Free checklist
Prep Cook Training Checklist
The checklist (13 items)
Written as observable actions, so two trainers scoring the same shift land in the same place. In CrewSharp this is the Prep checklist in the Restaurant / QSR starter set, filed under Back of House, and every item here is editable.
- 1Washed hands and changed gloves at the right timesCritical
- 2Date-labeled every prepped containerCritical
- 3Thawed frozen product by an approved methodCritical
- 4Followed prep recipes and portioning
- 5Prepped to the par sheet for the day
- 6Washed produce before cutting it
- 7Used the right color cutting board for each product
- 8Put prepped product in the cooler right away
- 9Stored raw meat below ready-to-eat food in the cooler
- 10Rotated stock so older product was used first
- 11Tested sanitizer buckets with a test strip
- 12Handled knives safely and stored them on the rack
- 13Cleaned and sanitized the prep table between products
Print it, score it on a clipboard, or open it in Sheets. No email required.
What usually goes wrong
Handwashing and glove changes at the right times is critical and required, and it is the hardest item to observe honestly because it happens dozens of times a shift. One clean instance is not the same as confirming the habit.
The items a good total should not outweigh
- Washed hands and changed gloves at the right times
- Date-labeled every prepped container
- Thawed frozen product by an approved method
When to sign someone off
A workable bar for this checklist: no critical items missed, a score above a line you set for Prep specifically rather than one number for the whole building, and observed on more than one shift with at least one of them busy. Then date it, so it can expire.
That last part is the one people skip. A sign-off with no date cannot be re-checked, which means a year later you have a record that says somebody was ready once.
Checklists that pair with this one
Someone trained on this one most often covers these alongside it, which makes them the sensible second checklist to train.
Common questions
Should food safety be its own checklist?
The behaviours belong on the checklists for the work where they actually happen, which is why prep, grill and dish each carry their own food safety items. A separate checklist tends to get scored once and then forgotten.
What should be on a prep cook checklist?
The 13 items above cover it: washed hands and changed gloves at the right times, date-labeled every prepped container, thawed frozen product by an approved method, and the rest of the list. Keep it in that range. Fewer and a pass proves very little; many more and trainers stop finishing it during a real shift.
Which items should count as critical?
On this checklist, 3 items are marked critical: washed hands and changed gloves at the right times; date-labeled every prepped container; thawed frozen product by an approved method. Missing one means not ready, regardless of the total score, because these are the failures that cannot be corrected after the fact.
Scoring it is the part that lasts
Run this Prep checklist on a tablet between rushes and CrewSharp keeps the rest: who is signed off, when it was last checked, and which item your crew misses most.
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