Executive Chef

Hospitality Confidential; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 100,000 - 125,000; Full time

Job summary

A vibrant coastal Italian restaurant in San Diego is seeking an Executive Chef to lead culinary operations. This role involves managing staff, ensuring food quality, and achieving financial goals while fostering a positive workplace culture. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience in high-volume dining and a passion for Italian cuisine.

Benefits

Medical Insurance Coverage

Opt-ins for Dental and Vision Coverage

Vacation Time + Sick Days

R&D budget + employee discounts

Parking

Qualifications

• 3+ years of restaurant management experience at CDC level.
• 3+ years’ experience in fine casual or fine dining, high volume preferred.

Responsibilities

• Oversee culinary operations and ensure food quality standards.
• Manage financial forecasts and monitor labor costs.
• Train and coach kitchen staff to maintain company standards.

Skills

Multi-tasking

Problem Solving

Delegation

Initiative

Follow Through

Education

Bachelor’s Degree in Hospitality-related field

Tools

Microsoft Office Suite

TOAST

CTUIT

TripleSeat

Job description

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Hospitality Confidential provided pay range

This range is provided by Hospitality Confidential. Your actual pay will be based on your skills and experience — talk with your recruiter to learn more.

Base pay range

$100,000.00/yr - $125,000.00/yr

Additional compensation types

Annual Bonus

Hospitality Confidential is pleased to present an exciting new Executive Chef opportunity! Our client is a vibrant, high-volume, coastal Italian restaurant located in the heart of San Diego! This destination delivers an unforgettable experience through hand-crafted pastas, wood-fired dishes, and an award-winning cocktail program. The setting is sophisticated yet welcoming - a place where every detail, from the bustling bar to the buzzing dining room, celebrates the art of hospitality. As part of a larger, renowned restaurant group with a track record of successful, guest-centric concepts, this opportunity offers the chance to be part of a growing legacy rooted in passion, creativity, and community.

Reports to: VP of Culinary

Key Relationships:

• VP of Culinary/Culinary Management Team
• Main Office

FLSA Classification: Exempt

Job Summary: Executive Chef will be responsible for the culinary operations in their respective market. The primary focus will be on people, food, repair & maintenance, events, and cogs. This position will report into the VP of Culinary.

Key Responsibilities:

Financial (COGS): Work with VP of Culinary and Main Office to establish and achieve clear profitability, performance goals and metrics

• Create periodic financial forecasts for the business to show blended COGS and labor percentages for BOH.
• Monitor CTUIT data on a daily and weekly basis to find areas of opportunity.
• Ensure all managers are reviewing monthly inventories and are making adjustments to ordering habits to meet goals.
• Review storage locations to ensure product pars are strategic and the BOH is operating organized and efficiently with the space given.
• Guide CDC, managers, and sous chefs in monitoring ordering habits, as well as labor habits to ensure labor/food cost goals.
• Monitor staff schedules and staffing pars to ensure an appropriate number of staff members on each shift.
• Work with the Home Office, CDC and Culinary Leadership to determine what capital improvements are needed in the kitchen and restaurant spaces.

People: Work with the BOH leaders to grow the brand and culture

• Be the standard you wish to set and constantly look to ‘inspect what you expect’ from your leaders.
• Hold management team accountable to achieving goals and strategic plans.
• Constantly coach and train chefs and line cooks to better regulate inventory, staffing, food costs, and service flow.
• Continuously seek opportunities to connect with our community internal and external to the business.
• Coach Chefs on having strong relationships with vendors.
• Review staffing templates as well as shift times to ensure kitchen is running smoothly while maintaining a baseline labor percentage.
• Review shift notes and follow up promptly with restaurant management to resolve issues, provide answers, and assure that company standards and culture are not being sacrificed.
• Hold interviews for potential BOH culinary leaders, and employees including facilitating any termination of a BOH manager, and employee.

