Head Chef

Independent Food Company; Dubai; On-site; AED 420,000 - 660,000; Full time

Job summary

Independent Food Company in Dubai seeks a Head Chef to oversee all back-of-house operations and lead kitchen staff, ensuring exceptional quality and presentation. You will guide menu development, uphold standards, and foster a creative, motivating environment.

The role requires strong leadership, cost control, and a passion for ingredients sourced consciously to deliver outstanding dining experiences for a diverse clientele.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree preferred.
• Minimum Diploma in Culinary Arts.
• Minimum 5 years of experience in a supervisory position for a full-service, high volume restaurant or similar establishment.
• Experience in cuisines such as Arabic, American, Mediterranean, Mexican, Italian etc.
• Experience in running a kitchen with 30 BOH staff.
• Experience in handling multiple kitchen and menu projects.
• Experience in consumer food tasting and feedback.

Responsibilities

• Ensure consistent food preparation and highest caliber of presentation; communicate with kitchen staff.
• Create, implement, and maintain department objectives; exceed targets.
• Provide input for menus; develop and recommend recipes.
• Ensure proper use of scales and measurements in recipes and portions.
• Manage inventory and ordering to minimize outages and costs.
• Maintain cleanliness and hygiene in kitchen areas; rotate stock for freshness.
• Increase food revenue and reduce kitchen expenses; maximize productivity.
• Promote safe working environment; ensure Health and Safety compliance.
• Coordinate with Maintenance to plan kitchen equipment maintenance.
• Plan and execute Food & Beverage promotions; prepare monthly outlook/forecasts.
• Create work schedules and annual leave within budget and guidelines.
• Conduct development and performance reviews; plan career paths.
• Hire and interview staff; plan BOH staffing levels.

Skills

Leadership

Staff management

Menu development

Cost control

Communication

Creative thinking

Team collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree preferred

Diploma in Culinary Arts

Job description

The Head Chef oversees and coordinates the planning, organization, training, and leadership of all BOH operations at the restaurant. Must be motivated and confident industry professional with the ability to manage and inspire staff, have a solid understanding of restaurant operations and have the ability to bring creative solutions to the table. This person will help maintain an exciting, inviting and progressive restaurant environment and must be passionate about our philosophy that ingredients should be consciously sourced to ensure the highest quality results.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Ensure consistent food preparation and the highest caliber of food presentation, taking advantage of all opportunities to improve upon both, and ensuring communication to the kitchen staff.
• Create, implement and maintain department objectives and ensure they are met and exceeded.
• Provide input for menus - creating, developing, and recommending recipes for the use of other staff - to create a consistent and quality food product.
• Ensure the proper use of scales and measurements in all recipes, portioning, and food production by both you and the staff under your direct supervision.
• Order an inventory of food products for the preparation and operation, of an efficiently run kitchen ensuring to both eliminate outages or shorts and participate in any opportunities to minimize inventory levels, minimizing capital while ensuring clients' expectations are exceeded.
• Ensure cleanliness and hygiene is maintained in the various kitchen areas including refrigerators and storerooms and that food products are rotated to ensure high standards of freshness. Limiting wastage to ensure COG's targets are met.
• Seek opportunities to increase food revenue, decrease kitchen expenses and maximize departmental productivity without compromising our clients' satisfaction.
• Strive to uphold a safe working environment and be Health and Safety conscious and actively involved in maintaining and improving a safe work environment. Ensure maintenance requests, incident reports and incident investigations are submitted and followed up with.
• Liaise with the Maintenance Department so as to check the requirements and be instrumental in planning a maintenance program for all kitchens to ensure all equipment is maintained in proper working order.
• Plan and execute well-constructed Food and Beverage promotion on a scheduled basis.
• Prepare monthly outlook/forecast reports.
• Prepare work schedules and annual leave schedules within budget, business expectations and guidelines of the appropriate industrial legislation.
• Conduct development and performance reviews, identifying key personnel for further development and structured career pathing.
• Maintain an accurate plan of BOH staffing needs. Interview and hire candidates. Ability to determine the applicability of experience and qualifications of job applicants.

implement and maintain training systems to ensure that associates have the necessary framework and skills to perform their job efficiently and effectively.

• Coach and mentor new staff to ensure skills of team meet expectations for food quality, portions, and presentation.
• Coach and provide leadership to all of the kitchen team.
• Ensure that the morale of the kitchen staff is maintained by practicing positive strategies to motivate staff, encourage self-esteem and efficiency.
• Ensure that all associates comply with the grooming and uniform standards.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Pleasant, polite manner and neat professional appearance
• Self-discipline, initiative, leadership ability and outgoing nature
• Must possess excellent people management skills, including resolving conflict, coaching and developing others, promoting teamwork and performance management
• Ability to handle pressure and stressful situations
• Ability to think creatively and innovatively
• Ability to manage multiple tasks at a time while maintaining attention to detail
• Ability to handle the department in an efficient yet creative fun approach
• Must be able to operate effectively as part of a team and communicate clearly
• Ability to create food concept menus with the direction of Brand Director
• Must be expert in waste management and cost reduction
• Ability to deal with suppliers and research market on product solutions
• Ability to read, interpret and effectively act upon profit & loss and other financial data
• Must demonstrate organizational and planning skills
• Eagerness to expand knowledge and experience

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE

• Bachelor's Degree preferred
• Minimum Diploma in Culinary Arts
• Minimum 5 years of experience in a supervisory position for a full-service, high volume, casual dining restaurant or other food and beverage establishment with a similar capacity and clientele.
• Experience in many types of cuisines such as Arabic, American, Mediterranean, Mexican, Italian and etc.
• Experience in running a kitchen with 30 BOH staff
• Experience in handling multiple kitchen and menu projects
• Experienced in consumer food tasting and feedback