Chef de Cuisine

Estancia La Jolla, A Noble House Hotel; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 85,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Hotel & restaurant discounts

401k matching (after 1 year)

On-Demand Pay

Paid time off

Complementary parking

Meals

Job summary

Estancia La Jolla Hotel & Spa is seeking a Chef de Cuisine to lead and oversee all culinary operations, ensuring exceptional food quality and presentation across outlets. The role requires coordinating kitchen teams, managing budgets, and driving profitability while upholding safety standards.

The ideal candidate brings experience in hotel/resort culinary management, strong leadership, and a passion for guest satisfaction in a luxury setting.

Qualifications

• Completion of an approved Culinary Program or Apprenticeship.
• Associates/Bachelors degree in Culinary Arts preferred.
• Experience in culinary management with high-quality food production and F&B operations.
• Ability to lead and coordinate staff in a high-volume, time-sensitive environment.

Responsibilities

• Direct and oversee all culinary operations for the hotel, including planning, preparation, production, quality, and presentation.
• Manage subordinate managers and supervise team members across culinary areas.
• Ensure safety, sanitation, and regulatory compliance; monitor budgets and profitability.
• Plan department goals, analyze forecasts, and drive cost controls and waste minimization.
• Interacts with guests to monitor satisfaction and implement improvements; coordinate with F&B managers on menus.

Skills

Staff leadership

Guest service

Problem solving

Education

Associates/Bachelors in Culinary Arts

Culinary program or Apprenticeship

Job description

Description

ABOUT US:

From the hacienda-style architecture to the lush gardens and scattered artwork, Estancia La Jolla is a true Southern California escape. This former ranch dates back to the late 1800s, a history the property celebrates and honors. In Estancia's 210 casually elegant rooms and suites, this AAA Four Diamond boutique hotel feels like home.

THE JOB:

The Chef de Cuisine is responsible for supporting the Executive Chef with directing and overseeing all culinary operations for the hotel including planning, preparation, production, food quality, and food presentation.

Delivers outstanding guest service and financial profitability. Ensures compliance with all safety and sanitation standards and regulations. Provides guidance and direction to ensure overall departmental success. Manages subordinate managers, supervisors/lead personnel who supervise team members in the assigned culinary areas. Is responsible for the overall direction, coordination, and evaluation of these units. Carries out supervisory responsibilities in accordance with the organization's policies and applicable laws. Responsibilities include interviewing, hiring, and training team members; planning, assigning, and directing work; appraising performance; rewarding and disciplining team members; addressing complaints and resolving problems. Responsible for planning department goals and directing team members to achieve results. Monitors day-to-day culinary operations to ensure standards of product quality, presentation and service exceed guest expectations and meet or exceed property standards. Takes corrective action as needed. Achieves budgeted revenues, controls expenses and maximizes profitability within assigned areas. Utilizes corporate approved computer programs to analyze forecasts, cost and revenue reports. Makes decisions and takes action based on that information to maximize profitability. Ensures quality and portion control while minimizing waste or loss of supplies to maintain profitability. Ensures guests receive outstanding, consistent, exceptional food by circulating through each preparation, banquet or dining area. Seeks opportunities to improve satisfaction and immediately handles any guest concerns or complaints. Plans and manages the procurement, production, preparation and presentation of all food in the hotel in a safe, sanitary, cost effective manner. Interacts with guests to monitor and assess satisfaction trends, evaluate and address issues and make improvements accordingly. Works with Food & Beverage managers to create and implement new menus and individual menu items based on current food trends and regional tastes. Follows all standard food handling, sanitation and health department guidelines. Ensures compliance with federal, state, local and company health, safety, sanitation standards. Performs general management duties including, but not limited to, systems management, budget and forecasting, report generation, department management and meeting participation and facilitation.

YOU:

To be successful in this position, we're looking for an amazing people connector, who thrives on creating experiences and problem solving. This role as the Chef de Cuisine requires skills such as patience, empathy, and a desire to provide excellent service for our guests.

Our CULTURE

Be part of our award-winning team named TOP Workplace in San Diego 2022-2025 and TOP Workplace USA 2023-2026 by our Team Members. Estancia La Jolla is a part of Noble House Hotels and Resorts offering a collection of luxury hotels and resorts in the Americas. To provide our guests with exceptional service and the most memorable experiences, we look for team members who share our core values. The people who best fit Estancia La Jolla are sharp, hardworking team players. We are looking for candidates with experience in having fun!

The OFFER:

In return, we offer competitive pay, health insurance benefits, Team Member and Family & Friends hotel and restaurant discounts within the Nobel House Hotel & Resorts family, Matching 401k (After 1 year), On-Demand Pay (Earned wage access before payday!) PTO, Complementary Parking, and Meals.

Requirements

• Completion of an approved Culinary Program or Apprenticeship.
• Associates/Bachelors degree in Culinary Arts preferred.
• At least two years of experience with increasing responsibility in culinary management as Chef de Cuisine (or comparable position), responsible for high-quality food production and related food and beverage operations.
• Possess solid knowledge of high-quality culinary operations and management, service standards of comparable hotel, guest relations, and etiquette.
• Ability and experience in successfully leading and coordinating staff in a high-volume, time-sensitive environment.
• Requires ability to lead others in the department by mentoring and providing training that results in staff that meets/exceeds guest expectations and provides a high level of guest satisfaction.
• Knowledge of culinary operations, including marketing plans, security and safety programs, personnel and labor relations, preparation of business plans, repairs, maintenance, budget forecasting, quality assurance programs, hospitality law, and long-range planning.
• Completes required training as scheduled.
• Ability to monitor labor as required by anticipating business activity while ensuring that positions are staffed when and as needed and labor cost objectives are met.
• Requires ability to serve needs of guests through verbal face-to-face interactions.
• Contacts sometimes contain confidential/sensitive information, so requires ability to use discretion.
• Must demonstrate positive attitude and professional demeanor. Requires strong communication and interpersonal skills and commitment to a high level of guest satisfaction.
• Must have excellent customer service/communication skills to work with guests and provide a high level of guest satisfaction.
• Ability to stand for long periods of time.
• Ability to work on AM, PM, weekend, and holiday shifts as required by operational needs.

The ideal candidate will have:

Experience within a hotel/resort environment

At Estancia La Jolla Hotel & Spa, we take pride in supporting our initiatives towards Diversity, Equity Inclusion, and Accessibility. We have established a hotel committee to bring together a variety of thoughts, perspectives, and expressions – and we would love for you to share yours with the team!

Estancia La Jolla Hotel & Spa is an equal opportunity employer M/F/V/D

EEO Statement

Noble House Hotels & Resorts are proud to encourage and support an environment where everyone can be a successful team member (come as they are) as their true authentic self. We are an equal-opportunity workplace and employer that does not discriminate based on race, color, disability, gender/sex, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, age, veteran status, or any other protected status. We are committed to building a team (rooted in family) and a workplace where we are all able to be successful based solely on our individual qualifications, experience, abilities, and job performance.