Teppanyaki (Hibachi) Chef Job Description Template

A teppanyaki chef job description has to state your format (show style grill, often called hibachi in the US, or a fine dining counter), how much talking and performance the job involves, grills, seats and seatings a night, your allergen procedure at a shared grill, pay with the tip arrangement, and the visa position. Below is a complete ad in English and a Japanese 求人票, ready to copy.

1. Show style or fine dining: say which

Teppanyaki ads fail when they describe a cooking job and hire someone who cannot hold a table for ninety minutes, or describe a show and hire someone who cannot cook a steak to temperature. Experienced chefs usually know which format they want.

Put the format in the first line of the ad. It is the strongest filter you have.

2. Hibachi or teppanyaki: which word to use

In the US and Canada, most diners and many job seekers say "hibachi" for a show style teppan grill. Elsewhere, and in Japan, the word is teppanyaki. In Japanese, 火鉢 (hibachi) means a charcoal brazier, so a chef in Japan who reads "hibachi chef" may not picture a griddle at all.

• North America: title the English ad "Teppanyaki Chef (Hibachi Chef)" so it appears in searches for both.
• Elsewhere: "Teppanyaki Chef" is enough.
• Japanese ad: write 鉄板焼き, and if you run a show format say so plainly: パフォーマンス型の鉄板焼き（米国でhibachiと呼ばれる業態）. A chef from a quiet Tokyo counter may never have done a show routine, and should know before applying.

3. Teppanyaki chef job description: English template

Replace everything in [brackets] and delete what does not apply.

4. Japanese version (求人票)

This version names the format in Japanese terms, separates guaranteed pay from tips, and states the audition.

Tips are unfamiliar to many chefs from Japan. Keep them out of the salary line and explain the split in one sentence, as above. The other Japanese conventions (annual pay, 完全週休2日制, insurance) are explained in Japanese conventions for pay, bonus, days off and insurance.

5. The allergen duty line

A shared grill is where allergen incidents happen, so the procedure belongs in the duties. It tells candidates you run a careful kitchen and gives you something concrete to test at the audition. In the US, the FDA recognises nine major food allergens: milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans and sesame, which became the ninth on 1 January 2023. Soy sauce, butter, egg, shrimp and sesame oil are standard on a teppan. Other countries have their own lists; use the one where you operate.

6. Pay and tips

No official statistic separates teppanyaki chefs. In the US, the Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median for restaurant cooks at $17.98 an hour and for chefs and head cooks at $62,470 a year (May 2025). A teppan chef who cooks a set routine sits nearer the first figure; a senior chef who runs a fine dining counter and trains others sits nearer the second. For other markets, see chef salary figures by country.

Tips can be a large share of a teppan chef's income, and candidates compare offers on them. Say who shares in tips, how, and that they are not guaranteed. In the US, tip pooling with kitchen staff has its own rules: see US tip pooling rules for kitchen staff.

7. What to ask for with the application

Ask for a video of one full set for a real table, from greeting to the last course, and note its length against your own set. Score it out of five on each line, and weight it by format.

Multiply each score by its weight. A clear gap between cooking and performance tells you which part to test hardest at the paid audition. Audition rules are in chef trial shift rules.

8. What to do this week

• Write the format line and the performance line.
• Count grills, seats, seatings a night and the length of a set.
• Write down your allergen procedure, if it is not already written.
• Decide the tip split and set the pay range.
• Fill in both templates and have a native speaker check the Japanese one.

General information, not legal or immigration advice. Tip, wage and allergen rules vary by country, state and city. Check the rules where you operate before publishing.