cook for myself” and you want to ensure they have some good meal choices.
I have clients who require certain menu restrictions due to diet or disease, I work with these individuals on their personal menus.
Q – 3 How is the food packaged?
Ans- I package the food in either metal containers for the oven or microwaveable plastic containers. They come in three sizes, family, personal and made for two.
Q – 4 Do I need to do anything special to prepare for your arrival?
Ans- This is a good question. I will need atleast one bare shelf in your refrigerator and enough shelf space in your freezer to hold the dishes I prepare for you. I also ask that the dishwasher be empty and I have a good amount of clear counterspace to work on. I bring my own spices,utensils and cookware.
Q – 5 What is your specialty?
Ans- Everyone asks this me question and I wish could give an answer but I have so many favorites and my specialties are changing constantly that I can’t narrow it down to just one thing. I’d say my specialty is trying new ideas.
Q – 6 How long does it take you to prepare the meals?
Ans- It takes anywhere from 7 to 8 hours to prepare for a weekly family meal including clean up. It may take more or less time depending on the menu and difficulty level.
Q – 7 Do you have formal training?
Ans- Yes, I have been in the industry for over 25 years and have a degree in culinary arts. I also have a graet love for the art.
Q – 8 How many meals can I have prepared for my family?
Ans- I can prepare meals for a family of 4-6 for one week in one day’s time.
Q – 9 Can I order half the regular service?
Ans- I wish I could make that available to you, but the service doesn’t work that way. For this to be a profitable business for me, I can’t do the same amount of cooking time and produce half the amount of food. It takes the same amount of planning, shopping and prep time to cook 10 portions of food as it does for 20 portions of food.
Q – 10 Is it possible to custom design a service?
Ans- My services are completely flexible, so that almost any request can be accommodated. If you find that you have more leftovers than you need, I can plan a weekly service for you. If you find that you don’t have enough food I can do a monthly service.
Q – 11 How long will the food last us?
Ans- Depending on how many entrees you order, and how many evenings you eat at home I can determine approximately how long meals will last. If you travel for business or entertain in restaurants during the week or just enjoy eating out on occasion’ your meals will take you further than if you eat in each night.
Q – 12 What if I want you to prepare additional side dishes as well?
Ans- I’d be happy to provide that service for you. However, it will entail an additional fee.
Q – 13 What type of side dishes do you prepare?
Ans- I prepare side dishes that compliment the entrée you have selected. For instance if you have ordered a savory stew entrée, I will prepare a rice or polenta side dish to be enjoyed with the stew.
Q – 14 How long will you be in my home? Should I be there?
Ans- All of your menu items will be made from scratch. Depending on the number of entrees, a typical service takes from four to six hours. I am happy to accommodate your schedule in any way I can, but it will also have to fit in with other client schedules.
You do not need to be home during the service. In fact, most clients are not at home. We can arrange a key pick-up or I can arrive before you leave in the morning.
Q – 15 Do you have to prepare the meals in my home?
Ans- Health Department regulations require that all meals be prepared either in the home of the consumer, or in a licensed and inspected commercial kitchen. Preparing meals in your home insures that you are provided with the freshest, highest quality food possible.
Q – 16 How much freezer space do you need?
Ans- It depends on the number of meals you request, and the sizes of the containers, but it does generally require a large amount of freezer space. I will look at your freezer to see how much room you have available. Efficient storage is one of the reasons I prefer to select the appropriate size containers for uniform & maximum storage.
Q – 17 How will my meals be packaged?
Ans- There are a variety of options for meal packaging. I provide heavy aluminum containers with locking plastic tops as part of my service. These containers can be reheated in a conventional oven or in a microwave oven. Clients have the option to purchase at their cost Pyrex or equivalent containers if that is a preference.
Q – 18 How do you know what I like in my diet?
Ans- Right from the beginning, your tastes and preferences are the first priority. Before any menus are planned, we will meet and make a detailed survey of the likes, dislikes and requirements of everyone in your household. We will consider not only your food preferences and dietary requirements, but also your schedule and meal habits to develop a truly personalized service plan.
Q – 19 What is the difference between a Personal Chef & a Private Chef?
Ans- A private chef is employed by one individual or family full time, and is often “living in”, and preparing up to 3 meals per day. A personal chef serves several clients, usually one per day and provides multiple meals that are custom designed for the client’s requests and requirements
Q – 20 Does experimenting on components affect the final food?
Ans- Nope. Prior to Publish 6 (the big chef revamp), component experimentation did make a difference (although this was small with low-level components).
Now, most components aren’t even experimentable (carbosyrup, alcohol, containers, etc) and those that are have their own effects, and do not pass that experimentation on to the final item. So your best bet for components is to use cheap, crap quality resources, saving your good stuff for the final item.
Q – 21 Your favorite cookbook?
Ans- A tie between Paul Bocuse’s French Cooking, the other is Pates and Terrines
Q – 22 When at home, what do you like to eat?
