Event Cook at Cantinery

Empregara; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 48,000 - 69,000; Part time

Job summary

Cantinery is seeking an experienced Onsite Event Cook to represent our kitchen at private events across Brooklyn and occasionally Manhattan. This freelance, shift-based role suits someone with real event or line cook experience who wants consistent, well-run gigs.

You will assemble canapés and boards, perform oven and grill work, help with setup and breakdown, and interact professionally with clients and guests.

Qualifications

• 2+ years of private event or line cook experience.
• Proficient with oven and grill work.
• Strong knife skills and clean workstation under pressure.
• Ability to time courses to hit optimal temperatures.
• Comfortable interacting with clients and guests.
• Must be able to stand for full shifts and lift up to 25 lbs.
• Food Handler's Certification strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

• Work onsite at private events, assembling canapés and boards and cooking live.
• Handle oven and grill work for proteins and hot items.
• Help servers with setup and breakdown.
• Provide a professional face for our kitchen to clients and guests.
• Keep station and surrounding area clean throughout service.
• Manage shifting priorities during events.

Job description

Company description

Cantinery makes food for gathering.

We handle the whole spread — bold, elevated bites, considered tablescapes, and the vendors that pull a party together — so you can focus on the only thing that actually matters: your guests. Ingredients you feel good about, flavors people ask you for the recipe of (we'll never tell), and a hands-off experience that asks nothing of you except the guest list.

We specialize in seasonal grazing boards, passed canapés, hearty mains, and desserts for private clients, plus full-service coordination, from tablescaping to vendor sourcing, so you're not juggling five different people to pull off one dinner. For brands and retailers, we offer culinary design and activation services, including menu design, event production, and onsite support.

We are a young, female-founded boutique looking to expand our team by bringing in creative, detail-oriented, and people-focused chefs to help us continue to grow our business.

Job description

We're looking for an experienced Onsite Event Cook to represent our kitchen at private events across Brooklyn and occasionally Manhattan. If you’ve got the chops to cook well in any kitchen, while a client is sipping on a martini in the next room, we want to talk to you.

This is a freelance, shift-based role suited to someone who already has real event or line experience and is looking for consistent, well-run gigs.

What You'll Do

• Work onsite at private events, assembling canapés and boards and cooking dishes live at client locations
• Handle oven and grill work for proteins and hot items, maintaining quality and consistency under time pressure
• Help servers and event staff with setup and breakdown
• Serve as a face of our kitchen — interacting directly and professionally with clients, guests, and other event staff throughout the shift
• Keep your station and the surrounding event space clean throughout service, not just at the end
• Manage multiple moving priorities as the event unfolds — timing, plating, guest needs, and service flow all at once

Schedule

Evenings, with some weekday mornings and evenings as needed
Onsite in Brooklyn, occasionally Manhattan
Freelance, approximately 4–6 hours per shift

What We're Looking For

• At least 2 years of private event or line cook experience
• Confident handling and cooking proteins, including oven and grill work
• Strong knife skills and a track record of keeping a clean, organized workstation under pressure
• Able to time food precisely so everything hits the table at optimal temperature
• Proactive about cleaning and resetting the space during service, without being asked
• Comfortable juggling competing priorities in a live, fast-moving environment
• Confident and polished when interacting with clients and guests — this role is as much about presence as it is about cooking
• Able to stand for the full shift and lift and transport catering cargo up to 25lbs
• Food Handler's Certification strongly preferred

Why Work With Us?

Our mission is to make food for gathering — we want to help people come together and celebrate the moments that matter with our dishes. That shows up in how we work:

By families for families. We serve food we feel good about putting in front of our own.
Straight from the source. We work with a network of local producers we trust to source ingredients responsibly.
Never boring. We design bold, seasonal flavors that fit the event — always in service of the ingredient, never at its expense.

Beyond the food, we care just as much about the experience of working here. We're building a workplace that's positive, nurturing, and genuinely fulfilling — one that respects that this job is one part of a full life, not the whole of it. Freelance shifts should fit around your other priorities, not compete with them, and we try to design our schedules and our culture with that in mind.

Compensation

this position is: hourly, varies DOE, $35.00 - $50.00