Five-Star Hotel Executive Chef: Menu Innovation & Team Lead

The Good Human (Pty)Ltd; Johannesburg; On-site; ZAR 900,000 - 1,300,000; Full time

Job summary

DaVinci Hotel & Suites in Johannesburg seeks an experienced Executive Chef to lead culinary operations and deliver a five-star dining experience. You will oversee restaurant, breakfast, banqueting, and events, developing innovative menus while controlling costs and maintaining top quality.

The role requires strong leadership, a background in luxury hospitality, and expertise in menu costing, stock control, and staff development.

Qualifications

• Relevant culinary, hospitality or food-service qualification.
• Minimum two years’ experience as an Executive Chef, Executive Sous Chef or similar.
• Five-star hotel, luxury hospitality or high-end restaurant experience preferred.
• Experience managing high-volume breakfast and banqueting operations.
• Strong knowledge of menu costing, food costs and stock control.
• Proven experience developing menus and culinary concepts.
• Strong leadership, team-development and performance-management skills.
• Excellent communication and organisational abilities.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Word, Excel and Outlook.
• Ability to perform effectively in a fast-paced hospitality environment.

Responsibilities

• Provide leadership across all hotel kitchen operations.
• Manage restaurant, breakfast, banqueting, private dining and special events.
• Develop innovative, commercially viable menus and culinary concepts.
• Manage menu engineering, recipe costing and portion control.
• Control food costs, purchasing, stock, wastage and kitchen profitability.
• Maintain five-star standards of food quality, flavour and presentation.
• Ensure compliance with food safety, hygiene, health and safety standards.
• Plan staffing levels and manage kitchen labour productivity.
• Recruit, train, coach and develop the culinary team.
• Manage employee performance and support succession planning.
• Monitor kitchen equipment and coordinate maintenance requirements.
• Engage with guests and resolve food-related concerns professionally.
• Work closely with Food & Beverage, Front Office and hotel management.
• Support promotions, events and culinary initiatives that increase revenue.

Skills

Leadership

Menu costing

Food safety

Communication

Organisational skills

Team development

Stock control

Staff training

Education

Culinary/hospitality qualification

Tools

MS Word

MS Excel

Outlook

Job description

DaVinci Hotel & Suites in Johannesburg seeks an experienced Executive Chef to lead culinary operations and deliver a five-star dining experience. You will oversee restaurant, breakfast, banqueting, and events, developing innovative menus while controlling costs and maintaining top quality.

The role requires strong leadership, a background in luxury hospitality, and expertise in menu costing, stock control, and staff development.