Chef de Cuisine (Upper West Side)

The Chef de Cuisine is an integral part of the Fairway Market experience. Chef de Cuisine are kitchen leaders who balance extensive food preparation experience with leadership and management roles. The following are the roles and responsibilities of the Chef de Cuisine:

Department-specific Responsibilities:
• Supervise day to day operations at the Fairway Broadway Café.
• Participate on the menu teams and collaborate with training for all food roll-outs with Executive Chef.
• Regularly conduct culinary research or training in the Production and Distribution Center (PDC).
• Assist in managing the nutritional information provided to Fairway customers.
• Recommend satellite (in store) kitchen lay-out and recommend equipment or kitchen flow improvements to Executive Chef.
• Oversee projects with supply management regarding outside manufacturing companies requiring company culinary direction and focus (private label) with the Executive Chef.
• Coordinate purchases with fresh food buyers and maintaining proper rotation of products.
• Support recipe databases with onsite training to satellite kitchen managers.
• Review labor component and costing on all recipes.
• Serve as culinary lead on QA/QC team.
• Accountable for the cleanliness of the kitchen work spaces, storage spaces, and equipment
• Helps ensure food quality is meeting Fairway Market’s standards and expectations
Specialized Training and Experience:
• Experience working in a traditional commercial kitchen or large scale commissary, managing a crew of 20+ people.
• Assist in driving brand definition through the Fairway customer experience in Fresh Foods Division: leading quality control, product and packaging innovation and food safety practices.
• Maintains a detailed knowledge of all major competitors, global and local food trends.
• Responsible for driving consistent product and range improvement: existing or new recipes, managing the process from concept to customer.
• Development of the key indicators of Fairway’s food quality: freshness, quality ingredients, international influence and unbeatable customer value.

Broad Function and General Objectives:
• Custodian of Quality at Fairway which may extend to departments other than café.
• Recipe maintenance and development including recipe costing.
• Management and alignment of kitchen ingredient purchasing: cost and quality.
• Accountable for theoretical cost of goods (gross profit) for all items produced.
• Accountable for kitchen profitability measured by actual ingredient usage vs model ingredient usage as per recipes
• Accountable for production satellite kitchen(s) compliance to NYS Dept. of Agriculture and Markets.
• Employee management

Skills and Qualifications:
Candidates who apply for the Chef de Cuisine position must possess the following skills:
• Degree in Culinary Arts from a recognized Culinary School
• Minimum of 6 years working in a restaurant and/or food service industry
• Valid Food Safety Certificate
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office
• Excellent organizational skills & attention to detail
• Ability to prioritize tasks, multi-task, balance friendliness with efficiency, and maintain focus
• Effective communication skills and ability to read, write and comprehend English
• Meet physical demands required for the position.
Employee Development and Training:
• Participate in hiring of new cooks/kitchen supervisors.
• Skills training, development and counsel of all cooks in a manner which builds and sustains a high performing team and minimizes turn over.
• Communicate kitchen goals of creativity, quality and trend leadership.
• Establish and maintain a positive work environment for all employees.
• Assists and supervises kitchen team members ensuring compliance to sanitation and safety standards and expectations

Work Environment and Physical Demands:
• Frequent motions such as grabbing, reaching, pushing, pulling, bending, kneeling, and crouching in order to retrieve and/or replenish merchandise and/or cooking equipment
• Lifting up to 50lbs.
• Standing for 4-6 hours at a time without a break