Field Chef

careers-ucfs; Fayetteville (AR); On-site; USD 52,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

Upper Crust Food Service seeks a Field Chef to provide agile campus-wide coverage across all houses on a qualifying campus, rotating between kitchens and partnering with senior chefs to ensure service excellence.

The role supports onboarding, special events, and development plans, with formal reviews and a portfolio-building path to independent menu ownership. Candidates should have culinary expertise and strong leadership.

Qualifications

• Culinary degree or equivalent professional kitchen experience required.
• 3+ years in a professional kitchen with at least 1 year at Sous Chef level.
• Ability to execute menus designed by other chefs to their standards.
• Strong food safety knowledge; ServSafe certification or ability to obtain within 60 days.

Responsibilities

• Lead daily service across multiple campus houses, ensuring menu execution to standard.
• Coordinate back-of-house operations, prep, and food safety compliance for coverage days.
• Collaborate with front-of-house leaders on logistics, dietary accommodations, and guest needs.
• Rotate across all campus houses, build relationships, and learn kitchen equipment and systems.
• Support pre-service prep, onboarding, and special events; document insights for best practices.

Skills

Culinary leadership

Interpersonal skills

Flexibility

Mobility across kitchens

Time management

Education

Culinary degree or equivalent

3+ years professional kitchen experience

1 year at Sous Chef level or equivalent

ServSafe certification or ability to obtain within 60 days of hire

Tools

Menu design

Recipe costing

Inventory management

Dietary accommodation knowledge

Job description

At Upper Crust Food Service we believe great food does more than fill plates, it creates connection, strengthens communities, and transforms everyday experiences. Across college campuses, K-12 schools, camps, and Greek housing, our teams bring hospitality to life through fresh food, meaningful relationships, and service people can count on. While we began serving fraternity and sorority communities more than 15 years ago, we've grown into a national hospitality partner supporting a wide range of dining programs across the country. No matter the setting, our purpose remains the same: to show up for the people we serve and for one another.

If you're looking for meaningful work, real ownership, and a team that believes hospitality can make a difference, we'd love to meet you.

The Field Chef is a campus-wide culinary role designed to provide agile daily coverage across all houses on a qualifying campus and to serve as the on-campus bench for permanent Chef openings. Rather than being assigned to a single house, the Field Chef rotates across every house in the campus portfolio — stepping in to cover chef absences, support high-volume service, assist with special events, and partner with senior chefs on structured development.

Key Responsibilities:

Daily Coverage & Service Execution

• Receive daily assignments from the Area Manager or Operations Specialist and report to the assigned house ready to lead service.
• When covering an absent Chef, execute the house's planned menu to the standard expected by the house's clients — preserving continuity during the absence.
• Manage back-of-house operations for the day including prep coordination, station setup, food safety compliance, and service execution.
• Partner with the house's front-of-house team and house leadership on day-of logistics, dietary accommodations, and guest needs.

Cross-House Rotation & Campus Familiarity

• Rotate across all houses served on campus, building working relationships with each house's team, clients, and leadership.
• Learn each kitchen's equipment, inventory systems, vendor relationships, and service cadence.
• Document insights, standards, and opportunities observed across houses to inform campus-wide best practices.

Prep, Events & Onboarding Support (coverage-light days)

• Provide pre-service prep assistance at houses with high-volume meal periods.
• Support new house onboarding during the first weeks of service on a new campus contract.
• Execute special events including philanthropies, recruitment events, and formal dinners.
• Complete structured shadow time with senior chefs as part of a documented development plan.

Development & Promotion Readiness

• Participate in semi-annual development reviews with the Area Manager covering culinary skills, leadership, client management, and business acumen.
• Build a portfolio of menu concepts, costed recipes, and service plans in preparation for independent menu ownership.
• Maintain a professional, coachable posture across every rotation — the role's success depends on being welcomed into every kitchen on campus.

Qualifications:

Required

• Culinary degree or equivalent professional kitchen experience.
• 3+ years in a professional kitchen, with at least 1 year at the Sous Chef level or equivalent.
• Demonstrated ability to execute a menu designed by another chef to that chef's standard.
• Strong food safety knowledge; ServSafe certification or ability to obtain within 60 days of hire.
• Flexibility and mobility — willingness to work across multiple kitchens on short notice, including early mornings, evenings, and occasional weekends.
• Strong interpersonal skills; ability to integrate quickly into established kitchen teams.

Preferred

• Prior experience in high-volume residential, hospitality, or institutional food service.
• Experience with menu design, recipe costing, and inventory management.
• Exposure to dietary accommodation programs (allergen management, religious and lifestyle diets).

Special Demands:

• The work environment can be loud and busy. There are many kitchen hazards such as hot surfaces and liquids, sharp knives, and slippery floors.
• Capability to work in a kitchen environment that may involve exposure to extreme heat or cold.
• Required to stand for long periods, up to 8+ hours, as well as walk, bend and stoop.
• Must be able to lift and/or move objects up to 50 pounds.
• Exposure to cleaning chemicals.

Upper Crust Food Service provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.