Pastry Lead Chef: Creative Baking & Campus Dining

Compass Group USA; Santa Monica (CA); On-site; USD 60,000 - 85,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical

Vision

Life Insurance/ AD

Disability Insurance

Retirement Plan

Paid Time Off

Holiday Time Off (varies by site/state

Associate Shopping Program

Health and Wellness Programs

Discount Marketplace

Identity Theft Protection

Pet Insurance

Employee Assistance Program

Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs)

Personal Leave

Job summary

Bon Appetit Management Company is seeking a Pastry Chef to lead the day-to-day baking and pastry operations for Pepperdine University, delivering exceptional desserts, artisan breads, pastries, and specialties across residential dining, retail cafés, catering events, and executive hospitality functions.

The role provides leadership to a team, including a Sous Chef Baker, focusing on menu innovation, production excellence, and training initiatives within a collegiate dining environment.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of pastry, baking, or culinary leadership experience preferred.
• Hands-on pastry chef, baker, or dessert production experience required.
• Experience overseeing bakery, pastry, café, catering, or large-scale foodservice operations.
• Experience in higher education dining, restaurants, hotels, resorts, or related hospitality environments preferred.
• Extensive catering and banquet dessert production experience preferred.
• High-volume batch production and complex foodservice operations experience preferred.
• Strong knowledge of baking techniques, pastry arts, artisan breads, desserts, cakes, confections, and current industry trends.
• Demonstrated experience with menu development, recipe creation, ordering, inventory management, and production planning.
• Comprehensive knowledge of food quality, sanitation, food safety systems, and cost controls.
• Ability to lead, train, coach, and develop culinary team members.
• ServSafe Certification preferred.

Responsibilities

• Lead day-to-day baking and pastry operations for Pepperdine University.
• Provide leadership to a team that includes a Sous Chef Baker, driving menu innovation and production excellence.
• Support high-profile catered events and VIP executive dining experiences.

Skills

Pastry leadership

Dessert production

High-volume production

Menu development

Training/coaching

Sanitation knowledge

Job description

Bon Appetit Management Company is seeking a Pastry Chef to lead the day-to-day baking and pastry operations for Pepperdine University, delivering exceptional desserts, artisan breads, pastries, and specialties across residential dining, retail cafés, catering events, and executive hospitality functions.

The role provides leadership to a team, including a Sous Chef Baker, focusing on menu innovation, production excellence, and training initiatives within a collegiate dining environment.