Sous Chef

The Oberon Group | Purslane Catering
Brooklyn, NY | Full-Time, Salaried (75,000 - Extra room for the right candidate)
Reports to: Executive Chef / Culinary Leadership

The Oberon Group / Purslane Catering is seeking an experienced, highly organized, hands-on Savory Sous Chef to join our Brooklyn commissary culinary team.

This is a leadership and production-management position for a chef who understands how to translate ambitious food into organized, consistent, high-volume catering production.

Our culinary operation supports weddings, corporate events, private dinners, fashion and luxury clients, cultural institutions, government-sector projects, cafés, venues, and large-scale events throughout New York City.

We are looking for someone who can lead cooks, organize production, execute at a high level, taste critically, solve problems, control quality, and maintain standards when several events are moving simultaneously.

The Role

The Sous Chef works directly with the Executive Chef and culinary leadership to manage daily savory production and ensure the kitchen is prepared for upcoming events.

This is a hands-on position.

You should be equally comfortable building a production plan, training a cook, correcting seasoning, breaking down proteins, organizing a walk-in, checking an event pull, developing a sauce, reviewing tomorrow's prep, and jumping onto a station when the kitchen needs you.

The right candidate understands that leadership is not simply giving instructions.

It means creating the organization that allows the entire team to succeed.

Core Responsibilities

• Lead daily savory production and supervise Prep Cooks, Production Cooks, and other assigned culinary staff.

• Translate event requirements and menus into organized daily and weekly production plans.

• Review production sheets, recipes, quantities, yields, event counts, and deadlines.

• Assign prep based on employee skill level and production priorities.

• Conduct regular check-ins throughout the day to ensure production remains on schedule.

• Maintain quality, flavor, seasoning, texture, portion, and presentation standards.

• Taste production continuously and correct issues before food moves forward.

• Ensure standardized recipes and gram-based measurements are followed.

• Scale recipes accurately for both small and large events.

• Coordinate production for multiple simultaneous events.

• Communicate shortages, equipment issues, staffing concerns, or production risks to culinary leadership early.

• Verify event food before it leaves the commissary.

• Assist with ordering, inventory, food cost, waste reduction, and product utilization.

• Train, mentor, and develop cooks.

• Maintain professional kitchen organization, sanitation, and accountability.

Culinary Execution

The Sous Chef must have strong savory fundamentals and confidence across a broad range of techniques, including:

Sauces • Stocks • Jus • Emulsions • Marinades • Brines • Pickling • Fermentation • Vegetable Cookery • Grains • Legumes • Meat • Poultry • Fish • Seafood • Braising • Roasting • Grilling • Frying • Poaching • Sous Vide • Cold Production • Canapés • Family-Style & Buffet Production

Strong knife skills and protein fabrication knowledge are expected.

You should understand how to produce excellent food for 20 guests or several hundred guests without losing consistency.

Our Food

Our menus combine New York seasonality with global influences , including New American, Mediterranean, French, Italian, Mexican, Peruvian, Japanese/Nikkei, Middle Eastern, Spanish, Australian, Latin American, and Asian cuisines.

We want a Sous Chef with a developed palate who understands that following a recipe and tasting critically are both essential.

If something technically follows the recipe but doesn't taste right, a Sous Chef needs to recognize it and respond appropriately.

Production Management

A major responsibility of this role is turning an event calendar into an executable production plan.

The Sous Chef will help:

• Review upcoming events and BEOs

• Identify production priorities

• Determine long-lead preparations

• Build prep schedules

• Establish production sequencing

• Coordinate shared ingredients across events

• Monitor pars

• Assign cooks effectively

• Manage refrigerator and freezer space

• Organize event-specific production

• Prevent unnecessary last-minute prep

• Anticipate bottlenecks

• Confirm completion of critical production

• Prepare the next day's priorities before leaving

The goal is a kitchen that operates proactively rather than reactively .

Leadership & Team Development

The Sous Chef is expected to lead from the floor.

Responsibilities include:

• Training new cooks

• Demonstrating proper technique

• Setting clear expectations

• Delegating effectively

• Checking work after assigning it

• Correcting mistakes professionally

• Teaching cooks to taste

• Improving speed and organization

• Developing stronger knife and cooking skills

• Reinforcing cleanliness and sanitation

• Holding the team accountable for recipes and standards

• Identifying cooks ready for additional responsibility

• Supporting a professional and respectful kitchen culture

We want a chef who develops people rather than simply correcting them.

Quality Control

The Sous Chef serves as one of the final checkpoints for savory production.

