Culinary Director Jobs

Job Title: Culinary Director

Full time salaried position

Location

In person, San Francisco, CA

Reports to

Co-Executive Director

Compensation

$80,000 - $90,000 commensurate with experience

100% employer funded health & dental benefits after 90 days

Application Deadline

August 31, 2023

Supervises: Kitchen Manager, Cook Trainers, and Apprentices

Overview

Are you interested in joining a committed team that is passionate about changing the world, one meal at a time? Then you may find yourself at home at Farming Hope.

We do things differently than any other commercial kitchen; as a nonprofit social enterprise our goal is to empower our Apprentices, to nourish our guests, and to inspire our community. This makes for a dynamic and fulfilling work experience. Frankly, it’s not for everyone. But for people with a love of food and who have a deep desire to make an impact, it’s game-changing work in a fun and engaging space with a meaningful culture.

Company Description

Farming Hope is a 501(c)(3) food justice nonprofit and culinary job training program. Our Apprentice program trains adults with barriers to employment such as those formerly incarcerated and unhoused. We offer transitional employment and on-the-job training at our community food hub, Refettorio San Francisco, our community food hub that is dedicated to helping our food insecure neighbors through our various programs such as our prepared meals, in-house dinners, and client-choice groceries.

We are a highly collaborative, community-based organization dedicated to fighting our region’s devastating crises of homelessness, hunger, and lack of community. Learn more about our organization at farminghope.org.

Job Overview

The Culinary Director is a crucial role responsible for supervising our kitchen team and overseeing the daily operations, supporting the three primary pillars of our work:

• Meal production - Developing and executing culturally relevant menus for our packaged meals, our in-house dinners, and our events.
• Food Recovery - maximizing use of recovered food that would otherwise go to waste through menu planning and coordination.
• Apprenticeship Program - Overseeing our culinary job training program.

Additionally, this role works closely with the Co-Executive Directors and Development Director tobuild Farming Hope’s strategic vision. The Culinary Director will be responsible for bringing ideas aligned with Farming Hope’s food justice ethos through the lens of culinary operations to grow the organization on a sustainable path forward.

The position requires occasional evening and weekend shifts.

Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Working closely with Kitchen Manager to build recipe pipeline, execute and supervise food prep and dish plating for delivered and in house meal production
• Leading culinary planning and logistics for all ongoing and special events, collaborating with relevant department leads for successful execution
• Leading as the central voice for Farming Hope’s culinary values and brand, continuing our legacy of nourishing, local, culturally relevant, tasty, slow food made from scratch
• Centering community, food sovereignty, and food justice in all of our work
• Ensuring health and safety standards are exceeded each day by serving as the organization-wide internal health inspector
• Cultivating and growing employment partnerships network to provide high quality, mission-aligned job placement recommendations for Apprentices
• Improving and implementing Farming Hope’s culinary curriculum, working with program team to reach goals and improve overall program outcomes
• Helping foster Farming Hope as a true community food hub: a gathering space to showcase the rich and unique culinary bounty of San Francisco through co-hosting guest chefs and collaborations that put Farming Hope on the map for foodies who want to do good
• Leading quality control and accountability for all kitchen operations including team performance reviews, SOPs and prep planning organization-wide
• Overseeing COGS goals, approving and documenting all pricing across the organization including costing on recipe management system
• Working closely with leadership team to build sustainable social enterprises that center Apprentice training and community development, bringing culinary expertise to potential growth opportunities and the future of Farming Hope

Candidate Qualifications

• Commitment to systemic transformation
• 3+ years experience managing teams and multifaceted high volume culinary production
• Data entry and computer literacy
• Experience with training, coaching, teaching, or mentoring
• Self-starter, multi-tasker, highly organized

Other Beneficial Qualifications (not required)

• Experience directly working with folks overcoming major barriers to employment (i.e. homelessness, incarceration, recovery, etc)
• Employment placement and workforce development
• Balancing culinary (in kitchen) and back office (out-of-kitchen/admin) duties
• Managing teams, clients, and program partners
• Lived experience of barriers to employment
• Spanish fluency
• Knowledge of trauma-informed care

About Farming Hope

Farming Hope is an equal opportunity employer. We enthusiastically accept our responsibility to make employment decisions without regard to race, religious creed, color, age, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion, marital status, medical condition as defined under State law, disability, military service, pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions or any other classification protected by federal, state, and/or local laws and ordinances.

At Farming Hope we have a clear vision to be a place where a diverse mix of talented people are able to learn, teach, and grow. Diversity is more than a commitment at Farming Hope—it is necessary to advance equity and inclusion for the Apprentices in our training program and our diners in the community.

To Apply

Send your cover letter and resume as PDF files to [email protected].