Saratoga Retirement Community - Chef de Cuisine

Transforming Age; Saratoga (CA); On-site; USD 82,000 - 92,000; Full time

Job summary

Saratoga Retirement Community, part of Transforming Age, seeks a Chef De Cuisine to lead Dining Services. You will mentor the frontline and back-of-house teams, drive quality and safety across all kitchens, and govern menu planning with a resident-focused approach.

The role requires a Culinary Arts Degree or 3+ years of leadership, ServSafe certification, and strong MS Office skills. Salary ranges from $82,000 to $92,000 annually, DOE, on-site in Saratoga, CA.

Qualifications

• Culinary Arts Degree from an accredited program or 3+ years of leadership in kitchen roles.
• Regulatory food and beverage licenses relevant to the role.
• ServSafe certification or pursuit of certification during employment.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Word, Excel, and Outlook.

Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor the Dining Services frontline/back-of-house team with clear expectations.
• Manage budgets, food preparation, quality control, and safety across all kitchens.
• Develop menus, train staff, and ensure compliance with regulatory standards.
• Collaborate with the Executive Chef and Dietitian to meet residents' needs.
• Oversee events, ensure inventory controls, and maintain high service standards.

Skills

Leadership experience

Food safety

MS Office proficiency

Education

Culinary Arts Degree

Tools

ServSafe certification

Job description

**Join Our Upscale Retirement Community in Saratoga!**Become a valued part of our vibrant, 5-star, 94-bed Skilled Nursing Facility at **Saratoga Retirement Community**. We are currently seeking dedicated and compassionate team members to join our supportive and dynamic community!At **Saratoga Retirement Community**, we prioritize the well-being of both our residents and staff. We foster a culture of compassion, professional growth, and mutual respect—because when you thrive, so do those in your care!**Salary Range:** $82,000–$92,000 annually / DOE **Department:** Dining Services **Reports To:** Executive Chef **Employment Type:** Full-time **What you'll do:** As a top-level member of the culinary leadership team, you will help drive success in Dining Services by continually developing, mentoring, and holding accountable the frontline back-of-house team in accordance with their job descriptions, your sense of ownership, striving for excellence, and your expectations/vision as a leader of the department. In conjunction with the Transforming Age (TA) Core Values you will build positive, genuine, and transparent relationships with the residents of your community. Be responsible for Food preparation and presentation, food quality control, food safety/sanitation within all kitchens and food preparation/service areas throughout your community, while adhering to and ensuring adherence to all Dining Services policies and procedures. **Our Chef De Cuisine:** * Adheres to the annual budget for both operating expenses and revenues pertaining to your department and area of purview.* Attends all resident and team meetings and/or events requiring your presence.|Be knowledgeable of emergency procedures and act in a calm manner in the event of an emergency.|Build relationships with both team members and residents by empathizing and assuming positive intent; through care and compassion, communicate genuinely and transparently - striving to win people over.|Conduct daily pre-service huddles for all assigned meal periods, to include training and motivational/positive talking points.|Create and document all recipes per state and federal regulations and ensure recipes are consistently followed. Ensure menus represent a balance of traditional cuisine, healthy options—including some local, organic and sustainable products, as well as other preferences expressed by residents, such as plant-based, gluten-free and heart-healthy needs.|Embrace the notion that you are employed with the purpose of offering your residents an inviting experience that is happening for them, not a service that is happening to them. Instill this principle into the minds of your team members.|Embrace your role as a personal investment in serving and engage with your team members and residents, as if the business is your own.* Ensures that all fixtures and equipment throughout all kitchens (and any other areas where food is prepared, stored, and/or served) are cleaned regularly, maintained, and in good repair.* Ensures that all menu items served to residents, guests and team members are tasted and evaluated by a member of the culinary leadership team prior to service. Ensure each culinary production team member tastes every item prior to service for quality, proper seasoning and consistency.* Ensures that all standardized food safety and sanitation best practices are in place at all times, including but not limited to the utilization/accuracy of proper food storage, rotation, labeling, and dating, federally regulated temperature and sanitation logs, and productions logs.* Generates the seasonal menu cycle, daily menus, catering menus, specials, and health care menus with adherence to regulatory requirements, MealTracker requirements, resident preference, and budgetary constraints.* Maintains a strong leadership presence throughout all kitchen areas at all times, including all healthcare kitchens.* Maintains optimal results regarding all regulatory audits, state and federal surveys, mock surveys, health inspections, corporate assessments and Corporate Director of Dining Services site visits, and resident and team member surveys. Respond to areas requiring correction in a timely and impactful manner.* Oversees the planning, organization, and execution of all dining services special events and holiday celebrations occurring throughout the community.* Participates on a hands-on level in the kitchen, in any capacity, whenever necessary during meal periods.* Plans and organize meal preparation for all meals served in the Health Center, Assisted Living, Independent Living and any venue where meals are provided, including team member meals.|Provide ongoing training and guidance to all back-of-house frontline team members. Train all newly hired and transitioned back-of-house team members in accordance with a consistent and effective training process/program.* Provide progressive performance management that includes training, coaching, mentoring, and counseling, and support team members so they can be held accountable for abiding by all standardized practices, expectations, policies, and procedures set forth by you, your community, and corporate.* Through collaboration with your community’s Regional Recruiter and your Human Resources Department, maintain workforce planning objectives by following company standardized hiring practices.* Through the direction of the Executive Chef, schedules and maintains proper staffing levels needed to successfully sustain daily operations.* Through the direction of the team, integrate all menus items and recipes offered to residents into the MealTracker Nutritional Software System.* Works with back-of-house leadership team to develop new dishes and innovative presentations of all menu items to continuously keep the culinary program fresh and exciting for residents.* Works with the Dining Room Manager to continually analyze and engage all members of the frontline front-of-house team for both strengths and improvement opportunities regarding mindset, task, and competency related skills and abilities.* Ensures those on the team are well suited to the team and their role.* Works with your Registered Dietitian and/or Certified Dietary Manager to ensure healthcare menus exceed state and federal regulatory requirements for nutrition, food safety, therapeutic diet needs, and our standards of excellence.* Ensures healthcare menus are representative of the food served in the other venues.* Performs other duties as assigned. **What you'll need:** * Culinary Arts Degree from an accredited program, college or university OR minimum of 3 years’ results-driven kitchen leadership or equivalent experience within a hospitality and culinary-focused environment; to include multi-venue hotels, resorts, restaurants, and/or high-end senior living environments.* Any current state-sanctioned regulatory Food and Alcoholic Beverage Licenses that are required in order to work within the food, beverage, and/or health services environment.* ServSafe certification or pursuit of the certification once beginning employment.* Proficiency in Microsoft Word, Excel, and Outlook.