Need a housekeeper who can cook your meals too? Here are some pointers on hiring a housekeeper cook for your household. Click To TweetA housekeeper cook is a popular choice of home help for the modern family. They undertake all the usual housekeeping duties and prepare healthy and wholesome food for the family too. A housekeeper cook is a practical solution for a busy family with little time to prepare good-quality, healthy food.
What are the main advantages of hiring a housekeeper cook?
Cooking Duties
The cooking duties which the housekeeper cook undertakes will of course depend on the family’s requirements; from specific dietary adjustments and preferences to calorie-controlled cuisine. If a family prefers Asian or Mediterranean cuisine, the housekeeper cook’s job is to prepare and cook the preferred type of fresh food.
A housekeeper cook will also typically be involved in menu planning and shopping for the ingredients, which may be ordered online or by going to the shops. Each family has a different preference.
An experienced housekeeper cook with catering or cooking training will also be able to cater for dinner parties. Families that regularly entertain will want a housekeeper cook with a suitable level of experience to cater for their dinner parties and in some cases even serve at the dinner table as well.
One of the biggest benefits for a busy head of a household, a couple or family in having a housekeeper cook is that it takes the strain off having to plan menus, shop and prepare food. Instead, their focus can be on downtime and enjoying family life together.
What are a Housekeeper Cook’s Responsibilities?
Additional responsibilities which a housekeeper cook may have to take on, depending on their specific role, might include:
- Cooking all meals: breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Bulk preparing meals for family members to cook – for example, a freshly-made lasagna which is then frozen for the family to easily pop into the oven at the weekend
- Menu planning
- Shopping for food
- Dinner party catering
- Kitchen upkeep and deep cleaning
- Ensuring the kitchen utilities are maintained
- Stock control and inventory
- Managing the pantry and food areas
- Regularly cleaning out the refrigerator and freezer, and discarding out-of-date products
- Polishing silverware
- Preparing beautiful table presentations for meals and dinner parties
As well as these kitchen and cooking-related duties, the housekeeper cook will continue to manage and clean all other aspects of the property, ensuring the family’s needs are met with the housekeeping and cooking requirements.
How can you hire a housekeeper cook?
Here are three ways you can hire a housekeeper cook:
Use your existing network: Personal recommendations are always a good source. Try asking friends and acquaintances if they know of someone who can work as a part- or full-time housekeeper cook.
Make sure you do detailed background checks, including a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) assessment for a criminal record.
Self-recruit: You could use websites such as Gumtree and Facebook, which allow users to post and apply for job opportunities.
Keep in mind that you’ll be exposing yourself, your family and your home to strangers. Always have extensive background checks performed. Protect yourself with reference checks, DBS and vetting.
Use an agency: A professional employment agency can give you support to speed up the process, as well as giving you peace of mind that the candidates have been vetted.
Each agency has a different vetting process, so ask prospective agents how they vet their candidates, and never pay upfront for an agency to start work.
Why is Polo & Tweed the best housekeeper cook recruitment agency?
Polo & Tweed is the UK’s leading employment agency for hiring domestic staff for the perfect match between a principal and candidates. We have more than 10,000 candidates around the world with clients in London, the Middle East and the USA.
We work to your time line, so we can perform the search for your ideal candidate quickly or at a leisurely pace. Plus we give you peace of mind that we are with you for the long-term. Whether you need just one housekeeper cook or an entire team of housekeepers, our experienced consultants will find the perfect match for your specific requirements.
We would love to hear how we can help you further, so please get in touch with us here, and one of our consultants get back to you to discuss your job requirements.