Hi, I'm Sandie the culinary recruiter for
Walt Disney World and I'm Chef Axel the
chef of The Hollywood Brown Derby and we're here today to answer your culinary questions
what are the hours like and where do new
cooks start? Well, at Walt Disney World we
work while others play so you need to
have full availability to work any shift
any time our shifts could start very
early in the morning or it could go to
very late at night. Where do new
cooks start? Well, in the kitchen and we
have over 600 locations across Walt
Disney World. Will you have the ability to
move around and work at different
restaurants? Absolutely! All Walt Disney
World cast members can transfer every
year and we have all different types of
restaurants and different cuisines that
you can experience. What opportunities
will I have for development and education? Opportunities are all over the
company. I've seen cast
members go from stewarding in a
restaurant and go all the way to becoming a chef of another
restaurant so opportunities are out
there and there will be people and
executive we had a great Executive Chef
team and Culinary Director team that are
constantly looking for that talented
cast member. Do I have to have a culinary
degree? I don't think you
need to have a culinary degree but it is
helpful I'm not gonna lie. We have all
different types of backgrounds here at
Walt Disney World we have folks that
have grown up cooking with their
grandmother and have loved to cook and
now want to do it for a profession. We
have folks that have gone to culinary
school and now want to get
some hands-on experience with us. We have
folks that have been in the industry for
years working in different locations. So,
I would say it's helpful but not
absolutely required. One thing do you
need is passion. You need to have a
passion for what you do. How often do you
pay your employees and when will I get
my first check if hired? Ah, that's a
great question.
Employees get paid on Thursdays. We're
very fortunate at Walt Disney World
we get paid weekly and you'll
get your first paycheck the week after
your first day of work. So, it takes about
seven to ten days to get that first
paycheck. How old do you have to be to be part of the team? 18!
What are the qualifications for your culinary positions? Well, we have many different
levels we hire for. If you are
seeking an entry-level job, we don't
require any experience. You've got to
have passion, you've got to have desire
and you need to have a basic
understanding of different food
ingredients, you need to have a basic
understanding of how to read and
understand a recipe, but mainly a lot of
passion. Now, for our more advanced cooks,
we're looking for three years of
industry experience or two years of an
industry experience in a culinary
education. Are your hourly cooks allowed to
create and propose new menu items? Very good question! Yes, they are.
Right now in The Hollywood Brown Derby, we do have four dishes that are were
created from our cooks. We try to
encourage them to go ahead and put their
ideas down on paper execute them and
also see how it will
work executed in the line that we have
in in the back kitchen.
So, those things develop yourself and
also it makes you think about the big
picture how everything plays out. Do you
need to have prior restaurant experience
for your entry-level positions? No you
don't, we can give you all the experience
you need! Oh this one's for you Chef
Axel, how do you keep up with the
newest culinary trends and do you
incorporate them? Well, we do keep up with
the culinary trends.
We have a great culinary team. We have a
great Executive Chef and Culinary
Directors that keeps keep us updated
with the newest trends. What'ss sustainable,
what is seasonal,
and what is new in the
industry. Not only do we do that, we
also tend to go out and in the internet
look for what's new who's the famous
chef this year stuff like that so we do
keep up with everything and we do
and we try to implement it in
every aspect of the job. Do your menus
change and if so how often?
The Brown Derby, it's a signature
restaurant so we're able to change our
menu anytime we want. We mainly look
at seasonality, we look at what
sustainable, and we look at of course
financial we look at what's what's
reasonable but in The Hollywood Brown Derby we
could change it once a month or we could
change it maybe sometimes we change it
twice a month. There's also months
that we don't change it until the
new season but we do change it. What can
a chef do with 35 years of experience at
Walt Disney World?
Well, you can do a lot! I think it depends
on what you want to do. If you're
looking to pursue leadership
opportunities we have that that you can
pursue. A lot of chefs want to be,
I hire a lot of long term chefs into hourly
roles that want to go back into the
kitchen and get grounded again. I think
it just depends on the individual and what
they want to do and what their skill set
is. Would you agree? I agree. Do you take interns?
Oh, absolutely! We hire from colleges all
across the United States. For more
information we'll have a link to the
career section in our description.
Are there opportunities for advancement? Yes, there is. There
is plenty of opportunity. Like I said before,
Walt Disney World is a big world.
We have plenty of
opportunities out there especially for
those culinarians that have that
passion to be more than just another
cook they want to be chefs and beyond.
What are the different levels for
culinary at Walt Disney World?
Ah, that's a great question. We have
several levels so as you learn and grow in
your role can learn and grow. First level
is what we call a Cook 2. That's your
entry level cook that doesn't need to have any
experience for that. Our second level is
what we call a Cook 1. Those are your
more advanced cooks that work all the
stations of the line. Then
we have Chef Assistants. They are our
highest hourly position and they're in
charge when the Sous is away. They're
really focusing in on teamwork and maybe
doing some of that
butchery and sauce sauce work. Then
we move on to the salaried which is Sous
Chef and then we have Chef de
Cuisine, Executive Chef, Culinary Director,
Director of Culinary, there are a lot of
opportunities here. How do I apply?
Oh, that's the most important question! We
definitely want you to apply.
Please visit Disney Careers and you can
search all over the website for the
different opportunities and please see
the link below.
Thank you for watching our Disney Culinary Q&A and we hope to see your application soon!
