The posting
ROLE:
The Executive Pastry Chef position is a senior role with responsibility for planning, directing and coordinating the in-house pastry programmes across all outlets. Working closely with the Senior Chefs of individual restaurants and the Founders, the Executive Pastry Chef is responsible for curating and designing recipes, overseeing the consistent preparation of high-quality menu items, managing all pastry related kitchen costs and leading a large team. He/she should have prior experience managing a professional pastry kitchen, as well as knowledge and experience with various types of global cuisines and techniques focusing on pastry and desserts.
SKILLS
● Time management; be organised and efficient in meeting and constructing deadlines.
● Communication; have the ability to keep an open line of communication between yourself and your team.
● Team player; able to create a nurturing and supportive environment.
● Development of others; the drive and ambition to push your chefs to develop themselves and their craft.
● Creativity and openness to change; have the ability to adapt to changes and be willing to lead the team forward.
● Problem solver; actively approach problems with solutions.
● Cohesiveness; the ability to proactively work within a team environment.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
● Work with Founders, Executive Chefs to curate and design menus and recipes in line with the stories we tell.
● Oversee the consistent preparation of high-quality pastry and menu items.
● Teach pastry and gastronomy to team members.
● Manage a large team of chefs, overseeing recruitment, onboarding, training and team development.
● Ownership of all kitchen costs, stock and wastage, ensuring spending falls in line with budgets.
● Continuously seek to develop knowledge of your craft, learning new techniques and recipes.
● Exceed standards of food quality, safety, hygiene, cleanliness and maintenance.
● Follow best practice for ordering/receiving/handling/storing dry and fresh goods.
● Implement Black Sheep Restaurants policies and procedures by developing plans/ checklists
● Build trust by understanding and believing in Black Sheep Restaurants Core Principles.
EXPERIENCE
● Professional culinary experience, dedicated to pastry. This candidate must have worked in a pastry kitchen to have a full understanding of the demands and what is needed of a pastry chef within a professional kitchen.
● minimum 3 years of experience in a management role – We want to see clear career progression on the candidate’s CV.
● Experience working to a Michelin level.
● The ability to teach pastry and gastronomy to junior team members. This is an essential part of the role as we want this candidate to pass on their knowledge and expertise to progress the junior team, to create a stronger workforce.
● Experience working in Western cities; understanding of multiple cultures and cuisines – This is very much desired so that we know that the candidate is familiar with the fact that people of different countries and cultures may need to be managed differently to help get the best results from them, and also learning different cooking techniques, styles, flavour profiles and desserts typical of that culture or country.
● It’s important that the candidate has an understanding of how to manage the workforce, from the interview process, hiring, inducting, training and coaching them. As Black Sheep Restaurants grows and expands, the need to develop existing and hire more team members is essential to the growth of the business.
● Active involvement in interview and hiring process including involvement on final decision making.
● Educational background in Culinary Arts and Pastry demonstrating theoretical and practical knowledge of the industry and job role.
● Experience curating and designing menus and recipe development – This is imperative to this role, as the candidate will be responsible for curating new recipes and putting new dishes on existing and new restaurant menus.
● Recognised through accolades and awards within the industry.
● Strong track record of managing kitchen costs, stock and waste – We need to ensure that the candidate is business savvy with strong business management skills. We need to ensure that we are making money as a business and increasing profit margins at all opportunities.
● Strong written and oral communications skills.
● Creatively minded with the ability to curate and design menu items and engineer recipes. This candidate should come from a background of opening new sites/pop-ups and regularly updating menus.
