Culinary Ambassador Chef

Mariano Events; Pittsburgh (Allegheny County); On-site; USD 25,000 - 33,000; Full time

Job summary

Mariano Events seeks dynamic culinary professionals to join our team as Culinary Ambassador Chefs in retailer demonstration kitchens. This is more than a traditional food sampling role and centers on live cooking, recipe preparation, culinary education, and engaging customer experiences.

You'll perform consistent 8-hour demonstrations at a single fixed retail location, cooking, presenting premium brands, educating shoppers, and creating memorable culinary experiences that drive product discovery

Qualifications

• Food safety knowledge and adherence to safety standards.
• Current food-safety certification required.
• ServSafe certification required.
• Culinary education, culinary certification, professional kitchen experience, or current enrollment in a culinary program is strongly preferred.
• Ability to safely handle raw meat, poultry, seafood, and other potentially hazardous foods.

Responsibilities

• Prepare, cook, and showcase recipes featuring products from premium brands.
• Conduct live cooking demonstrations within demonstration kitchens.
• Educate customers on ingredients, preparation techniques, recipes, serving suggestions, and meal solutions.
• Maintain an exceptionally clean, organized, professional, and food-safe demonstration kitchen.
• Professionally represent Mariano Events, retailer, and participating brand partners.

Skills

Food safety

Customer interaction

Cooking

Communication

Education

Culinary education

Culinary certification

Current enrollment in culinary program

Job description

Mariano Events is seeking dynamic culinary professionals, aspiring chefs, and ambitious culinary students to join our team as Culinary Ambassador Chefs within retailer demonstration kitchens.

This is more than a traditional food sampling position. Culinary Ambassador Chefs bring premium food brands to life through live cooking, recipe preparation, culinary education, and engaging customer experiences.

This unique role offers consistent, full 8-hour shifts at a single fixed retail store location, allowing you to focus on what you do best: cooking, creating, interacting with customers, and showcasing exceptional food products.

If you are passionate about food, enjoy working with people, and want an opportunity to build your culinary experience in an exciting customer-facing environment, we want to meet you.

What You'll Do

• Prepare, cook, and showcase recipes featuring curated products from premium food and beverage brand partners.
• Conduct live cooking demonstrations within demonstration kitchens.
• Safely prepare and cook raw meat, poultry, seafood, and other proteins according to established food-safety procedures and required internal cooking temperatures.
• Engage shoppers through enthusiastic, knowledgeable product and culinary storytelling.
• Educate customers on ingredients, preparation techniques, recipes, serving suggestions, and meal solutions.
• Create an elevated culinary experience that encourages shoppers to discover and purchase new products.
• Follow standardized recipes while bringing your own culinary creativity and personality to the experience.
• Provide ideas and input for recipe development, preparation techniques, presentation, and serving suggestions.
• Maintain an exceptionally clean, organized, professional, and food-safe demonstration kitchen throughout your shift.
• Follow all Mariano Events and retailer operating procedures and food-safety standards.
• Professionally represent Mariano Events, retailer, and participating brand partners.

Food Safety & Culinary Requirements

Food safety is an essential part of this position. Culinary Ambassador Chefs must demonstrate knowledge of professional food preparation and safe food-handling practices.

• Current food-safety certification required.
• ServSafe certification required.
• Culinary education, culinary certification, professional kitchen experience, or current enrollment in a culinary program is strongly preferred.
• Must have demonstrated knowledge of safely handling, preparing, and cooking raw meat, poultry, seafood, and other potentially hazardous foods.
• Must understand proper internal cooking temperatures and proper use of food thermometers.
• Must understand procedures for preventing cross-contamination between raw and ready-to-eat foods.
• Must understand proper handwashing, sanitation, food storage, temperature control, hot/cold holding, and cleaning procedures.
• Must demonstrate awareness of food allergens and appropriate food-handling precautions.
• Must be comfortable following standardized recipes, food-safety protocols, and Test Kitchen operating procedures.

What We're Looking For

Our ideal Culinary Ambassador Chef is:

• Passionate about food, cooking, and culinary experiences.
• Personable, outgoing, and comfortable interacting with customers throughout the day.
• Confident cooking and preparing food in an open, customer-facing Demonstrations Kitchen environment.
• Creative and excited to contribute ideas to recipes and presentations.
• Knowledgeable about ingredients, cooking techniques, and food preparation.
• Professional, dependable, organized, and detail-oriented.
• Comfortable educating customers while cooking and preparing recipes.
• Able to confidently represent premium food brands.
• Able to work independently while following established culinary and operational standards.

We especially encourage culinary students, recent culinary graduates, chefs, cooks, hospitality professionals, and experienced culinary demonstrators to apply.

Physical & Transportation Requirements

• Must have reliable transportation to consistently travel to and from your assigned Retailer Demonstration Kitchen and scheduled events.
• Must be dependable and able to arrive on time and fully prepared for scheduled shifts.
• Must be able to lift and carry up to 20 pounds of products, ingredients, supplies, and culinary equipment.
• Must be able to stand and work for extended periods of time throughout an 8-hour shift.
• Must be able to perform routine kitchen activities including cooking, food preparation, reaching, bending, lifting, cleaning, and sanitizing.
• Must be comfortable working on your feet in an active retail Demonstration Kitchen environment.

As a Culinary Ambassador Chef, you will have the opportunity to combine your culinary skills with creativity and customer engagement while representing exciting premium brands.

Rather than traveling between multiple short sampling events, this program provides the opportunity to work consistent 8-hour culinary shifts at a fixed retailer location.

For culinary students and emerging chefs, this is also an opportunity to gain valuable experience in:

• Live culinary demonstrations
• Recipe execution and development
• Food and product education
• Premium food brand representation
• Retail culinary operations
• Professional food-safety practices

Become the Culinary Face of the Experience

This is more than a sampling role.

As a Culinary Ambassador Chef, you become the culinary face of premium brands inside retailers—transforming ingredients into recipes, recipes into experiences, and everyday grocery shopping into an opportunity for culinary discovery.

If you love to cook, create, educate, and connect with people, we'd love to have you join the Mariano Events culinary team.