Contract Chef / Kitchen Operations Consultant (Short-Term, Flexible Schedule, 3 to 4 Weeks)

We are Front Porch of Bowdon, a locally owned assisted living and memory care community in Bowdon, Georgia. We are RN-led, hands-on, and, while licensed for 78-beds, small enough that the people running this place actually know every resident by name. Our kitchen works, but it has grown by improvisation rather than design, and we are ready to fix that properly.

We are looking for a seasoned chef or kitchen operations professional for three to four weeks and help us get our kitchen running the way it should. This is not a line-cook role. We need someone who can step back, see how the whole operation flows, and put real systems in place that outlast their time here. Help us figure out where our gaps our, what we need to change, document systems and practices, and help us put it into motion.

• Audit our current kitchen processes, prep, cooking, plating, storage, and cleanup, and identify where we are losing time, quality, or consistency
  
• Build repeatable systems: prep lists, par levels, inventory system, batch recipes, standardized portioning, and a daily and weekly rhythm the team can run without you
  
• Train our existing kitchen staff on technique, food safety, and the new processes, and leave them genuinely more capable than you found them.
  
• Help us build a written training program and onboarding materials so we can train the next hire without starting from scratch
  
• Tighten our menu planning and rotation so menus are written and posted ahead of time, substitutions are tracked, and meals stay varied, nutritionally sound, and, of course, delicious.
  
• Set up best practices for food storage, labeling, dating, temperature control, and rotation that hold up to inspection
  
• Leave us with documentation we can actually use
  

This is senior living, so the work happens inside real regulatory constraints. You should be comfortable with or willing to work within Georgia personal care home food service requirements, including:

• Texture-modified diets such as mechanical soft, puree, and thickened liquids
  
• Three meals daily on a consistent schedule, with food served in forms residents can chew and swallow
  
• Daily menus posted ahead of service with any substitutions noted and dated
  
• Refrigeration held at or below 41 F, food stored off the floor, proper thawing, maintained emergency food supply, etc
  
• General food safety and sanitation standards that pass health department review
  

• Experienced professional chef or kitchen manager
  
• Background in institutional, healthcare, senior living, or high-volume food service, preferred, but not required.
  
• Strong at building process and training people, not just cooking well yourself
  
• Comfortable walking into an imperfect operation and improving it without drama
  
• Practical, organized, and able to leave the place better and more self-sufficient than you found it, and in a way that will last.
  

Tell us briefly about your background, any experience you have setting up or fixing kitchen operations, and your availability over the next several weeks. If you have built training programs or process documentation before, mention it.