Job Description
Reporting to the VP of Culinary Operations, the Culinary Innovation Chef will be an accomplished leader with responsibility for driving culinary innovation for key growth opportunities for True Food Kitchen. The Culinary Innovation Chef, will be an integral part of the team and will help to drive new business opportunities from ideation to roll-out, ensure safety and cleanliness standards are met consistently and overall communication between departments, vendors, and leadership. The role is based in the corporate headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona.
PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTABILITIES:
- Culinary lead for projects related to growth and innovations initiatives.
- Assist in recipe creation for new concept menus.
- Partners with leadership on all creative process and innovation needs, reviews recipes and procedures for consistency and quality standards
- Simplifies and adapts existing recipes to new formats/speeds while keeping core of the recipe and exceed efficiency standards.
- Conducts performance and yield analysis test for all new and current ingredients under review.
- Works directly with purchasing department to ensure proper sourcing channels and inventory needs are met.
- Constantly evaluates new kitchen equipment & operational platforms, periodically tests, and reports on status of existing equipment to ensure proper sanitation and maintenance while driving efficiency and consistency.
- Maximizes profits through menu analysis, food cost management, labor, and inventory control.
- Operational lead for new unit openings, inclusive of staffing, training, systems implementation.
- Develops culinary staffing model that fits P&L for new business initiatives.
- Evaluates and develops operational systems that align with business needs to include rollouts, manuals, written procedures, and training.
- Creates operational SOPs and training material and tools for concept growth.
- Continues to develop culinary and systems knowledge; ensure safe production environment, cleanliness, and organization of storage areas post open dates.
- Responsible for all operational procedures and processes post open dates to achieve the highest food quality standards under all types of volume production conditions.
- Hands on approach to support projects as needed.