About This Role
The Head of Culinary Operations will be a critical leadership role, overseeing all aspects of food production, quality control, standardization, and culinary innovation across our central kitchen and bakery model, across multi-city operations. This executive will be responsible for ensuring operational efficiency, maintaining the highest standards of food safety and quality, managing the culinary teams, and driving the successful expansion and replication of our culinary model. This role reports directly to the Co-Founder and Head Chef + COO.
Responsibilities
Strategy and Standards
- Define and uphold the brand’s culinary vision, ensuring consistency in product quality, presentation, and taste across all production and distribution points.
- Grow the brands vision for sourcing by working directly with smallholder farmers and vendors to set up ingredient sourcing of indigenous, unique produce and building an incorporation into the food menu
- Manage the Menu Development process by organising the goals of the brand to align with the Head Chef’s vision for product development
- Drive menu development in tandem with recipe standardization, and engineering processes, ensuring cost-effectiveness without compromising quality.
- Establish and monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) for culinary operations, including food cost, labour and equipment efficiency, waste reduction, and product consistency.
Central Kitchen and Bakery Management
- Oversee the day-to-day operations of the central production kitchen and bakery pan India, optimizing workflow, scheduling, and inventory management.
- Implement and enforce stringent HACCP, food safety, and sanitation protocols, ensuring full compliance with local and national regulations.
- Manage the procurement and quality assessment of raw materials, negotiating with suppliers to secure the best quality at the most competitive price.
- Manage equipment maintenance schedules and capital expenditure planning for production facilities.
- Responsible for the inventory management of all Culinary Hubs across the country
Multi-City Standardization and Rollout
- Develop comprehensive Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for all culinary processes, ensuring seamless replication and consistency as the brand expands into new cities and within existing cities
- Lead the hiring, training and onboarding of culinary and production teams in new locations, establishing the central kitchen model efficiently.
- Conduct regular audits of satellite locations to ensure adherence to quality standards, portion control, and waste management practices.
- Manage the buildout of kitchens and bakeries in new cities with focus on layout, equipment budgeting, workflows, smallware budgeting, setup and testing.
Team Leadership and Development
- Recruit, train, mentor, and manage a high-performing team of Chefs, Production Managers, Bakers, and culinary staff.
- Foster a culture of excellence, collaboration, continuous improvement, and safety within the culinary department.
- Conduct performance reviews and develop succession plans for key culinary roles
Financial Performance and Cost Control
- Responsible for the culinary department P&L, focusing on optimizing food cost (COGS) and labour cost, maintenance cost, driving profitability per company goals.
- Analyze operational data, P&L statements, and inventory reports to identify areas for cost reduction and efficiency improvement.
- Work closely with the Finance team on forecasting and variance analysis
Key Qualifications
- Education: Bachelor’s degree in Culinary Arts, Hospitality Management, or a related field preferred.
- Experience: Minimum of 8-10 years of progressive experience in culinary leadership, with at least 3-5 years managing multi-unit or central kitchen/commissary operations. Experience in a high-volume bakery operation is a significant advantage.
- Skills:
○ Demonstrated expertise in large-scale food production, supply chain management, and logistics in a multi-city environment.
○ Deep understanding of food safety regulations (HACCP certification required).○ Strong financial acumen, including budgeting, cost control, and P&L management.○ Exceptional leadership, communication, and interpersonal skills.○ Proficiency in inventory systems
Highly organized, results-oriented, adaptable, and a passionate culinary innovator. Willingness to travel frequently to oversee operations in different cities.
