Executive Chef, Clark's Menlo Park

Description

CLARK’S OYSTER BAR, MENLO PARK

Executive Chef

The Room. Clark’s Oyster Bar opened in Menlo Park in spring 2025. Our second Clark’s in California, with sister units in Montecito and Malibu. Just under 100 seats with a raw bar at the visual center. Oysters from both coasts, a tight seafood-forward menu, martinis and champagne. The kitchen is open to the dining room. Every plate is visible.

Why This Role. We’re hiring the chef who will run this kitchen as a true peer to the GM. Together you run the restaurant. You own BOH labor and food cost; they own FOH labor and revenue. You report culinarily to our Culinary Director; operationally to the GM. Standing CD visits are scheduled with both of you.

What You’ll Own

• The kitchen. Food cost at concept target, weekly inventories, vendor relationships from oyster farms (both coasts) to produce.
• The team. Sous Chef, line cooks, prep, dish. Schedule, pre-shift, joint hiring with the GM at the Sous level.
• The menu. Execute the Clark’s standard with two seasonal changeovers per year, costed and approved by the Culinary Director.
• The pass. Expedite every weekend service. Taste every sauce.
• The partnership. Standing Culinary Director time with both you and the GM.

Who You Are

• 10 years in professional kitchens with at least five as Executive Chef or strong CDC at an upscale seafood-forward or neighborhood fine-dining concept. You can speak to your last food cost, labor cost, and menu changeover with specifics.
• Raw bar program experience, or credible standing one up. You can speak to oyster sourcing across multiple farms and seasons.
• Peer model: you’ve run a kitchen as a true peer to the GM.
• Credentials verifiable directly with the issuing institution (CIA, JBF, kitchen-of-record). Recipe written the same way every time. English fluency required, working Spanish strongly preferred.
• Long-term: you’re choosing the Peninsula for the long run.

Compensation

• Base salary: $125,000 to $130,000
• Milestone Bonuses offered
• Two-week structured Austin HQ onboarding immersion before you take the seat
• Knife and uniform stipend
• Medical, dental, vision, life, short- and long-term disability, and 401(k)
• MML property discounts; education reimbursement

Schedule

Five days a week with at least four services on the line. Evenings, weekends, holidays.

How to Apply

Send a résumé and a short note about a dish you’re most proud of in the last year. Ingredients, technique, why it worked. Photos welcome. Our process: a screen, a behavioral interview with the Culinary Director, a paid working tasting at Clark’s Austin (travel covered), conversations with our SVPs of Restaurants and HR, and reference triangulation. Three to four weeks end to end.

Equal-opportunity employer. Background check conducted per CA Fair Chance Act and ICRAA.

Salary : $125,000 - $130,000