Culinary Services Manager

Ventura Foods; Irvine (CA); Hybrid; USD 115,000 - 151,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical Benefits

401(k) Matching

Paid Vacation & Holidays

Employee Assistance Programs

Job summary

Ventura Foods is seeking a Manager of Culinary Services in Irvine, CA, with a hybrid work setup including Sandy Springs, GA. The role leads culinary innovation, supports customers, and coordinates with Sales, Product Development, Insights, and Marketing to accelerate speed-to-market and menu development.

The ideal candidate has 7+ years in culinary roles, strong cross-functional leadership, and readiness to travel up to 40%. Bachelor’s degree preferred; AA/AOC or equivalent considered.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Culinary Arts, Food Science, or related field preferred; AA/AOC or apprenticeship may be considered.
• 7+ years of progressive culinary experience in restaurant operations, food manufacturer, or culinary sales.
• 3+ years in a food manufacturer role preferred.
• Experience includes hands-on kitchen operations, menu innovation, product development, direct customer engagement, team leadership, commercialization, and turning strategy into business growth.
• Willingness to travel up to 40% for customer meetings and industry events.

Responsibilities

• Provides menu and product innovation services to key customers in multiple business channels.
• Develops menu concepts and products and leads cross-functional teams to present solutions to customers.
• Develops digital tools for concepts, training, social media, and direct customer engagement.
• Acts as culinary site leader for the Irvine location; manages kitchen events and relationships with facilities including contracted venues.
• Documents all customer project activity in Salesforce to capture value and time invested.

Skills

Culinary Leadership

Cross-functional

Customer Engagement

Presentation Skills

Education

Culinary degree preferred

AA/AOC or equivalent

Job description

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Culinary Services Manager

Location: Irvine, CA, US, 92618

Employment Type: Salaried
Work Arrangement: Hybrid- Sandy Springs, GA.

Position Summary:

The Manager, Culinary Services, will champion our Food Innovation Services, technical expertise, and commercial growth for Ventura Foods and its customers. Reporting directly to the VP, this position serves as a lead culinary interface between Customers, Sales, Product Development, Insights, and Marketing. The Manager will play a lead role in executing the company’s innovation services, strengthening customer relationships, and ensure alignment between product development and business objectives. This role will develop concepts and products to accelerate speed-to-market, menu innovation and drive revenue growth for our customers. This role will act as the culinary lead for the Sandy Spring, GA Innovation Center.

Major Duties and Responsibilities:

• Provides menu and product innovation services to key customers in multiple business channels. Develops menu concepts and products. Collaborates and/or leads cross-functional teams to present these solutions to customers. Plays a key role in the execution of our Vista Food Innovation Service.
• Employs and/or develops digital tools such as videos for menu concepts, product category training, social media, YouTube, and direct to customer engagements. Expands our culinary reach through these tools.
• Is the culinary site leader for this location. Owns and manages the kitchen event calendar and culinary execution those events. Ensures the kitchen is cleaned, maintained, and organized. Develops and maintains relationships with third-party culinary facilities. This includes our area broker kitchen for project work involving food preparation. Includes contracted facilities for executing presentations to customers.
• Provides and/or leads culinary support for company and industry events where culinary and food service is required. Includes developing concepts, products, menus, execution plans, and communcation.
• Documents all customer project acitivty in the Salesforce CRM system to capture the value and time investment provided to customers.

Education and Experience:

Required:

• Bachelor’s degree in Culinary Arts, Food Science, or related field is preferred. AA/AOC Culinary degree, professional certificate, or recognized apprenticeship program, equivalent culinary and product development will be considered.
• 7+ years of progressive culinary experience in restaurant operations, food manufacturer, or culinary sales.
• 3+ years experience in a food manufacturer role is preferred.
• Experience includes hands-on kitchen operations, menu innovation, product development, direct customer engagement, team leadership, commercialization, and turning strategy into business growth.
• Experience in collaborating and/or leading cross-functional teams to create customer solutions.
• Proven success in building customer relationships and translating culinary trends into customer menu solutions.
  Ability to travel up to 40% for customer meetings and industry events.
  

Highly Preferred:

• Possesses or meets requirement to acheive CEC and/or CRC certifications are preferred.
• Food Protection Manager certification is preferred.
• Demonstrated working knowledge and use of digital/video capability.
• Strong business acumen with ability to connect culinary innovation to commercial growth
• Strong presentation, communication, and negotiation skills
• Deep knowledge of food safety, product development, regulatory, product commercialization, trends, and marketing strategies.
• Proven profiency in food preparation and execution at a high-level.

Knowledge and Skills:

• Passionate about food and delivering customer value through food innovation.
  Strategic thinker with customer-centric approach to culinary innovation.
  Ability to work independently with broad direction.
  Skilled in project management and cross-functional collaboration.
  Relationship-driven culinarian with strong commercial instincts.
  Kitchen operations expert – fine dining, high-volume food service, casual, fast-casual, QSR, and retail food service.
  

Why Join Us:
Ventura Foods innovates and manufactures food solutions for foodservice and retail businesses. We make exclusive products for the world's most iconic restaurants and retailers, we provideready-to-goproduct solutions for professional kitchens, and we make consumer brands everyone knows and loves. When you work for Ventura Foods, you get a strong foundation of training, a manager who cares about you and celebrates your success, a safe environment, and challenging work. As part of our team, your future is limited only by how much you’re willing to push yourself to get there. We invest in your growth because you invest in ours.

Ventura Foods offers career growth opportunities as well as competitive compensation and benefits:

• Medical, Prescription, Dental, & Vision – coverage beginning on your 1st day for eligible employees
• Profit Sharing and 401(k) matching (after eligible criteria is met)
• Paid Vacation, Sick Time, and Holidays
• Employee Appreciation Events and Employee Assistance Programs
• Salary Base Range of $114,801.00 -$150,678.15*

*The “base salary range” provided above is a good faith estimate of what we expect to pay for this position in the specified markets. Ventura Foods reserves the right to pay outside of the given range based on a variety of factors including but not limited to: candidate skills and experience, complexity of the job, budgetary factors, and location/geography. Ventura Foods conducts regular reviews of compensation ranges and therefore reserves the right to alter this range at any given time.

Diversity & Inclusion:
Our commitment to a diverse and inclusive environment in which all employees are treated with respect is evident in our company culture and values. We believe that fostering an environment of inclusion and a focus on diversity across our organization is vital to attracting top talent, driving innovation, and meeting the high expectations of our customers in a rapidly evolving global marketplace.

Ventura Foods is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.

Ventura Foods may use Artificial Intelligence (AI) assisted tools at certain stages of our hiring process, including identifying & sourcing candidates, reviewing applications and matched candidates on job boards and websites, and generating screening questions to help us work more efficiently and consistently. We regularly review our tools to promote fairness and reduce the risk of bias. However, while these tools support our process, every hiring decision is made by a real person on our team. Applicants in the State of New York may request an alternative process by contacting us at [e-mail] .

Nearest Major Market: Irvine California
Nearest Secondary Market: Los Angeles