Cooks, Private Household
Prepare meals in private homes. Includes personal chefs.
Sample of reported job titles:
Certified Personal Chef (CPC), Personal Chef, Private Chef
Occupation-Specific Information
Tasks
- Plan menus according to employers' needs and diet restrictions.
- Shop for or order food and kitchen supplies and equipment.
- Peel, wash, trim, and cook vegetables and meats, and bake breads and pastries.
- Prepare meals in private homes according to employers' recipes or tastes, handling all meals for the family and possibly for other household staff.
- Stock, organize, and clean kitchens and cooking utensils.
Technology Skills
- Accounting software:Cost tracking software,Intuit QuickBooks
- Calendar and scheduling software:Work scheduling software
- Data base user interface and query software:APPCA Personal Chef Office,Cooking e-books
- Electronic mail software:Email software
- Internet browser software:Web browser software
Occupational Requirements
Work Activities
- Establishing and Maintaining Interpersonal Relationships:Developing constructive and cooperative working relationships with others, and maintaining them over time.
- Getting Information:Observing, receiving, and otherwise obtaining information from all relevant sources.
- Organizing, Planning, and Prioritizing Work:Developing specific goals and plans to prioritize, organize, and accomplish your work.
- Monitoring and Controlling Resources:Monitoring and controlling resources and overseeing the spending of money.
- Thinking Creatively:Developing, designing, or creating new applications, ideas, relationships, systems, or products, including artistic contributions.
Detailed Work Activities
- Compile data or documentation.
- Cook foods.
- Coordinate activities of food service staff.
- Create new recipes or food presentations.
- Order materials, supplies, or equipment.
Work Context
- Spend Time Standing:88% responded"Continually or almost continually"
- Spend Time Using Your Hands to Handle, Control, or Feel Objects, Tools, or Controls:79% responded"Continually or almost continually"
- Structured versus Unstructured Work:70% responded"A lot of freedom"
- Freedom to Make Decisions:65% responded"A lot of freedom"
- Time Pressure:63% responded"Every day"
Worker Requirements
Skills
- Critical Thinking:Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
- Service Orientation:Actively looking for ways to help people.
- Management of Material Resources:Obtaining and seeing to the appropriate use of equipment, facilities, and materials needed to do certain work.
Knowledge
- Customer and Personal Service:Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
- Food Production:Knowledge of techniques and equipment for planting, growing, and harvesting food products (both plant and animal) for consumption, including storage/handling techniques.
- Sales and Marketing:Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
- Administration and Management:Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
- English Language:Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
Education
How much education does a new hire need to perform a job in this occupation? Respondents said:
- 33%Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production)
- 29%High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)
- 17%Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree)
- 17%Some College Courses
Worker Characteristics
Abilities
- Near Vision:The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Arm-Hand Steadiness:The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
- Finger Dexterity:The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
- Information Ordering:The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Manual Dexterity:The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
Interests
- Artistic:Artistic occupations frequently involve working with forms, designs and patterns. They often require self-expression and the work can be done without following a clear set of rules.
- Realistic:Realistic occupations frequently involve work activities that include practical, hands-on problems and solutions. They often deal with plants, animals, and real-world materials like wood, tools, and machinery. Many of the occupations require working outside, and do not involve a lot of paperwork or working closely with others.
- Conventional:Conventional occupations frequently involve following set procedures and routines. These occupations can include working with data and details more than with ideas. Usually there is a clear line of authority to follow.
Work Values
- Independence:Occupations that satisfy this work value allow employees to work on their own and make decisions. Corresponding needs are Creativity, Responsibility and Autonomy.
- Achievement:Occupations that satisfy this work value are results oriented and allow employees to use their strongest abilities, giving them a feeling of accomplishment. Corresponding needs are Ability Utilization and Achievement.
- Relationships:Occupations that satisfy this work value allow employees to provide service to others and work with co-workers in a friendly non-competitive environment. Corresponding needs are Co-workers, Moral Values and Social Service.
Work Styles
- Dependability:Job requires being reliable, responsible, and dependable, and fulfilling obligations.
- Integrity:Job requires being honest and ethical.
- Independence:Job requires developing one's own ways of doing things, guiding oneself with little or no supervision, and depending on oneself to get things done.
- Attention to Detail:Job requires being careful about detail and thorough in completing work tasks.
- Cooperation:Job requires being pleasant with others on the job and displaying a good-natured, cooperative attitude.
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