Cook

asymca; Virginia Beach (VA); On-site; USD 29,000 - 32,000; Full time

Job summary

Armed Services YMCA in Virginia Beach is seeking a cook to perform a variety of food preparation tasks aligned with established recipes and schedules. The role focuses on preparing meats, seafood, vegetables, sauces, and gravies for meals while ensuring allergen-safe options and timely service.

The position emphasizes following safety and sanitation procedures, managing temperatures, and maintaining organized storage and kitchen cleanliness to support child care programs.

Qualifications

• Experience in food preparation and service in a kitchen.
• Ability to follow standardized recipes and maintain required temperatures.
• Attention to safety and sanitary practices in food handling.

Responsibilities

• Plan nutritional menus with the Child Care Director and prepare meats, poultry, seafood, vegetables, sauces, and gravies.
• Cook and portion food for meals by following recipes and manage timing to have items ready.
• Prepare menu items using various methods and adapt recipes for serving size and equipment.
• Design and maintain allergy-safe menus and accommodate dietary restrictions.
• Monitor temperatures, evaluate cooking progress, and ensure proper cooking and moisture retention.
• Label, date, and store all items in refrigerators and freezers per sanitation standards.

Job description

Summary: Cook performs various tasks or a sequence of tasks in food service preparation. Tasks consist of several steps that require attention to work operations and follow an established set of steps and sequence of work. These tasks fall into categories related to food preparation and service, kitchen maintenance, and food storage, and are summarized below.

Salary commensurate with experience ($ $21.00 $23.38 per hour)

Duties and Responsibilities

Food Preparation and Service

• Plan nutritional menus in collaboration with the Child Care Director and prepare all types of meats, poultry, seafood, vegetables, fruit sauces, and gravies for menus.
• Prepare, cook, season, and portion food for all meals by following standardized recipes at different levels of difficulty and plan, regulate, and schedule cooking procedures so that numerous completed food products are ready at the appropriate temperature and time.
• Prepare menu items using special or difficult recipes that require numerous interrelated steps, many ingredients, lengthy preparation time. They prepare a variety of menu items using several different and complex methods of preparation such as cool or chill.
• Designs, implements and maintains necessary specialized menus to ensure all children with allergies are served appropriate food and/or drink alternatives.
• Monitor temperatures and steam pressures, evaluate the condition of food being cooked at frequent intervals, and turn and baste meat to add flavor and to prevent uneven cooking and drying out.
• Modify recipes for ingredient quantities, the number of servings, and the size of the equipment available.

Kitchen Maintenance

• In accordance with applicable ServSafe Certification regulations, policies and procedures: regularly and thoroughly cleans serving carts, food preparation areas, cupboards, drawers, and dishwashing areas; set up and operate a mechanical dishwasher; scrapes, soaks, scours, and scrubs the heavier cooking utensils such as mixing bowls and pots; performs heavy-duty cleaning tasks throughout the food service and related areas, such as cleaning ceilings; exhaust hoods; spaces under and behind kitchen equipment, including moving the equipment; washing floors and walls with powered cleaning equipment; cleaning walk-in refrigerators and freezers; and sanitizing garbage room.

Food Storage

• Labels and dates all items in refrigerators and freezers and stores leftovers in accordance with sanitation and health standards.
• Stores canned, boxed, and/or frozen items in food storage area at appropriate temperature.
• Unload food and supplies from delivery trucks.

Armed Service YMCA is an Equal Opportunity Employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any kind. ASYMCA is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all employees and to providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination and harassment. All employment decisions are based on business needs, job requirements and individual qualifications, without regard to race, color, religion or belief, family or parental status, or any other status protected by the laws of regulations in the locations where we operate. We will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics. ASYMCA encourages applicants of all ages

Military spouses, veterans and military affiliated job seekers encouraged to apply.

Armed Services YMCA is an Equal Opportunity Employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any kind. ASYMCA is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all employees and to providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination and harassment. All employment decisions are based on business needs, job requirements and individual qualifications, without regard to race, color, religion or belief, family or parental status, or any other status protected by the laws or regulations in the locations where we operate. We will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics. ASYMCA encourages applicants of all ages.

Armed Services YMCA acknowledges the minimal use of artificial intelligence (AI) technology in our initial recruitment stages. All AI use is coupled with human review and is designed to assist our team in building efficiencies and excelling at focusing on timeliness and communication in our hiring process. Our hiring teams thoroughly evaluate skills and qualifications and make all final hiring decisions.