Corporate Chef

• Nov 2018 - Present

Chef - Manager

• Apr 2018 - Nov 2018

Execuitve Store Chef

• Sep 2016 - Apr 2018

Executive chef for flagship location of locally owned chain of specialty butcher shop and specialty grocery stores. Responsible for all daily, weekly, and monthly aspects of food production on site including catering, grab and go displays, full service hot and cold deli foods and value added meat and seafood products. Write monthly menus, set weekly specials and develop menus for catering functions. Responsible for turning around declining department sales to increasing sales by 24 percent in 2017. Reduced all costs to be within corporate set limits. Also part of the executive team that sets short term, intermediate, and long term goals for departments, store, and personnel within the store. • Achieved best food cost in company history, three months in a row. Far exceeding budgeted food cost goals every month.• Reduced department turnover from 50 percent quarterly to zero past five quarters.• Developed action plan that resulted in best health department inspections within the past three years for this location. • Becoming corporate chef’s go to person for recipe development and food and ingredient tasting and testing.• Worked with the employees directly under my supervision to develop action plans and goals for their professional development. Also provide praise and corrective actions when appropriate and needed.

Executive Chef / Operations Manager

• 2009 - 2016

Successfully oversee all aspects of daily kitchen and food production operations in a scratch cooking kitchen, while consistently achieving cost saving goals and maintaining sales. Serve as member of the company advisory committee responsible for setting short, intermediate, and long term financial and growth goals for the company. Solely responsible for development and management of all back of the house policies, procedures, and personnel resulting in streamlined production and low employee turnover rate.• Brought to market over 100 new menu items. Developed, tested, and wrote complete recipes for production team and home consumers. Researched and developed menu items for specific dietary needs, such as gluten free, vegetarian, vegan, dairy free and paleo.• Sourced new vendors, developed new procedures resulting in 5 percent reduction of food cost. • Developed and implemented a new line of products growing into 20 percent of total sales.• Analyzed productivity resulting in the development and execution of plan to consolidated two kitchen operations into one. This resulted in first year savings of $30,000 for the company.• Created and executed plan to achieve higher health department sanitation scores, directly resulting in a decrease of unannounced visits from 3 per year to 1 per year.• Assisted in creation and implementation of new company website and virtual store front. Redesigned the website’s back of house functionality, resulting in 98 percent fewer mistakes, directly lowering food and labor costs.

Project Manager

• 2007 - 2009

Expertly managed the installation of audio visual equipment in school classrooms in several area school districts. Effectively used project management skills to schedule three different crews, the delivery of supplies and materials to three different jobsites simultaneously. Successfully coordinated workers, teachers, contractors, and school administrators to keep the projects on time sensitive schedules.• Managed costs under budget for each school and school district.• Achieved a one hundred percent on time completion rate for each project. • Developed standards resulting in zero failures with installations or equipment.

Owner/Operator

• 1999 - 2007

Partner in LLC that owned and operated 4 retail bagel bakery restaurants and one production facility. Primarily focused on the daily procedures and operations of the stores, their managers and employees, and quality of the food and beverages served. Participated in long term financial planning and goal setting for the company.• Effectively hired, trained, and retained managers. Gave them the tools to repeat the process for hourly employees, resulting in secret shopper scores 5 percent or higher than that of the national company average.• Routinely ranked in the upper one third in the nation for food and beverage quality. Used corporate provided material to develop procedures to maintain this high level for six straight years.• Led store level managers in setting goals for themselves, employees and stores. Provided support for them to routinely achieve these goals. • Managed the outsourcing process of hiring professional companies to perform human resource and accounting work. Resulted in savings of $6000 per year.• Co-developed and managed a plan to close production facility and outsource the manufacturing of some products. This resulted in an annual savings of $30,000.• Served as assistant project manager in the acquisition, design, construction, and successful opening of a new retail bakery

Kitchen Manager

• 1996 - 1999

Operated as Assistant General Manager and Head Kitchen Manager in high volume restaurant serving Mexican food with sales in excess of $2M annually. Responsible for policies and procedures for kitchen staff of 35 hourly and 2 salaried employees in a scratch kitchen cooking environment. Directed total operations in all departments in the absence of the General Manager.• Successfully maintained food cost at or below the corporate set 32 percent. Maintained the labor cost at the budgeted 22 percent.• Consistently established procedures to improve food quality and kitchen sanitation standards. Achieved high level scores on food quality during unannounced Regional Manager visits. Achieved high scores on health department visits to be removed from a probation status to good standing status. Lowered visits from four per year to two per year. Remained in good standing the next 2 plus years.• Performed twice daily tastings of food items to ensure they met company quality standards and taste profiles. Compiled monthly reports on results and presented to regional management.• Trained and developed a highly specialized team of hourly employees that were often called upon to train new employees at new store openings in new markets.

Chef

• 1995 - 1996

Responsible for all daily back of the house operations and supervision of kitchen staff in a full service, fine dining restaurant.• Developed and implemented policies and procedures for restaurant move and expansion from 30 seat building to 125 seat building.• Interviewed, hired, and trained kitchen staff, Expanding operation from 3 employees to 8 employees.• Wrote comprehensive kitchen manual with all policies, procedures and recipes to be used upon my departure from the company.