Chef de Cuisine | AVA Coconut Grove

The Chef de Cuisine assists the Executive Chef in running the kitchen as a successful independent profit center, ensuring maximum guest satisfaction through planning, organizing, directing, and controlling kitchen operations and administration.

The role exhibits culinary talent through hands-on production while helping lead the back-of-house team and managing all food-related functions. The Chef de Cuisine supervises all kitchen areas to ensure a consistent, high-quality product is produced.

Key Responsibilities:

• Food Quality & Production:
• Conduct daily line checks and enforce recipe adherence, portioning, butchery, and plating to restaurant specifications and commitment to quality.
• Maintain food quality and specification standards across all stations.
• Manage product mix across appetizers, salads, sandwiches, entrées, specials, and desserts.
• Develop daily specials and support Omakase menus, events, and menu changes and launches.
• Enforce FIFO product rotation.
• Maintain line of sight across the kitchen with consistent attention to detail.

• Inventory & Cost Control:
• Complete physical inventory across storage areas, freezer, cooler, spice rack, bag-in-box area, expo, line, and service stations.
• Run daily high-cost perpetual inventory, daily food inventory and ordering, and monthly inventory.
• Enter inventory, purchases, invoices, sales, and ending inventory into the COGS sheet.
• Manage food COGS against budget.
• Place daily and weekly food purchases following order guides and F&O quality and pricing standards.
• Maintain food par levels and plateware par levels, communicating plateware needs to the front of house.

• Labor & Administration:
• Build schedules for both coverage and cost.
• Manage daily and weekly labor in dollars and percentage, and monitor overtime.
• Review the prior week's labor to identify areas of opportunity.
• Execute new hire and termination procedures.
• Complete team member injury reports.
• Attend weekly management meetings and lead pre-shift with back-of-house staff.

• Sanitation & Safety:
• Maintain sanitation standards including temperature logs, HACCP review, and sanitation walkthroughs.
• Monitor temperature logs and manage dish machine performance and the chemical vendor relationship.
• Maintain organization of storage, prep, line, and dish areas.
• Execute kitchen opening and closing procedures.

• Leadership:
• Manage the entire back of house in the Executive Chef's absence.
• Train and develop back-of-house team members and reinforce teamwork.
• Communicate issues, concerns, and updates to the Executive Chef and sous chefs.
• Adhere to all company policies as stated in the team member handbook.

Requirements & Qualifications:

• Required:
• Minimum 2 years in a kitchen management role in a fast-paced, high-volume restaurant.
• High-volume and/or fine dining experience.
• Computer proficiency including Excel, Windows, and POS systems.
• Career-driven with a stable job history.

• Preferred:
• College degree or culinary school degree.

Competencies:

• Strong verbal and written communication with kitchen and front-of-house teams.
• Attention to detail and consistent line of sight across the operation.
• Teamwork and training orientation.

Physical Demands & Work Environment:

• Physical Demands:
• Stands and walks for the majority of the shift.
• Lifts, carries, and moves up to pounds.
• Bends, reaches, stoops, kneels, and climbs stairs throughout the shift.
• Performs repetitive hand tasks including knife work, butchery, plating, and equipment handling.
• Works in walk-in cooler and freezer temperatures for short intervals.

• Work Environment:
• Fast-paced professional kitchen with exposure to heat, steam, open flame, and hot surfaces.
• Wet floors, cleaning chemicals, and dish machine steam.
• Elevated noise levels during active service.
• Schedule includes evenings, weekends, and holidays based on business needs and event calendar.