We like to say the Magnet Academy of Culinary Arts is Where Leaders Are Made.
While everyone learns how to be a leader, there are a number of positions individual students can work towards: Executive Sous, Pastry Chef, Maître D’Hotel, Food Safety Supervisor, Staffing Specialist, Ambassador, and others.
There are the key roles students practice while moving through the Culinary Arts curriculum, with ever-increasing responsibilities. Starting in Culinary 2, students start learning how the roles fit together. In Culinary 3, different students may take on a role for an individual event or share the responsibility with another.
By the time students reach Culinary 4, the roles become more permanent and we sometimes have truly dedicated students who take on the role for a quarter, a semester, and in some cases, the entire year.
Each title is connected to a slew of responsibilities and comes with (limited) authority. Seniors who are asked to fill these roles are exceptional and Chef trusts them to make decisions because they are true leaders – they RUN Mustang Events, the catering and event management portion of our program. Being asked to fill the role is a great honor – however, we have many amazing students and not everyone can be in charge.
There are MANY, MANY ways to shine at Wekiva Culinary other than being awarded one of these roles!
Executive Sous Chef
This role carries the most responsibility and requires the most after-school and weekend time. Why? The Executive Sous is in charge of everything. They master each recipe BEFORE we make it and communicate closely with the Pastry Chef and Maitre’ D to understand every element of their plans. They are involved in scheduling prep, fine-tuning menus, writing requisitions for upcoming events, keeping everyone on task, and are the final person responsible for the entire team serving good, safe food, on time and delicious. The executive sous chef must also make each and every team has what they need (and help individual teams when necessary). In addition, they Sous communicates with the Staffing Specialist to make sure we have enough students for each event and each student has a clear role, interacts with the Food Safety Supervisor to keep the kitchen spotless and organizes and participates in cleaning up after events, and is the primary person Chef Bates relies on to do whatever must be done to make each event a success.
The Sous Chef works harder than everyone in the kitchen and can be counted on 100% to DO IT RIGHT. In return for their devotion and commitment to excellence, they get the authority to be the “voice of Chef.” What they say goes. Period.
The next two positions – Pastry Chef and Maitre’ D – are both incredibly important and share equally the second place of authority under the Sous Chef.
Pastry Chef
The Pastry Chef is in charge of the bakery and all dessert service – breads, baked goods, and the like. In addition, many of our large fundraisers are based out of the bakery, making this job one of the most important to the Program overall. The Pastry Chef and his or her team are responsible for managing the dry storage inventory and for planning, practicing, and executing all of our large-scale baked good services, including providing pastries for the Mustang Cafe. They work closely with the Sous, Maître D’, and Staffing Specialist when catering events, and submit Requisition forms for needed ingredients. Because there is not a separate Food Safety Supervisor for the bakery, the Pastry Chef oversees safety and sanitation in the bakery in addition to their other responsibilities.
Pastry-Chef-Requisition-LogMaître D’hôtel
The Maître D’hôtel (Maître’ D) is the face of our program, the student who coordinates service to our guests, maintains the Cafe, oversees banquet setup, manages Cafe service, and organizes deliveries. Filling out requisition forms and keeping the Cafe well stocked is a BIG part of their job. They must work VERY closely with the Sous and Pastry Chef to ensure we are serving hot food hot and cold food cold. As the very last person to touch what we serve, they are our most important quality manager. As the student who represents all of us to the people who purchase our meals, they are our ONLY customer service manager. Wekiva’s Maître’ D must fully believe in our mission statement:
WE SERVE GOOD, SAFE FOOD THAT EXCEEDS EXPECTATIONS, ON TIME, EVERY TIME.
The next two positions – Food Safety Supervisor and Staffing Specialist are outside the normal chain of command. While they work WITH the other two leaders, they report directly to Chef and have the authority to stop everything that’s going on in the kitchen if they recognize a problem that has to be addressed immediately.
Food Safety Supervisor
Every time we cook, someone has to be responsible to keep an eye on the food, the facility, and the student cooks who are working. This is a safety precaution required by the Health Department and is our best and only defense if someone gets sick eating our food. We have to be able to PROVE we did our very best to keep the food safe (and have a record of doing that). Every day we cook, our Food Safety Manager will fill out a log of what happened in the kitchen and how we kept things safe.
The food safety manager is also responsible for managing the Chemical inventory and making sure we have enough sanitizer, soap, and papertowels to keep the kitchen spic and span.
Food-Safety-and-Sanitation-LogStaffing Manager/ Specialist
Everyone is important – but the person who makes sure that we have enough students for each event? They are VITAL. The Staffing Specialist is our Human Resources Expert – the student who works closely with Chef and the rest of the team to make sure we are staffed for each event, that everyone knows where to be, how they are going to get there, what their job will be, and follows up with each student to make sure they are contributing to our overall success.
The other position – Staffing Manager – has a similar role but only functions in class: they are responsible for checking everyone into each lab and making sure they are in full uniform, dressed and ready to cook on time. This position rotates regularly – everyone takes a turn being the Staffing Manager throughout the year.
Staffing-Manager-Log-1 Staffing-Specialist-Log-_-Events