Lead Catering Chef

Our lead chefs lead our kitchen experiments in using equipment, process, and technology crazy ideas to allow our kitchen to separate from the pack in quality, ingenuity, presentation, and productivity.

Who should apply:

A curious experienced chef with high end catering experience who's learned that a calm kitchen that plans in advance and experiments on purpose is better than an adrenaline filled crazy one that is constantly shooting from the hip and hoping for the best.

Bite Catering Couture is looking for a thoughtful and detail-focused Lead Chef for our catering team (including venues).

We are looking for somebody curious about food who is a strong chef generalist - excited about using a broad range of food, techniques, ingredients, and approaches as befits a caterer constantly creating menus tailored to a variety of client needs and events.

We run in a fairly detail and process-oriented way and we look for somebody who will help us enforce (and improve!) our process. We also have a robust analysis of our kitchen's performance baked into our scheduling...you must be comfortable with using excel and/ or kitchen software. On the creative side, this job has a substantial R&D/ recipe development component that includes better leveraging equipment to improve quality, production model, and/or price points.

You'll want a robust job (approx. 48-55 hours/wk) in the West LA area that spans anything from prep to event work to menu development to planning to sourcing to recipe R&D and creation.

Success in this role generally looks like:

• Loves detailed planning and proactive problem solving (mise en place your station, your work, and your week)
• Passion for your craft = > continuous pursuit of good ideas and approaches to improve their execution
• Ability to "play" with food - bringing diverse concepts, techniques, equipment, ingredients, etc into thoughtful conversations on improving recipes and kitchen processes (this includes savory and pastry)
• Ability to give and take instruction/ feedback without ego
• Excellent food delivered on time and to specification (can vary for same product based on event formats)
• Completed prep as outlined by daily and weekly prep plan
• A "can-do", "get the job done" and goal-oriented attitude and approach to work
• Excellent cooking and presentation skills.
• Understanding of food and labor costs and options to improve them
• Previous experience in catering, banquet, or fine dining kitchen
• Ability to create highly stylized food against a recipe to specification
• Continuous improvement mindset

Why work at Bite
We offer a great work environment centered in our Culver City-adjacent kitchen (with natural light!) where you will get the chance to grow in a rapidly growing catering company.

Our setup offers structure that will test the quality of your ideas but lacks the bureaucracy that, in other companies, keeps good ideas from seeing the light of day. We also offer the opportunity to attend conferences and learn (and one day hopefully teach) with the best catering chefs in the world

We're a company well regarded both by the public and the catering industry, as you'll see from our high quality reviews and our industry speaking engagements at conferences like Catersource, WeddingMBA, and the Special Event.

Also note: we value teamwork, curiosity, process, planning, and coaching over yelling and flying by the seat of our pants. We keep a collegial, respectful, quiet kitchen filled with self-motivated chefs.

The role
We seek a talented detail/ process-oriented chef who can help us to produce beautiful and creative food for events, improve our recipes, and continuously improve the processes that run our kitchen and allow us to execute at a high level in the field. It's a role that mixes time in the kitchen, focus on R&D, quality control, and planning for 15 events/wk. This is not a role for a chef who wants to be a specialist or is afraid of trying new things.

Our kitchen philosophy/ approach to catering
We are an energetic team focused on providing excellence in food, service and experience for our clients across our catering and event service offerings.Our culture is grounded in four core values:

1) Passion for excellence
2) Devotion to client service
3) Unwavering commitment to quality and presentation
4) An understanding that communication between employees and with clients is at the very heart of what makes us a successful and happy team.We offer a highly-personalized service. By transforming every detail into a unique moment of pure comfort, elegance and beauty, we nurture a relationship with our clients.

With us you will have the opportunity to experience a wide variety of cuisines with a large emphasis on detail and presentation - every day is something new. Every one of our chefs is expected to help with menu ideas. Opinions are encouraged and expected once you understand our philosophy and approach.

We have a warm and welcoming environment where we enjoy our work while still getting the job done. Our passion is creating amazing food and we have a lot of fun doing it. We truly have a special team and want to meet people who fit our culture and work ethic.

We operate with a small core team (and a pool of on-calls) so you will need to learn (where necessary) and coach our team to become proficient at techniques and equipment across the range of cooking. We run a "lean" operation off of detailed recipes, prep and event plans which helps us avoid chaos, surprises and maintain a highly productive kitchen. We believe in continuous improvement, so you'll need to help us plan and find/ solve for any errors.

Requirements

• Must have a reliable method of transportation, valid license and clean driving record.
• Must be able to lift 50 lbs.
• Fluent in English
• Able to use Microsoft Excel and kitchen software/ applications
• Culinary Degree from a notable institution with a proven record of high achievement
• Experience in high quality catering operations is a MUST - fine dining is appreciated but catering and fine dining/restaurant are two different animals. You need to have a solid understanding of how catering prep, planning and logistics work to run an efficient kitchen.

Pay: $65,000.00 - $80,000.00 per year (Total pay varies and is a combination of base hourly, overtime, event bonuses, performance bonuses, health stipend and tips)

Job Type: Full-time

Pay: $65,000.00 - $80,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• Employee discount
• Food provided
• Paid time off

Physical Setting:

• Casual dining restaurant
• Fine dining restaurant

Schedule:

• Day shift
• Monday to Friday
• Overtime
• Weekend availability

Supplemental Pay:

• Bonus pay
• Tips

COVID-19 considerations:
yes (changing constantly)

Application Question(s):

• Is the stated role and compensation appropriate for your level of experience?
• What did you see in the job description that made you excited to apply for our position?
• Please provide an example of a "big win" that would highlight why you should be seen as in the top 10% of applicants for this role. (e.g., completing a hard initiative, developing a challenging recipe, building a new process, etc)

Please describe what why it happened, what was hard, and how success unlocked the potential for future successes.

• Please provide a link to one or several dishes where you are proud of how they are presented

Work Location: One location