A Study to Investigate the Personal Traits and Professional Competence of Cooks

Abstract

The aim of this study is to identify the personal traits and professional competence of the cooks who prepare hot dishes. In this context, it has been tried to reveal personal traits and vocational knowledge and skills which these personnel should have. This study has an importance in terms of identifying and distinguishing the personal qualities and vocational knowledge and skills a profes-sional should have as “peculiar to his/her vocation”. Low and mid-level managers at 5-star hotels in Ankara province compose range of application of the study. In this study, firstly, 2 common top criteria/dimensions, (1) personality traits and (2) vocational knowledge and skills, are defined, and thereafter subordinate criteria are defined, and their scores have weighted out of 100 in total. The significances of the subordinate criteria are respectively elicited according to the weighting. At the end of the study, it is found out that the qualifications such as “being moral”, “complying with work-ing hours”, “caring personal appearance and hygiene”, “being open to change and innovation”, and “being flexible to longing and changing working hours” were the top expected qualifications from cooks within the scope of personality traits. Besides, it is emerged that “knowledge of hygiene”, “knowledge of soup”, “hand skill”, “knowledge of substitute products”, and “knowledge of quality and control” were the top expected qualifications from cooks within the scope of vocational knowledge and skills.