How to Screen Dishwashers and Kitchen Stewards: 9 Questions and What to Listen For Screening Interview Template

Tell me about the kitchens where you have washed dishes or worked as a steward. What kind of place was it (full-service restaurant, high-volume casual, hotel or banquet kitchen, catering, or a hospital, school, or senior living dining room), what did you wash on (a door-type machine, a conveyor, or a three-compartment sink only), and roughly how many covers or meals went through on a busy night? Is dish the job you want to stay in, or are you hoping to move into prep or the line?

What this assesses: This is the calibration question. Strong answers name the setting, the equipment, and the volume: a door-type machine at a 120-seat casual restaurant doing about 300 covers on a Saturday, or the pot sink and a rack conveyor on a hospital tray line, or banquet stewarding where the work arrives in waves of 400 plates at once instead of a steady stream. Equipment matters more than it sounds. Someone who has only run a small undercounter machine will need training on a conveyor, and someone who has only worked a sink has never had to watch a rinse gauge. Listen closely to the last part, because it is your best retention lever. Plenty of good dishwashers want to learn prep, and a kitchen that tells them how that happens keeps them longer than one that does not. A candidate who wants to stay on dish is also fine, and often steadier. Be cautious with an answer that has no setting and no numbers, and with a candidate whose plan is to be on the line in two weeks, since you will be hiring for this seat again soon. Do not screen out someone with no kitchen experience. Dish is how most cooks started, and the rush, teamwork, and schedule questions tell you more about a first-timer than a work history does.

It is 7:30 on a Saturday. Bus tubs are stacking up on your counter, the line just yelled that they are almost out of dinner plates, servers need silverware and glasses, and there is a pile of pots and sheet pans from prep. What do you run first, second, and third, and how do you keep from getting buried?

What this assesses: This question separates a dishwasher who keeps a kitchen running from one who washes whatever is closest. Strong answers put the line first, because when the plates run out, tickets stop and every cook stands there waiting. Then silverware and glassware so the floor can reset tables, then pots and sheet pans, which can soak and wait unless the line needs a specific pan back for service. Good dishwashers also describe how they stay ahead: scraping and sorting tubs as they land so the counter never turns into one pile, keeping the next rack loaded while the last one runs, soaking silverware so it comes clean the first time, and asking the line what they are about to run low on rather than waiting to be yelled at. The best ones say they would tell the manager they were falling behind before it happened, not after. Be cautious with first in, first out, with I just work fast, which is not a system, and with anyone who would scrub pots during the rush because the pots were there first. A first-time applicant can still answer this well. It is a judgment question, not a trivia question.

What kind of dish machine have you run, and was it high-temperature or chemical sanitizing? How do you know it is actually sanitizing, what do you check at the start of a shift, and what would you do if the temperature was low or the sanitizer read wrong in the middle of dinner?

What this assesses: A dish machine that is not sanitizing produces plates that look clean and are not, and it is one of the first things a health inspector checks. Strong answers know which kind they ran. On a high-temperature machine, the final rinse has to reach about 180 degrees on most models, they watch the gauge during the shift, and some kitchens run a heat-sensitive test label through on a plate to confirm the dish surface got hot enough. On a low-temperature machine, sanitizing is chemical, usually chlorine, and they check it with a test strip. At the start of a shift, strong answers fill the tanks, make sure the screens, scrap trays, and curtains are in place, and check that the detergent, rinse aid, and sanitizer containers are not empty, because an empty sanitizer jug is the most common reason a machine quietly stops sanitizing. The last part is the real signal. Strong answers stop sending dishes through, tell the manager right away, and switch to the three-compartment sink until it is fixed. Be cautious with the machine does it, with a candidate who has never looked at the gauge, and above all with anyone who would keep running it because the dining room was full. Someone who has only used a sink is trainable. Someone who would run a broken machine through dinner is not.

Walk me through washing a load of pots and pans in a three-compartment sink, step by step. How do you know the sanitizer is strong enough, and how do the pans get dry?

What this assesses: The pot sink is where corners get cut, because it is slow and nobody watches it. Strong answers follow the order without being prompted: scrape and pre-soak, wash in hot soapy water in the first sink, rinse in clear water in the second, sanitize in the third at the strength the test strip confirms and for as long as the label says, then air dry on a rack. Many will know the wash water should be at least 110 degrees, and that the sanitizer sink gets changed when it turns cloudy or the strip reads low, not once a shift. The drying step is the quiet tell. The Food Code requires sanitized dishes and utensils to air dry, and wiping a wet pan with a side towel puts back whatever was on the towel. Strong candidates also do not stack pans while they are still wet, because trapped water is where bacteria grow and inspectors look for it. Be cautious with an answer that skips the rinse or the sanitize sink, with a candidate who uses one sink of soapy water for everything, and with anyone who towel dries because it is faster. None of this is hard to teach. A candidate who already does it without being told is one less thing for your kitchen manager to watch.

You are working the dish pit alone, scraping dirty plates on one end and unloading clean racks on the other. How do you keep the clean dishes from getting dirty again? How do you put away silverware and glasses, and what do you do with a plate that comes out of the machine with food still stuck to it?

What this assesses: Running a dish pit alone means the same two hands touch the dirtiest and the cleanest things in the kitchen, often a minute apart. Strong answers have a rule for that: wash hands or change gloves before handling clean racks, and keep the clean end of the counter clean, with nothing dirty set down on it. On silverware, strong answers touch only the handles when sorting clean pieces, so nobody's fingers end up on the part that goes in a guest's mouth, and they store glasses and cups upside down in clean racks. On the plate with food stuck to it, the only good answer is scrape it and send it back through the machine. Be cautious with anyone who would wipe it off with a towel and put it on the shelf, which is how a plate with dried egg lands in front of a guest or, in a hospital or senior living dining room, in front of a resident whose immune system cannot shrug it off. Be cautious too with an answer that treats the clean side and the dirty side as the same counter. This is the question where dishwashers trained by a good kitchen sound very different from those who were not, so weight it to match how much training you are willing to do.

