Culinary Director

Director of Culinary / Brand chef  | Philadelphia/ New Jersey market 

Chef Partner — High-End Creative Chinese Concept  

The Opportunity

FTK Hospitality LLC has been retained to identify a Chef Partner to lead the creative vision and expansion of an ambitious, high-end Chinese concept, backed by an established New York City hospitality group with a strong track record of building and scaling premium restaurant brands.

This is a true partner-level opportunity — not just a kitchen leadership role. The right candidate will help define and evolve a distinctive, modern point of view on Chinese cuisine, then take that concept from a single flagship into a multi-unit growth platform, with a defined path to equity participation as the brand scales.

About the Ideal Candidate

We're looking for a chef with a rare combination of creative range and operating discipline — someone who has:

• Opened and run a high-end, creative Chinese (or Chinese-influenced) restaurant concept in a major U.S. city, with a proven ability to earn critical acclaim and sustained commercial success
• Additional experience opening or operating in a major European market
• Meaningful time spent living, working, staging, or sourcing in China and Malaysia — with a genuine, firsthand understanding of regional technique, ingredients, and dining culture that goes beyond a typical American interpretation
• A track record of building and leading high-performing kitchen teams across multiple locations
• Comfort operating at the intersection of culinary creativity and business ownership — menu vision, brand development, and unit economics

What This Role Offers

• Partner-track equity opportunity in a growing restaurant group
• Backing and infrastructure of an established, well-capitalized NYC hospitality organization
• Creative control over concept direction, menu, and brand identity
• A defined multi-city growth trajectory, with real input into where and how the concept expands