Head Chef

Head Chef

Location: North/West & South

Salary: TBD

Employment Type: Permanent / Full-Time

Industry: Restaurant

Job Purpose:  

Head Chef leads all aspect of the kitchen. You will deliver a high-quality food and motivate our staff to provide excellent customer service.

Head Chef responsibilities include maintaining the restaurant’s revenue, profitability and quality goals. You will ensure efficient restaurant operation, as well as maintain high production, productivity, quality, and customer-service standards.

To be successful in this role, you’ll need to manage both front and back of the house. You will need to know how to oversee the dining room, check-in with customers and balance seating capacity. Front of the house management experience is also essential, as you will need to supervise Cooks and Wait Staff, set work schedules, oversee food prep and make sure we comply with health and safety restaurant regulations.

We’ll expect you to lead by example and uplift our staff during busy moments in our fast-paced environment. Ultimately, you will ensure our restaurant runs smoothly and customers have pleasant dining experiences.

Responsibilities Overview:

• Customer-Service: Food service managers might have to interact with customers. Being friendly and courteous will help keep customers coming back.
• Attention to Detail: Food service managers have to keep their eyes on a lot of elements: food standards, costs, safety, etc.
• Leadership: Managers must be leaders in the front and back of house, rallying their team during heavy shifts, resolving conflicts and getting the job done.
• Management Skills: Food service managers not only deal with food, they also have to deal with costs, pricing, creating work schedules and more.
• Organizational Skills: Keeping work schedules, shipments, cleaning schedules and more organized is crucial to the job.
• Problem-Solving Skills: Dealing with employee conflict, irate customers and wrong stock orders is part of a food service manager's job. Being able to come up with a solution quickly is a needed skill.
• Speaking Skills: Food service managers need to accurately and easily communicate standards and cooking methods to staff, give orders and speak with customers clearly.
• Stamina: Food service managers can expect long days around hot cooking elements, much of it on their feet.

Responsibilities also include: 

• Coordinating daily Kitchen management operations
• Kitchen staff weekly roster to approve.
•  Approval of ALL purchase orders for Kitchen.
• Follow up with Sous chef that all kitchen procedures check list are being completed e.g. Temperature log of food, chillers/freezers, meat log and Equipment service log.
• Ensure that all restaurant opening procedure are completed when working the opening shift.
• Monthly review of menu item sales.
• Update and acquire all increase in prices on items used by the kitchen.
• Menu development and costing.
• New menu training for kitchen staff and FOH including demos.
• Overall cleanliness and maintenance follows up of the kitchen.
• Coaching and counseling of all kitchen associate including Sous Chef.
• Maintain quality of Food and speed of service from kitchen.
• Responding efficiently and accurately to restaurant customer complaints

• Coordinate daily Front of the House and Back of the House restaurant operations
• Deliver superior service and maximize customer satisfaction
• Respond efficiently and accurately to customer complaints
• Regularly review product quality and research new vendors
• Organize and supervise shifts
• Appraise staff performance and provide feedback to improve productivity
• Estimate future needs for goods, kitchen utensils and cleaning products
• Ensure compliance with sanitation and safety regulations
• Control operational costs and identify measures to cut waste
• Create detailed reports on weekly, monthly and annual revenues and expenses
• Promote the brand in the local community through word-of-mouth and restaurant events
• Recommend ways to reach a broader audience (e.g. discounts and social media ads)
• Train new and current employees on proper customer service practices
• Implement policies and protocols that will maintain future restaurant operations
• Must maintain personal hygiene in accordance to Trinidad and Tobago Public Health Department standards for Food Service Employees.

Health and Safety Protocol

• Ensure all guests answer the (Contact Tracing) entry questionnaire by the Hostess. 
• It is mandatory that you and customers enter the restaurant wearing a mask.
• Face screens are mandatory to all kitchen staff preparing food, with the exception of cooks on the hot line.
• The same person serving food cannot also clear dirty dishes.
• When coughing or sneezing do so in your sleeve or into a tissue, make sure to wash your hands every time.
• All chemicals must be measured to insure that they are being used properly.
• All staff must be aware of being in physical contact with customers, this is strictly prohibited.
• Tables must be fully sanitized before a new set of customers are seated at that table.
• Sanitizers should also be on the lookout for individuals that are not following safety protocols.
• Staff not following H/S procedures will be disciplined for every offence that they do against the policy.
• Any staff member who shows signs of Flu like symptoms must leave immediately. Once staff displays symptoms of Covid-19 they must be tested before they can be allowed to work again.
• If a staff member reports a cold they will have to go to a doctor and get a sick leave stating exactly what were the ailment and the period that they will have to stay home.
• Hand washing must constantly be done, not hand sanitizing.
• At no time should dirty and clean wares be placed in the same area.  Special procedures will have to be implemented for the dishwashers.
• There is to be absolutely no clustering of staff while on shift, maintain social distancing at all times. 
• Follow all the Health and Safety Protocol and Guidelines is stated in the policy at all times. 
• Obey the affirming signs indicating when tables need to be cleaned at your immediate convenience. 
• Employees are required to sign in and update their status on the Employee Health Monitoring Management (Online Application) everyday; this must be done no later than six hours before the start of their shift.

Requirements:

• Proven work experience as a Head Chef, Restaurant Manager, Hospitality Manager or similar role
• Proven customer service experience in Management role
• Extensive food and beverage (F&B) knowledge, with ability to remember and recall ingredients and dishes to inform customers and wait staff
• Familiarity with restaurant management software, Aloha and M.S. Office
• Strong leadership, motivational and people skills
• Acute financial management skills
• BSc degree in Business Administration; hospitality management or culinary schooling is a plus