Food Truck Head Chef at Catskill Brewery

SUMMARY

Seeking a highly qualified, experienced culinary professional with the managerial, conceptual, and hands-on culinary skills required to run and manage our on-site Food Truck, and grow into off-site food truck event services shortly thereafter. The Catskill Brewery food truck is a 20' x 7' unit equipped with a 36" flat top griddle with 3 burner zones, a 48" refrigerated low boy with cutting board workstation, 2 gas deep fryers, and miscellaneous stainless work tables, shelves, etc. The purpose of the Catskill Brewery Food Truck is to be a regularly operating unit that primarily serves our taproom Thurs-Sun. The truck is also utilized for occasional off-site events that meet certain parameters.

You will be a W-4 employee of Catskill Brewery, and will be reporting to the Director of Operations and coordinating with the Taproom Manager/ Event Manager as necessary. This is a full-time, hourly position, and candidate will be expected to manage all aspects of staffing, planning,, managing, and executing the food truck service and operations.

Requirements / Desired Experience

- Minimum of 5 years combined experience in professional culinary positions, specifically Sous Chef, Chef De Cuisine, or Head Chef positions.

- Minimum of 3 years experience in catering service and preparation
- Minimum of 2 years in a managerial position where you were responsible for overseeing other employees

- Must be able to adhere to and operationally manage target budgets for labor, and food costs.
- Must show proven experience in efficient utilization of product, on-hand inventory control, accurate ordering and receiving, and have extremely high standards of organization and cleanliness.
- Must be able to lift up to 50 lbs over-head regularly and push/pull up to 160 lbs occasionally.
- Must have a clean driving record and be able to drive and operate the food truck safely and securely. Must be willing to submit to a DMV driver report to confirm acceptable status.
- Some experience and basic awareness of gas generators and kitchen equipment maintenance is required.

Responsibilities and Skills Desired

- Must understand and follow seasonal, regional product availability and create menu plans that reflect this.
- Must be skilled in a variety of classical cuisines, high-end casual culinary concepts, and both modern and traditional culinary trends. Specific relevant cuisines and methods should include: pizza and wood-fired pizza, Tapas, classical French/Bistro, New-American, Upscale Bar/Pub cuisine, Upscale Mexican, traditional Mediterranean/Upscale Italian, Ramen, Seasonally focused local wild fish and game, classic charcuterie, preservation and fermentation, Izakaya, Moroccan, middle-eastern, etc.

- Establish and manage all food purveyor relationships utilizing local farms and producers where possible.
- Staffing, training, and controlling additional staff in accordance with business needs, seasonal demand, and target budgets.

- Build, execute, and maintain sanitation, cleaning, and food safety logs.

- Menu goals are to be concise, focused, and somewhat higher-end in a casual service setting. Candidates will be empowered to create all menus within this context.

- Coordinate special event Menus and logistics with Taproom and Event Managers

- Manage all stations of prep, service, and represent the business in a presentable, professional manner at all times.

- This is a largely customer-facing position and as such you will need to represent the brewery in a positive, professional, and engaging manner, and bring high-standards of customer satisfaction.

- Must have intense standards of cleanliness and organization in service and prep areas.
- Menus and execution must be designed for clean, timely execution during service hours.

- Learn and operate the POS system to ensure order entry and processing of payments correctly. Experience using Square a plus.

- Ability to design the food truck space, mise en place layout, and workflow necessary to handle high-capacity events of up to 150 people.
- Identify and lay out a framework for off-site event standards and capabilities. Set the standards and be sure we execute them at a high-level consistently.

We are looking for a candidate who wants to be a dedicated and enthusiastic long-term member of our company, delivering high-quality cuisine and customer service experiences for both on-site service and off-site events.

Catskill Brewery offers a very competitive salary and benefits package including PTO with roll-over, health and dental insurance options paid in full by our company, and food/ beverage /company merchandise allowances. We are positioned to begin an expansion of our production space and taproom operations starting in 2025, and we expect to see considerable growth of the brand this year and in the future, and we are seeking the right candidate who wants to grow with us as a critical part of the Catskill Brewery team.