Events: Work with regional events manger to be running point on events

• Oversee and execute any offsite or large buyout events in the market.
• Track COGS and labor for events and see that it is accounted for correctly.
• Assemble team and equipment needed to facilitate offsite events.

Food: Work with the BOH leaders to ensure recipes are followed and food is up to standard

• Oversee prep and flavor profiles, plating and portioning, new menu execution.
• Ensure all kitchen is receiving correct and quality products.
• Ensure Inventory and storage locations are dialed in.
• Manage the cleanliness and organization of the restaurant.

R&M: Work with the BOH leaders to keep up with any maintenance and repair

• Work off of approved vendor guide to facilitate and repair and facility maintenance
• Work with onsite teams to make sure there is an SOP for pest control and routine deep cleanings
• Upkeep maintenance on all cooking equipment and BOH infrastructure

Skills/Knowledge:

• Expert on all areas of the employee lifecycle; hiring, training, feedback, growth, acknowledgement, employee exits
• Excellent understanding of company culture/philosophy
• Excellent kitchen and BOH operations knowledge
• Excellent food and beverage knowledge, specifically in Italian food, beer, and spirits
• Multi-tasking, problem solving & delegation
• Initiative & follow through
• Understanding of Microsoft Office Suite (Excel, Word, Outlook, Power Point)
• Understanding of restaurant POS systems TOAST, CTUIT, TripleSeat and all other systems

Experience:

• 3+ years of restaurant management experience at CDC level
• 3+ years’ experience in fine casual or fine dining, high volume and sales preferred

Education:

• Bachelor’s Degree or Certification in Hospitality-related field or equivalent expertise gained from time on the job is preferred

Physical:

• Must be able to stand and/or walk for extended periods of time.
• Must be able to reach with arms and hands, bend, kneel and crouch.
• Must be able to lift items between 10 and 50 lbs.

Core Company Values:

• Positivity: Demonstrating uncommonly positive behaviors
• Smiling while at work
• High fiving! Making conversations with strangers
• Delivering coffee to teammates, sharing best dance moves
• Seeing the opportunity in every challenge, not the challenge in every opportunity
• Sharing a genuine excitement for food and beverage with every guest and teammate
• Excellence: Consistently exceeding expectations and not accepting anything less than what you know is your very best!
• Doing the right thing, not the easy thing
• Creating detail orientated food as if each item was being entered in a competition
• Acting with intent and purpose with all of our steps of service
• Maintaining pristine and well-organized workspaces even when no one is looking
• Grow and Learn: Being confident in your own ability, yet humbly acknowledging that one can always learn more
• Respecting our ingredients and our past while always looking to raise the bar
• Displaying curiosity in all parts of our craft
• Being able to train and inspire those around us to do the same
• Being accountable for how you execute while seeing feedback as a gift to help you grow
• Party Everyday: Throw a great party that you would want to attend!
• Displaying a natural love and excitement for taking care of people as if they were in your own home
• Service that is thoughtful and curated (individualized)
• Being mindful of and anticipating guests needs before they arise
• Arriving to work with a high energy that is contagious and being aware of how your actions can impact others

Compensation and Benefits:

• Semi-Annual, Performance-Based Bonus worth up to 20% of base salary
• Medical Insurance Coverage with Opt-ins for Dental and Vision Coverage
• Vacation Time + Sick Days
• R&D budget + employee discounts at all restaurants/brands
• Parking

*NOTE: This job description is not intended to be all-inclusive.

Employee may perform other related duties as negotiated to meet the ongoing needs of company.

Our client is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. They do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, gender (including gender identity or expression), pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, sexual orientation, marital status, domestic violence, sexual violence or stalking victim status, ancestry, national origin, alienage or citizenship, age, disability, military or veteran status, genetic information or predisposing genetic characteristic, or other protected status.

Seniority level

• Seniority level

  Mid-Senior level

Employment type

• Employment type

  Full-time

Job function

• Job function

  Other

• Industries

  Restaurants and Hospitality

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Inferred from the description for this job

Medical insurance

Vision insurance

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