Upland Brewing Company is seeking an Executive Chef, Director of Food Operations. This position will be primarily responsible and accountable for all culinary related operations. The role will be a hands-on chef that will direct, manage, and train kitchen personnel, including kitchen management. In addition, this role will administer the planning, preparation, production and control of all food operations to deliver further on our mission of fresh, local, hand-crafted foods paired alongside our brewery’s award-winning beers.
Key goals: set a tone of culinary professionalism, maximize efficiency and profitability, and ensure the delivery of a consistently high standard product. This position will be responsible for providing culinary leadership for senior managers and staff at our flagship Brew Pub, but also for all our food serving retail outlets, banquets, and catering by overseeing budgets, purchases, and staff management. The ability to spot problems and resolve them quickly, maintain a level head, and delegate many kitchen tasks simultaneously is a must.
Responsibilities:
• Provide superior leadership:
o Motivate and inspire staff by outlining achievable goals and objectives; providing supervision, accountability, and recognition; leading by example.
o Comprehensively fulfill our mission of fresh and local food; develop seasonal and sustainable dishes; create innovative menus that stimulate customer purchases and loyalty.
o Establish a positive working relationship with all senior management and Brewery departments.
o Coordinate community events and create marketing opportunities within our local communities.
• Administer and maintain culinary related financials:
o Oversee cost controls and labor scheduling for all culinary aspects to maximize profitability and optimize service standards.
o Engineers collaborative menus that deliver appropriate gross profit percentages.
o Manage and analyze all food Profit & Loss statements, preparing month end financial reports.
o Monitor and forecast food revenues and expenses to ensure company goals are met on a weekly, monthly and yearly basis.
o Develops reporting and monitoring systems to accomplish objectives, maintains control of assessments, and fulfills expectations.
• Regulate daily processes and constantly improve operational systems:
o Assume management responsibility for day-to-day operations; successfully direct operations to fulfill culinary mission.
o Effectively communicate with management and kitchen staff in order to fulfill and address any issues or needs of the kitchen.
o Particularly effective in creating plan, strategies, actions and executing them.
o Establishes operational standards, guidelines and objectives, and maintains other administrative processes such as budget and staffing to ensure proper planning and efficiency.
o Manage physical aspect of all culinary operations to include equipment, floors, walls, lighting, and overall general cleanliness.
• Ensure delivery of exceptional culinary customer experience:
o Ensures and personally verifies the quality and consistency of the food product by tasting menu items and service quality by interacting with customers.
o Understand local products and source quality ingredients. Provide training and guidance on successful local product integration.
o Hires, motivates, evaluates and directs management and other staff in order to ensure customers receive exceptional culinary experience; responsible for morale of kitchen and its association with service staff through quality supervision and training.
Required Qualifications
• Minimum five years of progressive senior kitchen management experience.
• Bachelor’s degree in hotel, food and beverage or hospitality management or culinary art.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills, effective conflict and negotiation skills, and the ability to deal with a variety of different people.
• Ability to lead in a constructive and motivating manner.
• Demonstrated ability to create and execute operational procedures and systems.
• Analytical. Capable of completing a thorough and accurate food cost analysis; analyzing workflow and reorganizing equipment/setup to maximize labor productivity
• Ability to determine and communicate clear directives.
• Organized and thorough.
• Project management, including the ability to plan and execute large events while paying attention to details and anticipating needs or possible problems.
• Craft beer knowledge; certified cicerone or BJCP a plus.
Compensation
Competitive. Salary plus incentive compensation based on quality metrics and profitability growth.
Full-time salaried employees are eligible for the following benefits plan – after our 90-day probationary period for eligibility. The company pays 50% of the health insurance premium (currently an Anthem plan). We also sponsor a “Simple IRA” plan in which the company matches employee contributions up to 3% of your salary after one year of employment. In addition to national holidays, the company provides 80 hours/year of paid time off (to be used for sick days, vacation, personal emergencies, etc).
Please submit resume to angela@uplandbeer.com