The dish area is one of the easiest places in a kitchen to get hurt. What do you watch out for? What do you do when a knife or a broken glass ends up in a bus tub or the sink, and what do you wear when you change a chemical container or delime the machine?

What this assesses: Listen for a specific list, because vague answers here usually mean the person has not been around long enough to see someone get hurt. Strong answers name wet floors and the mat or squeegee that handles them, slip-resistant shoes, steam from opening the machine mid-cycle, the heat of the final rinse, heavy racks and stock pots, and cuts. On knives, strong answers never drop one into a sink of soapy water where the next person cannot see it. They wash knives separately and put them back where the cooks expect them. On broken glass, they drain the sink before reaching in, never feel around for the pieces, and use a dustpan rather than bare hands. Chemicals are the other half. Dish machine detergent is often caustic and delimer is an acid, so strong answers mention gloves and eye protection, following the label or the chemical supplier's training, and never mixing products, especially not a delimer with a chlorine sanitizer, which can release chlorine gas. Be cautious with a candidate who shrugs this question off, and with anyone who says they reach into the sink to find broken glass. Both of those end up as a workers' compensation claim.

At the end of the night the cooks leave, and it is often just you and a manager counting the drawer. Walk me through everything you do to close the dish area, and how the opening crew would know you did it right.

What this assesses: The close is where you find out whether someone does the job when nobody is watching, because the only people who see it are the morning crew. Strong answers go in order and include the unglamorous parts: run the last loads, drain the machine, pull and clean the screens and scrap trays, wipe down the inside, and leave the doors open so it can dry overnight. Then empty and scrub the sinks, put away clean pots, take out trash and recycling, break down boxes, sweep and mop including under the machine and around the floor drain, and hose off and hang the mats. Very strong answers mention a closing checklist they initial, or a manager who checks their area before they clock out, and they treat that as normal. In hotel and banquet kitchens, add the steward's version: breaking down chafing dishes and sheet trays from a late event and getting them back where they belong. Be cautious with a close that stops at the last rack, with a machine left full of dirty water, and with anyone who says they leave as soon as the dishes are done. A dish pit closed badly on Saturday is a slow, greasy start on Sunday, and the opening cook spends their first hour doing your job.

In the middle of a rush, a cook yells for a clean hotel pan, a server drops a stack of unsorted glasses on your counter, and the manager asks you to run the trash out. How do you handle three people needing something at once? And what do you do if someone is rude to you during service?

What this assesses: The dish pit sits at the bottom of most kitchens' pecking order, and everyone needs something from it at the same moment. Strong answers sort by what stops service: the cook's pan first if a dish cannot go out without it, the glasses next, and the trash when there is a gap, with a quick heads up to the manager so they know it is coming. On the server who dumps unsorted glasses, strong answers deal with it after the rush rather than arguing in the middle of it, and some will say they would ask the lead to remind the floor how to drop tubs. On being yelled at, look for someone who does not take it personally in the moment and does not let it slide forever either. Kitchens are loud, and a good dishwasher keeps working and brings it up after service if it turns into a pattern. Be cautious with a candidate who would stop to argue, walk off, or say that is not my job about anything outside the pit. Be cautious as well with a candidate who says yes to everyone, because a dishwasher who leaves the machine to run errands for three people is how a kitchen runs out of plates.

This position is [shifts and days], and most of our dish hours are nights, weekends, and holidays, with closes that can end after [time]. Can you work those? How will you get home after a late close, and what happens if your ride falls through? The job means standing the whole shift in a hot, wet area and lifting racks and stock pots up to [weight] pounds. Can you do that with or without a reasonable accommodation? If you ever cannot make a shift, how would you let us know? What hourly pay are you looking for?

What this assesses: These questions decide who is still on your schedule in month two, and for dish they are most of the job. Transportation is the quiet killer, because a bus that runs at 4 p.m. often does not run at midnight when the machine is finally drained. Strong answers name a specific way home and a backup. On call-outs, strong answers say they would call the manager directly as early as they know, not text a coworker ten minutes before the shift, which tells you how they have handled it before. On the physical side, ask it the way it is written, as a job-demands question with the reasonable accommodation language, and stay away from questions about health or past injuries. Strong answers are matter-of-fact about the heat and the standing. On pay, a number close to your posting is a good sign, and a candidate well above your band will usually leave for the first place that pays it. If you hire minors, confirm age here too. Federal child labor rules do not allow 14- and 15-year-olds to work past 7 p.m. outside of summer (9 p.m. from June 1 through Labor Day), and many states are stricter, so a 15-year-old cannot cover your Saturday close no matter how willing they are. Ask every applicant the same nine questions and score them on one [interview scorecard](/glossary/interview-scorecard), so the shortlist comes from how people answered rather than who picked up the phone. A [structured interview](/glossary/structured-interview) like this also puts the first-timer and the ten-year banquet steward on the same rubric, and [asynchronous screening](/glossary/asynchronous-screening) lets someone working a closing shift somewhere else answer on their break instead of missing your call. Some [candidate drop-off](/glossary/candidate-drop-off) once the closes and weekends are spelled out is the point. You want it now, not after the first no-call, no-show.