Maybe it does pay to be nice.

        David Walford, executive chef and owner of Splendido at the Chateau in Beaver Creek, Colo., says that when he hires people, a positive attitude and eagerness to learn often make up for a lack of years of experience.

        “It depends on the job,” he says. “I’m not going to choose a sous chef or chef de cuisine based on that, but for a younger person working their way up, the attitude is by far more important than how much skill they have behind them.”

        That’s especially true for recent culinary school graduates, he says. Sometimes new graduates overstate their skills based on their school experience.
        “The school gives them a diploma and says, ‘Okay now you’re a chef, be a chef,’” he says. “They come here and say, ‘Here I am, I’m a chef,’ and they’re 22. You are not really a chef until 10 or 15 years later.”

        So soft skills are often more impressive to Walford than how well the new hires did in school. Soft skills include certain personality traits, social graces, communication skills and work habits. Walford says many of these skills seem obvious in the front-of-the-house jobs. Servers and hosts have to have strong customer service skills and be generally friendly.

        These skills are important in the kitchen too, he says. Depending on the season, the fine-dining Splendido has eight to 12 people working in the kitchen. Even during the dinner rush, the kitchen is quiet.

        “We have an open kitchen,” Walford says. “We have to be calm and look decent.”

        Part of that quiet comes with training, and part of it is just careful hiring.

        “When you are interviewing someone, you’re thinking about, what kind of character does this person have,” Walford says.

        He pays attention to an interviewee’s mannerisms and speech, but sometimes it’s hard to tell from an interview whether the candidate will stay calm and organized during a stressful meal service. That’s why Walford has chefs work a few hours in a stage, or kitchen tryout.

        His advice: Be humble, and research the restaurant before you apply and certainly before you arrive for your interview.

        “It is so important to learn how to speak with an employer, ask the right questions and not come off as a know-it-all from whatever your background is,” he says. “You do need certain social graces, habits, a big smile and a can-do, willing attitude.”

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