Cook I

Christiana Care Health Services, Inc.; Wilmington (DE); On-site; USD 27,000 - 39,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health Insurance

Paid time off

Retirement plan

Employee assistance program

Job summary

Christiana Care Health System in Wilmington, DE is seeking a Food Service Associate to prepare a wide variety of foods, ensuring attractiveness, palatability, and correct temperatures per recipes and SOPs. You will support patient meals and engage with patients, families, and staff with a service-first approach.

Hours vary (early mornings to evenings, some weekends/holidays required). High school diploma or equivalent and at least 6 months in food service preferred.

Qualifications

• High school diploma or equivalent required or preferred.
• Six months food service experience preferred.
• Ability to read and follow standardized recipes.

Responsibilities

• Greets patients, visitors, and co-workers with a friendly manner and provides quality customer service.
• Adheres to standardized recipes and SOPs to prepare varied foods.
• Maintains sanitation, dating, labeling, and FIFO practices.
• Communicates with supervisors and coworkers to ensure quality and efficiency.
• Keeps work areas clean, organized, and stocked as needed.

Skills

Food Service Knowledge

Customer Service

Reading Recipes

Inventory & FIFO

Education

High school diploma or equivalent

Tools

Food service equipment

Job description

Job Details

PRIMARY FUNCTION: Prepares a wide variety of foods ensuring the attractiveness, palatability, and temperature of food in accordance with standardized recipes and standard operating procedures. Complies with Christiana Care, federal, and state health codes.

Schedule

Hours will vary between 5:00AM- 2:30PM or and 11am-7:30PM as well as a few shifts in-between those timeframes. Every other weekend/holiday REQUIRED.

Principal Duties and Responsibilities

• Demonstrates a patient/customer "comes first" attitude. Greets patients, visitors, customers, and co-workers with a smile and pleasant manner. Demonstrates quality customer service. Practices service recovery.
• Demonstrates understanding and executes CCHS Core Values - Excellence and Love. Interacts with patients, families, co-workers, management, physicians, and other department staff in a compassionate manner, demonstrating empathy, sensitivity, patience, and mutual respect.
• Demonstrates ability to read and follow assignments, completing within established time frames and maintains a high level of productivity without direct supervision.
• Communicates pertinent and vital information and feedback to co-workers and supervisors. Follows written and verbal instructions as directed.
• Assumes an active role to keep informed about changes in policies, procedures, and equipment, completes mandatory education, attends and participates at meetings, and is willing to be taught, coached, and/or mentored by others.
• Adheres to Christiana Care and department policies and procedures.
• Complies with Christiana Care and department sanitation/safety responsibilities in the performance of all job assignments in accordance with Federal and State Health codes.
• Prepares a wide variety of foods, such as: meats, fish, poultry, fresh, frozen, canned, and dehydrated vegetables, ensuring the attractiveness, palatability, and temperature of food in accordance with standardized recipes and standard operating procedures. Produces items focusing on merchandizing and eye appeal.
• Demonstrates ability to extend recipes to meet production numbers based on requested amounts.
• Demonstrates ability to test cooked food by tasting and smelling, and takes corrective action as required.
• Ensures that all perishable items are dated, rotated, and served utilizing the FIFO guidelines. =Discusses with supervision all leftovers for run-outs.
• Demonstrates ability to keep own work areas clean and organized at all times.
• Demonstrates ability to maintains food dating, labeling, and correct shelf organization in cook’s walk-in and keeps area organized and clean.

SCOPE, PURPOSE, AND FREQUENCY OF CONTACTS

Frequent contact with supervision, clinical dietitians, and employees, occasional contact with patients and customers for recipe consultation, food substitutions and run-outs, and quality control problems.

DIRECTION/SUPERVISION OF OTHERS

None

DIRECTION/SUPERVISION RECEIVED

Associate Director, Administrative Manager, Supervisors, and Cook II

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTS

High school graduate or equivalent. Six months food service experience preferred. An equivalent combination of education and experience may be substituted.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILL, AND ABILITY REQUIREMENTS

• Knowledge of food service equipment operation and use.
• Knowledge of departmental policies and procedures.
• Ability to read and follow standardized recipes.
• Ability to calculate recipe quantities and extensions using simple math.
• Ability to communicate verbally and in writing.
• Ability to exercise judgement in response to customer/patient demands.
• Ability to manage stress in a highly visible service organization.
• Ability to develop and maintain effective working relationships with co-workers and other departments.
• Ability to measure food quantities.
• Ability to distinguish color perception in response to and quality control of food items.
• Ability to determine product ordering needs based on production sheets with use of simple math.
• Ability to problem solve and make decisions concerning food shortages or substitutions.
• Skill in interpersonal relations and customer/patient satisfaction.

Hourly Pay Range

Hourly Pay Range: $19.48 - $28.24 This pay rate/range represents ChristianaCare's good faith and reasonable estimate of compensation at the time of posting. The actual salary within this range offered to a successful candidate will depend on individual factors including without limitation skills, relevant experience, and qualifications as they relate to specific job requirements.

Equal Opportunity Statement

Christiana Care Health System is an equal opportunity employer, firmly committed to prohibiting discrimination, whose staff is reflective of its community, and considers qualified applicants for open positions without regard to race, color, sex, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, genetic information, gender identity or expression, age, veteran status, disability, pregnancy, citizenship status, or any other characteristic protected under applicable federal, state, or local law.

Post End Date

Nov 16, 2026

Benefits

ChristianaCare offers a competitive suite of employee benefits to maximize the wellness of you and your family, including health insurance, paid time off, retirement, an employee assistance program.

Benefits Details

To learn more about our benefits for eligible positions visit https://careers.christianacare.org/benefits-compensation/

Hospital Overview

Christiana Hospital, Newark, Delaware. This 1,007-bed, 1.3-million-square-foot modern facility provides a level of care only available in large-scale teaching hospitals. Christiana Hospital includes Delaware's only Level-I Trauma center (as verified by the American College of Surgeons), which is prepared to handle the most extreme medical emergencies. In fact, it is the only Level-I Trauma center on the East Coast corridor between Baltimore and Philadelphia. Christiana Hospital has also been nationally recognized in U.S. News & World Report's Best Regional Hospitals rankings as #1 in Delaware and #3 in the Philadelphia metro area, plus High Performing in 9 Adult Procedures/Conditions Christiana Care Health System Website