Culinary Director

Position Overview:

The L’Esperance Culinary Director is the hands-on senior leadership position within the Culinary Department. They work directly with Chef Ludo Lefebvre, the Director of Restaurants, and Apres Cru senior leadership to create and carry out our vision and tactics in each of our restaurants, partnerships, and ventures. 

 They are responsible and help oversee the following operations: Petit Trois Le Valley, Petit Trois L’Original, Petit Trois Aspen, Chez Maggy Denver, CookUnity Kitchen, Crypto Arena Fast Casual Concepts (LudoBird, Ludobab, Trois Familia), Delphine, Media & Events, Licensing and Concessions, and Catering. 

They are responsible for continually elevating our culinary operations through innovation, development of talent, financial acumen, and ensuring consistency in execution. They must have a pulse on food, labor, development costs and expenses as it pertains to culinary operations while coaching their teams to do the same.

They work with supporting departments (marketing, finance, accounting, design/development, operations) to continually evolve and elevate our operations and offerings, monitoring their impact on the business, while identifying and providing solutions to new opportunities that present themselves.

As a growing company, they are constantly developing and recruiting great talent for our current and future needs. In conjunction with operations and HR, they create training and development programs to aid in the growth and creation of a community that will improve retention and set our teams up for success.

They place a maniacal focus on food safety and cleanliness in our operations. Working with our Operations Team, they help monitor and ensure compliance with all systems and standards to ensure the business thrives on all levels.

Key Responsibilities: 

People - Bring to life the L'Esperance values through every interaction 

• Work with CDCs to recruit, interview and develop great line staff talent
• Create and execute overarching culinary training development program in conjunction with operations
• Ensure training materials for culinary are current, relevant, and adhered to in all our restaurants
• Is actively involved in the continued development of our teams through new restaurant openings, chefs conferences, sous chef calls, chef calls, directors calls and pre-shifts
• Develop and nurture a culture of accountability, integrity, hospitality, pride, and teamwork
• Provide clear, transparent, honest and consistent feedback to the team 
• Bring to life a hospitality-centric vision with our culinary operations team
• Supports in the messaging and collection of feedback to/from the restaurants and translate into action items
• Ensure all internal communication to culinary teams is on brand

Systems and Operations - Implement/Leverage systems to set teams up for success and achieve financial goals

• Is responsible for maintaining Food Cost and Inventory oversight at both Petit Trois locations
• Create and implement systems to monitor and ensure consistent execution across all operations
• Including inventory management, recipe writing, scheduling, quality control and performance reviews
• Collaborate with operations, culinary, marketing, and finance to proactively develop and rollout new menu items
• Develop recipes, and ensure all menu items are costed out in Craftable prior to implementation and actively maintain an accurate and up to date recipe database
• Work with culinary teams to ensure a constant focus on cleanliness and food safety and systems are in place and adhered to on a daily basis
• Utilize data to monitor and project impact of changes to menu as a whole and individual dishes
• Use existing tools to monitor food cost and labor costs and proactively capitalize/correct any trends on a weekly and monthly basis
• Evaluate supply chain decisions to ensure best quality/pricing ratio in all markets

Development - Lead and coordinate execution of all culinary projects and events.

• Serve as the culinary point person on the design, development, critical path and operations for new openings
• Assist in culinary/recipe development for media, cook books, and other ancillary endeavors
• Actively involved in publicity opportunities and community outreach
• Serve as an ambassador of L’Esperance with all vendors, partners, and potential development and partnership opportunities
• Work closely with design and operations on new restaurant design, smallware and cap-ex projects
• Serve as advanced team coordinating, liaising, and execution on events and festivals

Additional Skills and Responsibilities:

• Excellent communicator with top tier time management and problem-solving skills
• Hands-on leader who possesses an ability to adapt and lead change
• Comfortable working on the line when necessary to cover shifts for CDCs
• Able to work independently and also as part of a team
• Analytical and organizational skills, as well as the ability to define and effectively solve a variety of changing situations with grace under stress.
• Must possess strong interpersonal skills and the ability to resolve conflicting interests with the goal of obtaining cooperation.
• Passion for exceptional hospitality, food, and beverages.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment.
• Self-driven, results-oriented, and possesses a solid track-record of leading high-caliber teams at upscale restaurants.
• Flexible work schedule, including working service on nights and weekends is expected
• Travel between restaurants is expected
• Occasional travel out of the country, and amongst development projects is expected 
• May be required to lift, carry, push, or pull heavy objects up to 50 lbs.
• Kneel, bend, or stoop, ascend or descend stairs; be on feet for extended amounts of time
• Working in an environment that may be exposed to hazardous situations and conditions that produce cuts or minor burns

Preferred Experience:

• Track record of Creative Menu Development
• Multi Unit Fine Dining Leadership Experience
• Has demonstrated ability to grow and build teams
• Knowledge and skills in analyzing P&L statements and overall financial performance
• Recipe and Labor Costing
• Kitchen Design and Restaurant Opening
• Culinary Arts Degree Preferred
• High Volume Experience a plus
• Digital Savvy with above average proficiency in a variety of technology systems, especially Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint), G-Suite, Toast POS, Craftable, OpenTable etc.