Head Chef

Wilderness Resort; Wisconsin; On-site; USD 50,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

Wilderness Resort is seeking a Head Chef to oversee culinary operations at America's Largest Waterpark Resort. This full-time position requires managing culinary staff, ensuring high-quality service and innovative menu development while providing a rewarding employment experience.

Benefits

Employee benefits and amenities access

Qualifications

• Minimum of five years previous experience as senior management in a multi-venue facility.
• Experience creating unique culinary experiences in a resort setting.

Responsibilities

• Daily management of culinary staff.
• Control and monitor food costs within the restaurant.
• Propose creative culinary ideas/events.

Skills

Leadership

Culinary Creativity

Food Safety

Education

Fifth year college or university program certificate

Job description

Wilderness - Wisconsin Dells, WI, Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, United States of America

Job Description

Posted Wednesday, June 4, 2025 at 6:00 AM

Wilderness Resort in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin is America's Largest Waterpark Resort! The Wilderness provides a fun, safe, and memorable experience to not only our guests but our employees as well! We are a family-owned resort that takes pride in ensuring guest satisfaction as well as treating our employees like family. We strive for excellence within our resort and hope to create a long-lasting positive influence on the employees that join on our team.

Join the Wilderness Family for a rewarding employment experience! #WeAreFamily

The Wilderness Resort is seeking hardworking, dependable, enthusiastic, customer service driven individuals to join our fast-paced team! Employees have access to great benefits, amenity usage, and so much more!

The Head Chef is responsible for the direction of the culinary operations in compliance with company procedures to obtain the highest quality of service and products to guests with maximum operating results.

This is a full-time position with day, night, and weekend availability.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Daily management of culinary staff.
• Control and monitor the food costs within the restaurant. Negotiate with vendors and analyze market prices to ensure high quality product, while maintaining budgeted food costs.
• Work closely with the cooks to ensure they are following recipes, using the correct product, following all food safety guidelines and operating procedures.
• Work closely with the General Manager, Restaurant Manager and Chef de Cuisine to ensure all positions within the kitchen are functioning at optimal levels and of productivity. Give and receive feedback as needed.
• Conduct the ordering and inventory tracking of the kitchen.
• The Head Chef occasionally tastes and inspects the food to make sure the staff is preparing it correctly. They also ensure the restaurant complies with all sanitary and safety laws.
• Conduct forward-thinking conceptual research and analysis on the development of new and innovative culinary trends and lead the efforts to propose new menu items and products. New menu items and products will need to be approved by the Chef de Cuisine and General Manager.
• Work with the Chef de Cuisine to create and develop profitable new menu items, recipes, utilize the company process to gain approval, and implement deployment and training efforts to ensure effective and efficient introduction of new items to applicable locations.
• Propose creative culinary ideas/events, such as private chef dinners, catering events, marketing events, etc. Seek approval for and effectively execute upon said events.
• Collaborate with the General Manager and Chef de Cuisine to develop sale strategies and promotions.
• Define, identify, and set product selection standards for food, wares, supplies, and other applicable products, and collaborate with the Chef de Cuisine and General Manager to evaluate and select vendors and suppliers.
• Ensure that the restaurant adheres to Wilderness Resort standards, cleanliness, conditional, and service standards at all times.
• Manage and motivate all restaurant culinary members including outlet cooks, line cooks, prep cooks, and dishwashers. Daily supervision to include training, discipline, scheduling, and visually monitoring performance to ensure adherence to all service and productivity standards to provide exceptional internal and external guest satisfaction.
• Oversee and manager daily shifts. Complete mastery of all culinary duties and positions.
• Communicate with staff to expand a clear understanding of the restaurant's expectations by pre-shift meetings, to discuss the daily specials, new items, current issues, and out FOH recommendations on appetizers and desserts.
• Preparing weekly culinary staff schedules.
• Head Chef will continue to work line shifts, especially during low volume periods to manager labor costs.
• Product ordering for the kitchen.
• All other duties as assigned by management.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

Supervise culinary staff. Responsible for the overall direction, coordination, and evaluation of the culinary department at this restaurant. Carries out supervisory responsibilities in accordance with the organization's policies and applicable laws. Responsibilities may include training culinary staff; planning, assigning, and directing kitchen work; appraising performance; rewarding and disciplining employees; menu development.

Qualifications:

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Minimum of five years previous experience as senior management or the equivalent in a multi-venue facility. Experience creating unique culinary experiences in a resort setting.

Education and/or Experience:

Fifth year college or university program certificate; or two to four years

related experience and/or training; or equivalent combination of education and experience.

*Wilderness Resort is an Equal Opportunity Employer*

Wilderness - Wisconsin Dells, WI, Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, United States of America