Summary
The Corporate Executive Chef is responsible for leading the Culinary Team at Lakeview Farms. This includes assisting in building the R&D Strategy, developing the culinary strategy, and creating all necessary SOPs. They will oversee all the Chefs and Culinary Staff. They are responsible for leading the culinary innovation process, creating new “Gold Standard” recipes, improving existing products, and ensuring that we meet all brand guidelines for flavor, and all Food Safety and Quality standards. They will collaborate with product development teams, marketing, and quality to align culinary creation with market trends and consumer preferences. The Corporate Executive Chef and their team will participate heavily in the innovation process, food treks, and ideations. Additionally, they will participate in executive and customer cuttings and presentations and showcase our products at various industry events and trade shows.
Duties and Responsibilities
- Development of the Culinary strategy and all SOPs for the department
- Leading, developing, and coaching a team of 2-4 Chefs (some are remote)
- Development of top customer relationships across multiple channels and categories
- Partnering with the product development team to translate products from culinary development to R&D development and understand operational capabilities.
- Share food, menu, and flavor trends occurring in industry
- Encourage the “food first” culture.
- Participate, aid, and/or lead portions of the innovation process including Food Treks, Innovation Sprints, Ideation sessions, etc.
- Own the presentation of our products publicly at either customer presentations/cuttings or industry events and tradeshows.
- Drive customer focused development by generating innovative food product ideas. Work in close cooperation with Sales and Marketing team to best present innovative products to customers.
- Conduct and document sensory evaluation of products.
- Record keeping of formulas, ingredients, and finished products
- Stay up to date on product trends to design relevant innovative products.
- Lead food treks planning and reporting.
- Coach and mentor junior developers and culinary team members
Qualifications
- BS, MS or PhD or Culinary degree
- Experience 15+ years in CPG Culinary
- High learning agility and curiosity
- Proven track record of successful leadership of a Culinary department
- Solid organizational skills and proven ability to manage multiple projects and assignments
- Ability to taste foods and identify and describe attributes and defects in appearance, texture, flavor, and aroma
- Experience in formulating refrigerated products is a plus
- Willing to learn and share learning
- Ability to work in a team environment
- Excellent verbal and written communication
- Respect confidentiality of privileged information
- Computer skills (Microsoft Office, Genesis and Navision are helpful)
