September 15, 2022

A Day in the Life of a Splash Café Line Cook

Imagine this: It’s getting close to mealtime and your stomach is growling, “FEED ME!” You head to one of our Splash Café locations—Pismo Beach or San Luis Obispo— because you know it’s guaranteed to hit the spot. You scan the extensive menu and your mouth starts to water. What will you order?

  • Splash Café’s award-winning Clam Chowder
  • A super-delish sandwich, taco, or salad
  • Fresh seafood fried or grilled to perfection
  • Or, if you’re in SLO, some unbelieva-bowl cheesy tots from the Munchie Menu

Whether it’s fried, grilled, baked, or cooked in a kettle, everything at Splash Café is thoughtfully handcrafted by our awesome line cooks! They work hard every day to make sure our customers’ meals are out-of-this-world. A lot goes into our food—from prepping ingredients to cooking and delivering dishes to happy customers. Step into the kitchen for a behind-the-scenes look at a day in the life of a line cook!

Prepping Food for Hungry Central Coast Customers

The perfect meal starts with high-quality ingredients and food preparation. Splash Café sources fresh meat, seafood, and produce from local businesses and farms. That dedication expands to all of our products, including our spice rubs and Carrot Pepper Hot Sauce (which is made from peppers grown right here on the Central Coast at Talley Farms).

All of our line cooks chop, portion, and season hundreds of items a day to prepare incredible meals from open to close. They are also trained to maintain our high standards for food safety and sanitation to ensure our customers’ health and happiness.

Frying and Grilling and Baking, Oh My!

Once the food is prepped, it’s cooking time! Our line cooks have developed a finely tuned process for turning out a high volume of mouthwatering meals using industrial fryers, grills, ovens, and kettles (we’ll get into that next). To add a finishing touch, they make sure that all Splash Café food is seasoned with our signature spice rubs.

For fried food, we use our Smoky Chimi, which combines the fresh flavors of sweet basil and parsley with thyme, smoked paprika, citrus and garlic to create some herbaceous flavors. Our grilled seafood is seasoned with Smoky Citrus, which mixes the bright flavors of citrus with smoked paprika, dill, and garlic. And all of our barbecued food (tri-tip and burgers) pack an extra punch with our Smoky Espresso, which has cumin, three kinds of chilis, and rich espresso.

Making Our Award-Winning Clam Chowder

Next up, our line cooks are responsible for cooking Splash Café’s World Famous Clam Chowder. This tasty seaside classic is what put us on the map and continues to make Splash Café a Central Coast landmark, so it has to be perfect every time.

Using  20-gallon kettles, our line cooks combine fresh celery, potatoes, and other vegetables and stir in only fresh California cream with three types of clams. The final result is rich, sweet, and creamy with a touch of ocean breeze. To complete the Splash Café Experience, it’s served in freshly baked sourdough bread bowls straight from our bakery in SLO.

Apply Now to Join the Splash Café Team!

Think you’ve got what it takes to be a Splash Café line cook? We’re looking for part-time and full-time line cooks to join our special Central Coast family! Some kitchen line cook experience is required, as well as a Food Safety Certificate. Our restaurants provide a fun, fast-paced environment and some awesome benefits:

  • Great tips
  • Flexible scheduling
  • Regular pay raises
  • Meal discounts
  • Medical/Dental/Vision
  • Simple IRA
  • Paid vacation
  • Long-lasting friendships

Apply Now!

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Read more