Executive Pastry Chef at Waldorf Astoria Dubai International Financial Centre

Hilton Worldwide, Inc.; Dubai International Financial Centre; On-site; AED 120,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

A luxury hotel group is seeking an Executive Pastry Chef for its Dubai location. The role involves leading the pastry and bakery operations, ensuring exceptional quality and guest satisfaction while upholding luxury standards. Ideal candidates should have 4+ years of managerial experience in luxury hotels, strong leadership skills, and a relevant degree. This position offers an exciting opportunity to innovate pastry offerings and develop a high-performing team in a prestigious environment.

Benefits

Opportunities for career progression

Engaging working environment

Staff discounts and benefits

Qualifications

• Minimum of 4 years’ experience in a similar pastry kitchen managerial role within luxury hotels.
• Fluency in English with excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Experience in implementing and maintaining the highest standards of food quality and hygiene.

Responsibilities

• Oversee daily pastry and bakery operations and guide team members.
• Ensure exceptional guest experiences through quality pastry delivery.
• Develop pastry business plan and manage budget to achieve commercial goals.

Skills

Commercial focus

Inspirational leadership

Excellent communication skills

Guest focus

Creativity and problem-solving

Education

Internationally recognised degree or diploma in a relevant field

Tools

F&B systems

MS Office applications

Job description

Job Description - Executive Pastry Chef at Waldorf Astoria Dubai International Financial Centre (HOT0C4BU)

Work Locations

Waldorf Astoria Dubai International Financial Centre, Dubai International Financial Centre, Dubai 74777

An Executive Pastry Chef for Waldorf Astoria Dubai International Financial Centre represents the hotel through the creation of exceptional pastry experiences, leading all pastry and bakery operations while upholding the Waldorf Astoria & Forbes luxury standards. As part of an award-winning Forbes Five-Star luxury property, the role focuses on elevating product quality, innovating pastry offerings and maintaining strong relationships with internal partners to maximize guest satisfaction and overall culinary performance.

What will I be doing?

As Executive Pastry Chef, you are responsible for elevating the hotel’s reputation through exceptional pastry quality and the leadership of a skilled pastry team. You will oversee the daily pastry & bakery operations and guide team members to consistently deliver excellence. Specifically, an Executive Pastry Chef will perform the following tasks to the highest standards:

Commercial Performance

• Develop the Pastry business plan, considering market strategy, financial targets and business volumes, as well as customer and team member experience
• Together with Executive Chef manage the pastry kitchen budget and forecast to support achievement of the hotel’s commercial goals
• Review departmental results - including sales, food costs, profit margins, wastage, breakage, guest satisfaction and take action with the Culinary and Stewarding management team to improve performance

Excellent Food

• Partner with the Executive Chef, F&D Operations team to create attractive, F&D concepts, menus, products and promotions that drive revenue and profit
• Deliver delicious, high-quality, well-presented artistic food to meet guests’ needs - and Instagram feeds!
• With positive mindset, plan personalized 3D amenities together with Personal Concierge team.
• Support Hilton’s sustainability goals through local sourcing strategies, use of seasonal produce, minimizing food waste, recycling, and efficient energy and water consumption.

Exceptional Guest Experiences

• Ensure the Pastry and Bakery team prepare, present and deliver dishes on time, with pride and precision, to create exceptional guest experiences
• Make sure that food allergies and dietary requirements are treated with absolute seriousness and that all chefs are trained on correct food handling
• Review and act on guest feedback, taking prompt action to resolve guest complaints and improve guest loyalty
• Partner with F&D Operations to enhance the hotel’s image through online reputation management for F&D, driving positive reviews on key platforms and websites.

Great Working Environment

• Lead, develop and inspire the Pastry and Bakery teams, creating an inclusive environment where all Team Members can thrive and achieve their professional goals
• Practice great people management, from recruitment to training to succession planning and recognition
• Develop an efficient Pastry and Bakery workforce plan to identify current and future needs based on forecast business volumes, budgets and HR guidelines
• Communicate well and often, building great relationships with key stakeholders.

Day‑To‑Day Essentials

• Make sure Pastry and Bakery operations strictly comply with all regulations (including health, safety and hygiene, food safety certification, daily kitchen records and labelling) and that potentially hazardous situations are identified, reported and corrected.
• Work with the Purchasing team to identify and select suppliers and create efficient purchasing processes. Put controls in place to maintain high quality of produce and equipment.
• Work with the Finance team to set the minimum and maximum stocks of all food, material and equipment. Make sure FFE, kitchen upkeep and inventories are maintained.
• Keep up to date with what’s happening in F&D world – current and future trends, markets, ingredients, competitors and suppliers – to drive innovation.

What are we looking for?

• Commercial focus, with a demonstrated ability to deliver exceptional business performance and results
• Inspirational leadership and people management skills, with experience in leading, developing and motivating a large team and working effectively with other departments
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, able to deliver a compelling message for the right audience, from team briefings to commercial business presentations to representing the hotel publicly with fluency in English
• Guest focus, experienced in implementing and maintaining the highest standards of food production, quality and hygiene to deliver memorable guest experiences.
• Effective relationship management skills to build and maintain good working relationships with key stakeholders, internally and externally, including suppliers.
• Creativity, strategic‑thinking and problem‑solving skills, with the ability to work effectively in a fast‑paced environment while remaining calm and focused under pressure.
• A minimum of 4 years’ experience in a similar pastry kitchen managerial role within luxury hotels
• An internationally recognised degree or diploma in a relevant field
• Expertise in social media usage and content engagement
• Confidence in working with F&B systems and MS Office applications

It would be advantageous...

• Previous experience in a luxury hotel in UAE
• Multilingual capabilities will be considered an asset.

What will it be like to work for Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts?

Waldorf Astoria provides guests the exceptional environment and the personalised attention of True Waldorf Service that creates a singular experience. If you understand the value of personalised attention and know how to treat even the most extraordinarily different experiences with the same rich level of customer service, you may just be the person we are looking for!