Executive Chef – Culinary Operations

Role Overview

You will take full command of the kitchen operation on Thika Road, steering every plate that leaves the pass across restaurants, room service, and large conference banquets. Reporting to the Operations Director and General Manager, your daily focus is balancing creative menu development with the financial realities of food cost, waste, and staffing. This role exists to protect the establishment’s reputation for consistent, high-quality dining while ensuring every service runs smoothly under pressure.

Key Responsibilities

• Direct all food production across multiple outlets, including daily restaurant service, in-room dining, and large-scale banquet events, ensuring timely execution and consistent plating.
• Create and revise menus with an eye on profitability, seasonal trends, and customer demand, complete with standardized recipe cards, portion controls, and plating diagrams for every dish.
• Run daily checks on kitchen stations, walk-in coolers, and prep areas to verify cleanliness, organization, and adherence to presentation standards before service begins.
• Enforce HACCP-based food safety protocols, logging temperature records, supervising sanitation schedules, and coordinating equipment maintenance to prevent health-code violations.
• Own the kitchen budget by tracking food cost percentages, analyzing variance reports, and adjusting purchasing or menu pricing to stay within financial targets.
• Oversee supplier relationships, inspect incoming deliveries for quality and quantity, and enforce FIFO stock rotation to minimize spoilage and shrinkage.
• Lead, schedule, and mentor the entire kitchen team, from sous chefs to stewards, conducting performance reviews and delivering hands-on training in knife skills, hygiene, and service discipline.

Requirements & Qualifications

• A Diploma or Bachelor’s Degree in Culinary Arts, Hospitality Management, or a directly related discipline from a recognized institution.
• Valid HACCP certification and a current Public Health Food Handlers Certificate; both must remain up to date.
• At least 8 years of professional kitchen experience, including 3 or more years as an Executive Chef, Head Chef, or equivalent senior culinary leader.
• Proven track record running kitchen operations in a full-service hotel, conference center, or high-volume catering establishment with multiple service points.
• Working knowledge of kitchen inventory systems, recipe costing software, and MS Excel for yield analysis and budget tracking.
• Strong financial literacy in menu engineering, gross profit optimization, and cost variance investigation.
• Demonstrated ability to stay composed and authoritative while leading a large brigade during peak banquet and weekend services.