Trade interview practice
Chef interview questions and practice
Are you getting ready for chef interviews with an employer in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom or Canada? This page shows the skills we have questions for and some sample questions.
You already know the work. The interview is about explaining it clearly in English. Read what employers usually ask, then practise your answers out loud.
What employers ask in chef interviews
An employer cannot watch you work during an interview. So they ask you to explain your work in words. Most chef interviews cover the areas below.
- Common jobs, step by step. "How do you do this job?" is a very common kind of question. The employer wants the steps in order, from preparing the job to the final check.
- Finding faults and checking your work. You may be asked how you find the cause of a problem. You may also be asked how you know a job is right before you hand it over.
- Safety and PPE. PPE means personal protective equipment, such as gloves, safety glasses and hearing protection. Expect questions about the risks in a job and how you control them.
- Tools and equipment. Which tool you choose for a job, why you choose it and how you look after it.
- Quality. What a good finished job looks like, and what you do when the work is not good enough.
- Customers and your team. How you explain a problem to a customer in simple words. How you work with a supervisor, an apprentice or other trades.
- When something goes wrong. A mistake, a damaged part, a delay or an unsafe situation. The employer wants to hear that you stop, make it safe, tell the right person and fix it.
Employers also ask about you: your experience, your work day and why you want to move. You can practise those questions in General Practice.
The skills and sample questions on this page show what we ask in chef practice. A real employer will choose their own questions. So use the practice to get better at explaining your work, not to learn answers by heart.
Skills you can practise as a chef
The practice bank has 440 interview questions for this trade, grouped into 22 skills. You pick up to three skills at a time.
- Allergens & Special Diets
- Baking, Pastry & Desserts
- Breakfast & Short Order
- Cleaning Schedules
- Communication with Floor Staff
- Cooking Methods
- Food Safety & Hygiene
- Functions & Large-Scale Catering
- Kitchen Equipment
- Kitchen Safety
- Knife Skills
- Meat, Poultry & Seafood
- Menu Planning & Costing
- Mise en Place & Prep
- Plating & Presentation
- Portion Control & Waste
- Receiving, Storage & Stock Rotation
- Service & the Pass
- Stocks, Sauces & Soups
- Teamwork & the Brigade
- Vegetables, Starches & Grains
- Working Under Pressure
Three sample questions
These are real questions from the practice bank. In the app an interviewer asks each one on video, you answer out loud, and you get a score with a stronger answer to learn from.
- Skill: Service & the PassLet's say the head chef calls out that table twelve mains are away. Your two lamb dishes for that table still need five more minutes. The other sections are almost ready. What would you do?
- Skill: Food Safety & HygieneLet's say you come in for the morning shift and the cool room thermometer shows 9 degrees. Nobody knows how long it has been like that. What would you do with the food inside?
- Skill: Cleaning SchedulesLet's say the council food inspector is coming tomorrow. You look at the cleaning schedule and see the weekly jobs were not signed for two weeks. What would you do?
Tips for your chef interview
- Answer in steps. Say what you do first, next and last. Words like "first", "then" and "after that" make your answer easy to follow.
- Give the reason. Do not only say what you do. Say why you do it.
- Say the safety step. Name the risk and what you do about it, even when the question does not ask.
- Use the trade words of your destination country. A tool or part can have a different name in another country. The Picture Quiz helps you learn them.
- Say how you check the job. End your answer with the test or check you do before you hand the job over.
- Use a real example. A short story from your own work shows the employer you have done the job.
- Keep it clear. Short, simple sentences are fine. A clear answer in simple English is better than a long answer that is hard to follow.
- Practise out loud. Saying an answer is different from thinking it. Answer, read the feedback, then try the same question again.
Questions and answers
What questions are asked in chef interviews?
Employers usually ask how you do common jobs, step by step. They ask how you find faults, work safely and check your work. They also ask about you and your plans. Every employer chooses their own questions.
How do I practise chef interview questions?
Create an account and choose this trade. In Skills Practice, pick up to 3 skills. An interviewer asks each question and you answer out loud. Then you get a score from 0 to 10 and feedback.
Do I need perfect English to practise?
No. The marking looks at what you say, not at your accent or small grammar mistakes. You choose your English level, Foundation, Working or Fluent, and it sets how long you have for each answer.
Are these the questions a real employer will ask?
No one can know that. These are practice questions written for chef work. They help you practise explaining your skills clearly, so you feel ready for the questions an employer chooses.
Will practice get me chef work overseas?
We cannot promise that. InterviewTraining.ai is practice only. It is not linked to any government, visa authority or employer. It helps you practise and feel ready for your interview.