Catering and Special Events Chef

Position Summary:

The Catering and Special Events Chef (CSE) works directly under the Executive Chef and manages the workflow of Special events, including staff/student schedule, assignments, manages inventory and ordering, creation of recipes, costing, recipe substitutions, adherence to culinary best practices and sanitation safety guidelines.

The CSE Chef should be able to make decisions quickly, communicate well with leadership, internal and external customers, the culinary team, and the students from Job Training Program. This role will allow the CSE Chef to train, coach and guide students to ensure the quality of meals aligns with our brand, agreement, and customer expectations.

The CSE Chef will be charged with expanding events and establishing repeat customers based on flexibility, quality, and customer service. The CSE Chef will exhibit flexibility during non-peak hours and work in other departments as needed, such as production or at Woodstock.

Competencies:

• Accountability: reliable, honest, and transparent; regularly makes commitments and takes ownership of responsibilities.  

• Effective Communication: conveys information clearly, with respect and integrity, using a professional manner and the appropriate means and channels for audience and subject matter.   

• Agility: maintains efficiency in a changing work environment; adjusts effectively to work within new work structures, processes, requirements, or cultures.  

• Quality: Work is organized, accurate, and neat. The employee displays a commitment to excellence, checks work and learns from mistakes and seeks feedback to improve quality as needed.  

• Engagement: contributes to the success of the organization by embracing teamwork, taking initiative on tasks and problem-resolution, and seeking out learning opportunities.   

Primary Responsibilities:

• Manage successful execution of Catering events to ensure customized needs of our customers. Must meet delivery times, order requirements and brand standards.

• Coach and mentor students ‘culinary skills, presentation, safety, and proactive ability to meet deadlines.

• Always maintains clean and sanitary food preparation and storage areas in accordance with state and local sanitation requirements and codes.

• Manage the planning and execution of all internal and external special events, including, but not limited to, media events, demonstrations, recordings, and all Philabundance and donor events. 

• Assists in purchasing decisions, with the Executive Chef (food, paper goods, and supplies) and Production Chef ensuring budgetary considerations.

• Will work in coordination with the Special Events Team & Volunteer Director to help plan and execute internal/external events and demos.

• Develop strategies for increasing sales and profitability within catering/events scope.

• Supports the Executive Chef with maintenance and upkeep of all kitchen equipment and/or mechanical systems.

• Required to always wear uniform and safety gear.

• Responsible for supporting and aligning with Philabundance Cultural pillars. Ensuring communications, actions and interactions reflect a focus on People, Professionalism, Partnerships, and Progress.

Additional Job Duties:

• Provides support for the Production team when catering demands are low.

Note: This role requires the successful completion of a drug test, background check and clearance from the Department of Transportation (DOT) as well as a confirmed driving record without accidents, speeding violations, or other related incidents. Specific clearances may be required for Woodstock staff.

Educational Achievement:

• High School Diploma or GED required, additional formal education, a highly preferred or 3 years of experience in a culinary leadership role.

• SERVSafe certified, or equivalent, in safe food handling. Ideally certified to teach as well as proctor.

Work Experience:

• Minimum of 1 year of direct responsibility to build and expand hospitality business including customized menus, special events and corporate meetings.

• Previous experience with creating menus, preparing, and ordering food, inventory management, and working within a set budget required.

• Basics of management including attendance, performance, rewards, discipline, and training required.

• Previously managed competing priorities, changes, and challenges with effective problem-solving ability and positive results.

Preferred:

• Minimum of 5 years’ full-time experience in a professional kitchen or foodservice operation required. Commercial and non-commercial experience in a management role, highly preferred.

• Previous experience developing and implementing highly effective and cohesive teams in a leadership role highly preferred.

• Previous knowledge and experience working with the issues facing people living at or near the poverty line, rehabilitation, and reentry into the work force.

• Ability to speak multiple languages a plus. Fluency with Spanish highly preferred.

Required Skills and Abilities:

• The ability to use best practices and safety methods, ensures process aligns and trainees comply.

• Strong time management ability with focus on food preparation, safety, and customer satisfaction.

• Successful experience with problem solving and possesses ability to stay nimble in a fast-paced evolving environment.

• Previously leveraged technology for scheduling, inventory, reports and purchasing. (Microsoft Office Suite, culinary point of sales or similar database software).

• Strong capability to create and manage budgets, leverage databases, produce timely reports, communication, analysis and present internally and externally.

• Excellent interpersonal skills: ability to build strong relationships and work collaboratively with individuals and teams internally and externally.

• Exceptional communication skills, written and verbal, with ability to relate to customers and internal teams.

• A deep commitment to Philabundance’s mission.

Physical Demands:

• Must be available evenings, weekends and take on extended hours as business needs demand.

• Frequently, rideshare service, personal vehicle, or other means) Must be physically compatible with travel, office visits, events, and meetings. Must have a valid driver’s license if using company vehicle.

• Prepared to stand for work up to 8 hours a day, 5 days a week; Bend, stoop/squat, and walk intermittently throughout the day; Must be able to move up to 50 pounds. A shared supported lift is preferred, two people can move objects to lower impact. 

• Ability to effectively perform culinary skills such as: basic knife skills, reading thermometers, ability to stir, use equipment to blend and arrange food for safety and appearance.

• See, hear, and speak with sufficient capability to perform assigned tasks and maintain proper safety conditions.

• Maintain an acceptable work pace and align with required personal and team deadlines. Must meet goals.

• Demonstrate cognitive ability to: provide direction as well as follow directions and routines, work independently with appropriate judgment, read words and numbers, concentrate, memorize, recall, identify logical connections and determine sequence of response, process proactively and identify near and long-term future needs as well as evaluate problems and escalate/inform management as is necessary.

• Perform office tasks using simple hand grasp, fine hand manipulation, and reach associated with assigned tasks such as keying.

Salary : $60,000