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Attributes and Characteristics of a Successful Garde Manger Chef
Appears in
By Jaclyn Pestka, Wayne Gisslen and Lou Sackett
Published 2010
Successful garde manger chefs have these attributes and characteristics:
- Basic training and general experience: A garde manger chef must be thoroughly grounded in the basic culinary principles and skills of European and North American cuisines. Because garde manger encompasses virtually all techniques used in hot foods cooking, experience in general restaurant and catering work is beneficial.
- Formal culinary education: Today’s competitive entry-level job market makes a culinary school education virtually a necessity. Many top-level operations no longer consider job applicants without some type of academic or technical degree.
- Manual dexterity: You must be good with your hands. Much garde manger work involves handling tiny food dêcor items and placing them accurately on small pieces of food. Dexterity can be improved by practicing work tasks and by doing dexterity exercises. Special tools, such as food-service tweezers, are also of help.
- Physical stamina: Food service is highly physical, tiring work. Garde manger chefs are frequently on their feet for long hours and may have to lift and carry heavy objects. Joint pain in your hands or becoming chilled easily may make garde manger work a challenge.
- A well-developed sense of taste: Garde manger chefs need a sensitive palate. Because cold temperatures dull taste receptors, cold foods are more difficult to evaluate and season. Smoking tobacco or ingesting chemical food additives may damage your sense of taste.
- Artistic ability: Garde manger dishes depend strongly on visual appeal. A sense of color and design is important. The most successful garde manger chefs have innate artistic ability.
- Mathematical ability: You must be able to quickly and accurately scale formulas up and down, and make weight-volume conversions. Bad math often results in failed products and can even be dangerous. When working with curing compounds, a miscalculation in the formula ratio can make customers seriously ill. In the business of garde manger, you must cost recipes and price menu items. When planning banquets and buffets, you must determine per-person food costs. For all types of service, you are expected to keep labor cost percentages in line.
- Knowledge of food management and sanitation: Foods served cold are even more susceptible to infestation by harmful pathogens than hot foods. Garde manger chefs must be doubly vigilant about sanitation, and must thoroughly understand and enforce safe food-handling practices.
- Good interpersonal skills: Garde manger involves teamwork. To succeed, you must be able to follow instructions, accept constructive criticism, help and support coworkers, and help maintain morale. To lead a team, you must lead by example and take responsibility for the success of your team.
- A sense of urgency: Time is money. Be aware of labor costs, and accomplish all tasks as quickly as possible without being sloppy or careless. Be aware of deadlines, and meet them with time to spare. Motivate the rest of your team to have the same sense of urgency.
- Attention to detail: Small but important details can make or break the success of a garde manger preparation. For example, the ingredients for a mayonnaise must be at room temperature, or it will not properly emulsify. To be a successful garde manger chef, you must be willing and able to sweat the details.
- The ability to organize and plan: Organizing garde manger events requires ordering food ingredients, presentation serviceware and equipment, linens, and props. The buffet table layout must be planned ahead on paper or with a computer program to accommodate the flow of service and to make it visually attractive. Individual platters must be planned using sketches, cutouts, or computer graphics. Prep lists and work schedules must be planned and posted.
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