Ans- At home, I make a variety of charcuterie that includes a well flavored Bratwurst. So, I would say: Bratwurst, simmered in Celis White Ale and grilled over hickory, served with a side of spicy Creole mustard, warm Yukon gold Potato Salad and Jicama Coleslaw.
Q – 23 Favorite food to cook with?
Ans- I love to use Pacific Sable when preparing a fish course. It has wonderful characteristics and is always pleasing.
Q – 24 Funniest kitchen incident?
Ans- Well it’s really wasn’t funny then, but, one time a cook was lighting a pilot light and threw the lit piece of paper they were using to light the stove in the garbage can. The can caught on fire in the middle of the rush.
Q – 25 How do the experimental percentages affect the food s stats?
Ans- The experimental percentage determines where in the range your food actually lands. So if you experiment to 50% in some category, the stats affected by that category will be halfway between the min and max. Experimenting to 66% means it will be 2/3rds of the way. The actual calculation is:
Stat value = StatMin + (StatMax – StatMin) * CategoryPercent / 100
For example, Air Cake’s bonus to Dodge (affected by the Nutrition category) ranges from 15 to 25. The range from min to max is 10, so the actual bonus you get will be 15 + 10 * Nutrition% / 100. If you experimented nutrition to 45%, this would be +19.5 to dodge.
The Revamp Food Chart has the stat ranges for the majority of the foods (it’s still in the process of being completely filled out). These were determined by basically running the “Min + % * range” equation backwards, so there is some margin of error, especially for foods with narrow min/max ranges.
Q – 26 I keep seeing recipes requiring milk, where do I get it?
Ans- Ah yes, with the new publish we’ve finally “Got Milk”. Milk can be obtained from living creatures, with not a lot of information currently available about what is available to be milked.
First off, in order to keep from “spooking” the animal you must either have “Mask Scent” (requiring Exploration II in scout) or be camouflaged (requiring Ranger skills or having a ranger apply a camouflage pack to your character).
While the concealment is in effect, bring up the radial menu on the creature, wait a second, and the “Harvest Milk” option will pop up if the creature is milkable. Select this, stay close to the animal for 20-30 seconds, and you will obtain a stack of either Wild Milk (the most common) or Domesticated.
The size of the stack seems to be determined mainly by the type of creature (I’ve found that larger creatures give larger stacks), and does not seem to be affected by your “creature harvesting” skill.
Q – 27 Do I need factories? How do they work?
Ans- Factories are useful for a few reasons. First, they make items for you without you having to hand-craft everything, allowing you to go do non-chef things and still have stock to sell. Second, the items come out in crates of 25 items, each crate only taking up one inventory slot.
These crates are highly valued by your customers, since now they can carry around 25 Vasarian Brandies in the space of two (one slot for the crate, one for the extracted drink they can drink from). Finally, some schematics require “factory identical” components.
This means that in order to make, for example, Vayerbok, you have to insert two alcohols that were made in the same factory run. Many higher-level food items require factory identical components.
To get a factory, go to your local low-level architect (he/she only needs “Installations I” and “Buildings I”) and order a “Food Factory”.
This will probably cost around 25k. Place it like any other building, and you’re almost ready to mass-produce. Factories require maintenance and power just like harvesters. 50 credits/hour and 50 power/hour will keep it chugging out crates for you.
Q – 28 What skill branch should I go up first?
Ans- It basically depends on what you want to make. For grinding purposes, go up Desserts first to get to Pastebread and Kiwik Swirl.
Cooking skills are essential in providing a high-quality product, since that gives you a better assembly skill (improving your success types on the initial combination) and higher experimentation skill (giving better successes during experimentation and more points to spend).
With the revamp, there are many more useful foods, instead of just the old Angerian Fishak, Bivoli Tempari, Ryshcate, Breath of Heaven, and Correlian Fried Ice cream (all Master or 4th level schematics).
Many foods are either unique in their effects (such as the Entrées I food Blood Chowder, with Bleed resist) or have something that makes it preferable to higher-level foods, even if the size of the buff is less. For example, Synthsteak gives you damage reduction, but with a lower percentage than Flameout (a Master Chef drink).
Also, Synthsteak has a lower filling and reduces damage from more hits, possibly making it more desirable to someone who may not need Flameout’s 90-100% damage reduction.
Q – 29 What is a K-5 Kitchen Aid?
Ans- A K-5 Kitchen Aid, simply, is a 5 quart mixer. It’s very versatile and convenient. Given the size, it’s very easy to locate in a designated station. Also, I have the the ability to create small batch soufflés in real time, no prepping ahead. Normally, in hospitality, you’ll use a 20 qt., 40 qt., 60 qt., 80 qt. mixer.
Which has too much capacity. Also, the K-5 has all the attachments you’ll need for anything. It slices, shreds, mixes, kneads, whips, grinds, etc. I could go on and on because the limits are endless. Suffice to say, this piece of equipment is very valuable.