How you will make history here...
The Senior Chef of NAFS (North American Food Service) is responsible for assisting the Executive Chef of NAFS to help lead and build culinary strategy and execution for the business. This role will drive culinary excellence and increase culinary credibility to achieve new business development through 1) translation of culinary trends and operator insights to win new costumers. 2) leverage current portfolio to drive new opportunities that increase sales. 3) Provide culinary inspiration to raise the bar on the quality of our existing culinary capabilities/showcases. 4) Influence and collaborate with cross functional partners (internal and external) for the best possible product outcome (training and education on culinary / Real Food) 5) Build, foster, and leverage client relationships to make NAFS the undisputed partner of choice.
Position reports directly to Executive Chef NAFS
What you will do:
Demonstrate culinary thought leadership, business strategy & creative problem solving.
Knowledgeable of culinary trends and ability to apply towards business objectives.
Expert in restaurant operations and can to navigate and simplify complex BOH (back of house) systems by providing/selling CSC solutions and brands.
Partnership with R&D and customers to make recipes showcasing the NAFS portfolio of products
Cross-functional collaboration and understanding and willingness to learn more deeply the manufacturing capabilities and constraints to enable successful translation and scale up of culinary gold standards.
Attend product inspections to provide culinary perspectives and expertise.
Project management & prioritization of projects with staff.
Collaborate, plan and execute product ideations and presentations with cross functional partners.
Build strong and sustainable relationship with sales/marketing team members.
Build strong and sustainable relationship with key customers.
Strong understanding of competitive landscape and ability to win new business through duplication projects and menu gap analysis.
Knowledge of restaurant financials and business acumen (P&L’s, menu engineering, food cost)
To attend and be the culinary lead at Industry Conferences that are targeted to chains.
Who you will work with:
Highly proficient culinary expertise & collaborative working style
Sales minded professional / business acumen
Proficient decision making
Ability to influence and effectively communicate with functional partners and clients to foster collaboration
Effective presentation skills & ability to influence
Excellent communication skills- verbal, written and presentational
Basic understanding of scale up/manufacturing challenges
Effective & collaborative leadership skills
Strategic thinking / ability to translate complex business challenges into tangible solutions
Recipe / menu development
What you bring to the table (must haves):
HS diploma or equivalent
Minimum of 6 CPG or culinary industry related experience required
It would be great to have (nice to haves)...
Education: Culinary Degree (AOS) from an Accredited Culinary School,
Must have experience successfully leading kitchens, teams, projects, and high profile culinary events/catering. Must have “real life” restaurant/food service operation experience.
Travel (30-35%)
Serve Safe Certified
Join our talent community
We’re proud to be a purpose-driven company. Our goal is simple: to connect people through food they love. It’s the reason we innovate, grow, and show up every day because food brings people together.