Executive Chef

Vanilla Miel; Mumbai; On-site; INR 1,200,000 - 1,800,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Direct working relationship with the founder

Performance-linked compensation

Ownership of kitchen operations

Job summary

Vanilla Miel is seeking a Head Chef/Executive Chef to oversee our kitchens in Mumbai, ensuring exceptional quality and production standards. You will manage both the central kitchen and two cafés, leading a team of 25-30 staff.

The ideal candidate has 8-12 years of experience in professional kitchens with leadership roles. Strong systems management skills and a background in patisserie or café formats are essential. This position offers real ownership and a direct partnership with the founder.

Qualifications

• 8–12 years of experience in professional kitchens, with at least 3 years in a leadership role.
• Experience in café, patisserie, or modern casual formats preferred.
• Strong knowledge of patisserie and production systems.

Responsibilities

• Oversee production and quality across all kitchen functions.
• Manage food cost and kitchen P&L accountability.
• Lead and develop a team of 25–30 kitchen staff.

Skills

Leadership

Patisserie techniques

Cost management

Production planning

Team training

Job description

Vanilla Miel is a dessert-forward patisserie and café brand built on a hub-and-spoke model — a central production kitchen in Saki Naka supplying two cafés: a 50-seat flagship in Pali Village, Bandra, and a newer outlet coming up soon. Our work is technique-led: laminated doughs, plated desserts, bonbons, slab cakes, and a savoury café menu, executed with the discipline of a production kitchen and the finish of fine patisserie.

We are at a stage of growth where the kitchen needs an owner — not a custodian.

Reports to

Founder

Type

Full-time, leadership role

The Role

We are hiring a Head Chef / Executive Chef to take complete ownership of the kitchen function across the central kitchen (sweet & savoury) and both café kitchens. You will own production, quality, people, cost, and compliance — end to end. The founder partners with you on menu direction and R&D; everything else in the kitchen, especially execution, team retention & process deployment is yours to run.

The right person sees a kitchen as a system: recipes, yields, schedules, hygiene, training, and margins — all of it designed, documented, and held to standard daily.

What You Will Own

• Production & Quality
• Daily production planning at the central kitchen across patisserie, bakery, and savoury lines, matched to café demand and B2B/event orders
• Consistency of every product that leaves the CK — taste, finish, portioning, and shelf-life discipline across both cafés
• Dispatch, cold-chain, and inter-kitchen logistics between Saki Naka, Bandra, and Lower Parel
• Execute and refine the existing menu to spec; lead recipe documentation, yield testing, and costing for every SKU
• Partner with the founder on new product development when required, seasonal menus, and limited drops — bringing technical feasibility and production logic to creative direction

Cost & Commercial

• Full ownership of food cost: purchasing standards, vendor negotiation (with procurement), portion control & wastage tracking.
• Kitchen P&L accountability — labour planning, consumables, and equipment upkeep within budget

Team & Training

• Lead, schedule, and develop a kitchen team across three sites (~25–30 kitchen staff): sous chefs, CDPs, DCDPs, commis, and stewards
• Build the training ladder — station SOPs, skill assessments, and a bench of people ready to step up
• Own hiring for kitchen roles in partnership with the founder; drive retention through standards, fairness, and growth paths
• FSSAI compliance, HACCP-style hygiene systems, audit readiness, and pest/maintenance schedules across all kitchens
• A kitchen that is inspection-ready every day.

Who We Are Looking For

• 8–12 years in professional kitchens, with at least 3 years running a kitchen (Head Chef, Executive Sous, or CK Head) — café, patisserie, or modern casual format strongly preferred over pure hotel or fine dine restaurants.
• Experience at new-age, chef-led café or patisserie brands known for product discipline and high standards — the kind where recipes are documented, specs are non-negotiable, and the food has a point of view — is a strong signal
• Genuine fluency in patisserie or deep respect for it; you don't need to be a pastry chef, but you must be able to hold a pastry team to standard
• Proven central-kitchen or multi-outlet production experience: yields, dispatch, and consistency at scale
• Strong on systems — recipe cards, costing sheets, production logs, training documents. If your kitchens run on memory and shouting, this isn't the role
• A leader people want to work for: firm on standards, decent to people

What We Offer

• Real ownership and a direct working relationship with the founder — short decision loops, no committee
• A brand with a clear point of view, a loyal customer base, and an ambitious growth plan across formats
• Compensation benchmarked to the seniority of the role, commensurate with experience; performance-linked upside discussed at offer stage

How to Apply

• Write to us with your CV and a short note on the kitchen you are proudest of having run — what you inherited, what you changed, and what the numbers looked like after.