The Executive Chef is the senior culinary leader for The Manner Hotel, accountable for the vision, execution, profitability, quality, and culture of the property’s culinary operations. The role provides strategic and hands-on leadership across all distinct food and beverage outlets while maintaining consistent luxury standards across all culinary touchpoints. The Executive Chef leads menu development, talent management, food safety, purchasing, cost control, kitchen systems, and service partnership to deliver an elevated, relevant, and commercially successful dining experience.Key Leadership Responsibilities
- Set and execute the overall culinary vision for the hotel, ensuring each outlet has a distinctive identity while delivering to a cohesive luxury guest experience.
- Lead day-to-day culinary operations across all venues, banquet and event production, in-room dining, and other hotel food service areas as applicable.
- Serve as the visible culinary leader of the property, partnering closely with the General Manager, Director of Food & Beverage, Venue Leaders, Sales & Marketing, Events, Finance, Human Resources, Engineering and Purchasing.
- Build a high-performing culinary leadership structure with clear accountability, succession planning, performance standards, and disciplined communication.
- Directly responsible for the quality and planning of the employee meals.
- Maintain a consistent presence in kitchens and dining operations during peak periods to inspect quality, coach leaders, resolve operational issues, and protect the guest experience.
- Develop and maintain menu strategies that balance culinary creativity, seasonality, local relevance, operational feasibility, and financial performance across all venues.
- Establish clear culinary standards for recipe execution, plating, portioning, prep, holding, ticket timing, and service recovery.
- Create differentiation among outlets while sharing appropriate systems, purchasing leverage, labor resources, production methods, and talent development opportunities.
- Partner with outlet leaders on promotions, activations, special events, VIP experiences, and seasonal menu changes that strengthen the property’s positioning.
- Own culinary labor and food-cost performance in partnership with Finance and Food & Beverage leadership; develop action plans to achieve budget and forecast expectations.
- Analyze menu mix, recipe costs, yields, purchasing patterns, inventory levels, waste, and production practices to improve contribution margin without compromising quality.
- Lead disciplined inventory, ordering, receiving, storage, requisition, and transfer controls; maintain accurate recipe and costing documentation.
- Participate in annual budgeting, forecasting, capital planning, equipment replacement, and operating-supply decisions for the culinary department.
- Balance appropriate staffing levels with business volume, outlet demand, event activity, and service expectations.
- Recruit, select, onboard, coach, and retain culinary leaders and team members who reflect the standards and culture of a luxury hospitality environment.
- Set clear expectations for professionalism, attendance, uniform and grooming standards, food handling, communication, productivity, and respectful workplace behavior.
- Conduct regular pre-shifts, tastings, training, one-on-ones, performance reviews, and development conversations with culinary leaders.
- Create cross-training and advancement opportunities across outlets to strengthen retention, bench strength, and succession planning.
- Address performance and conduct concerns promptly, consistently, and in partnership with Human Resources and hotel leadership.
- Maintain exemplary standards for food safety, sanitation, allergen awareness, chemical handling, storage, labeling, temperature control, and kitchen cleanliness.
- Ensure compliance with all applicable health department, fire/life-safety, workplace safety, and company requirements.
- Always maintain inspection readiness and lead corrective action when deficiencies are identified.
- Ensure culinary leaders maintain accurate logs, certifications, cleaning schedules, preventive maintenance requests, and required documentation.
- Translate the hotel’s luxury positioning into memorable food experiences through product quality, execution, presentation, pace, and personalized service partnership.
- Review guest feedback, quality scores, dining trends, and operational observations; implement timely improvements and follow through to resolution.
- Support VIPs, high-profile events, special requests, dietary accommodations, and bespoke culinary experiences with discretion and precision.
- Stay current on luxury hospitality, culinary, seafood, sourcing, and restaurant trends while ensuring innovation remains appropriate to the hotel’s identity and clientele.
- Progressive culinary leadership experience in luxury hotels, chef-driven restaurants, or comparable high-end multi-outlet environments; Executive Chef or senior Executive Sous Chef experience strongly preferred.
- Demonstrated success leading multiple outlets with distinct concepts and service styles.
- Strong seafood knowledge, including sourcing, fabrication, handling, yield management, and menu development.
- Proven ability to manage food cost, labor, inventory, purchasing, productivity, and operating budgets.
- Strong leadership presence with the ability to coach leaders, build trust, set standards, and hold teams accountable.
- Excellent communication, organization, problem-solving, and cross-functional partnership skills.
- Working knowledge of food safety and sanitation standards; current food safety manager certification preferred or required as applicable by jurisdiction.
- Culinary degree or formal apprenticeship preferred; equivalent high-level experience will be considered.
- Ability to work a flexible schedule based on business needs, including early mornings, evenings, weekends, holidays, and special events.
- Ability to spend extended periods standing and walking in kitchen and service environments and to work around heat, cold, steam, noise, and food-production equipment.
- Ability to lift, carry, push, and pull items consistent with normal culinary operations.
Executive Chef in new york at Unknown Company
This position is listed as full time and onsite.