Duties and Responsibilities 

• Builds cooperative relationships with national and local market prepared food vendors.
• Develop strategic alliances based on innovation and product development.
• Negotiate pricing, vendor programs, delivery, and payment terms for prepared food products.
• Facilitate mutually beneficial agreements around promotional opportunities and support.
• Be first to market in new products, innovation, and points of difference.
• Conduct regular Quality Assurance tastings and evaluations to ensure recipe adherence, food quality, and consistency.
• Launch/expand successful prepared food product lines and implement successful exit strategies for unproductive merchandise.
• Completes all required reports, logs, and culinary audits/reviews in a timely manner.
• Lead, contribute to and execute parts of the culinary strategic plan for the division.
• Launch line reviews in support of customer and seasonal expectations.
• Leverage fact-based decision making to drive growth and profitability.
• Assists in kitchen schematics design and recommends adjacencies that support the efficiency of the space.
• Orientates new cooks within their respective area, core culinary standards and established food programs.

• Provides support for new restaurant openings and/or renovations.
• Provides leadership to culinary team members and kitchen managers.
• Assists with training, coaching and development of culinary team members.