Every component should be evaluated for:

Flavor • Salt • Acid • Texture • Doneness • Temperature • Portion • Color • Freshness • Consistency • Presentation

The Sous Chef should catch problems before they become event problems.

Event Execution & Logistics

Understanding catering logistics is essential.

The Sous Chef will assist with:

• Event production timelines

• Portion calculations

• Event pulls

• Packing

• Labeling

• Hot and cold organization

• Garnish kits

• Sauce quantities

• Backup production

• Equipment requirements

• Final counts

• On-site culinary execution when required

The successful candidate understands that food must not only taste excellent in the commissary—it must be designed, packed, transported, held, finished, and served successfully at the event.

Menu Development & R&D

The Sous Chef will work with the Executive Chef on menu development and continuous improvement.

Depending on experience, responsibilities may include:

• Developing new dishes

• Testing recipes

• Improving existing recipes

• Seasonal menu development

• Creating sauces and condiments

• Developing canapés

• Testing alternative techniques

• Conducting tastings

• Scaling recipes

• Establishing yields

• Testing holding and transportation

• Documenting final recipes

Creativity is encouraged, but every dish must ultimately be delicious, repeatable, scalable, and operationally realistic.

Inventory, Purchasing & Food Cost

The Sous Chef should understand the financial side of running a kitchen.

Responsibilities may include:

• Monitoring inventory

• Maintaining pars

• Communicating ordering needs

• Checking deliveries and product quality

• Monitoring expensive ingredients

• Maintaining proper yields

• Controlling portions

• Minimizing overproduction

• Reducing spoilage

• Improving cross-utilization

• Monitoring trim

• Maintaining FIFO

• Supporting recipe costing

Great food and responsible food cost should support each other.

Sustainability

Purslane's culinary philosophy includes responsible and sustainable operations.

The Sous Chef helps lead these practices through:

Accurate production • Whole-product utilization • Waste reduction • FIFO • Preservation • Fermentation • Cross-utilization • Composting • Recycling • Responsible purchasing

The Sous Chef is expected to reinforce these practices throughout the team.

Sanitation & Food Safety

The Sous Chef helps maintain full compliance with applicable NYC Department of Health and food-safety standards.

Responsibilities include oversight of:

• Cooling procedures

• Temperature control

• Labeling and dating

• Raw protein handling

• Cross-contamination prevention

• Allergen procedures

• Refrigerator organization

• FIFO

• Cleaning and sanitation

• Employee food-safety practices

• Equipment cleanliness

A valid NYC Food Protection Certificate/Food Handler credential is required or must be obtained as required for the position.

Confidentiality & NDA

Professional discretion is mandatory.

The Oberon Group and Purslane work with clientele that may include fashion and luxury brands, entertainment and media organizations, corporate clients, cultural institutions, private individuals, public figures, and government-sector clients.

The Sous Chef may have access to confidential information including client identities, guest information, menus, schedules, event locations, production documents, photographs, security-related instructions, and other non-public information.

Employees may be required to sign and comply with a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA).

Client information, photographs, menus, behind-the-scenes content, event information, and internal company information may not be posted, photographed, discussed, or distributed without authorization.

Because this is a management position, the Sous Chef is also expected to reinforce these confidentiality standards with the culinary team.

What We're Looking For

• 4–6+ years of professional culinary experience preferred

• 2+ years in a lead, supervisor, Junior Sous Chef, or Sous Chef capacity preferred

• Fine Dining, Catering, banquet, hotel, commissary, or high-volume restaurant experience strongly preferred

• Excellent savory fundamentals

• Strong knife skills

• Protein fabrication experience

• Strong palate and seasoning ability

• Experience with high-volume production

• Understanding of gram-based recipes and recipe scaling

• Strong organizational and time-management skills

• Ability to manage several production priorities simultaneously

• Experience supervising and training cooks

• Understanding of inventory, yields, portion control, and food cost

• Strong sanitation and food-safety knowledge

• Excellent communication

• Calm problem-solving under pressure

• Reliability and accountability

• Strong sense of urgency

• Willingness to remain hands-on

Culinary school is welcomed but not required when equivalent professional experience is demonstrated.

Schedule

This is a full-time salaried management position based primarily at our Brooklyn commissary.

Because catering is event-driven, flexibility is required.

Schedules may occasionally include:

Early mornings • Evenings • Weekends • Holidays • On-site events • High-volume production periods

The Sous Chef is expected to help build enough organization into production that extended hours are the exception caused by genuine business needs—not the result of poor planning.

Growth

This position can provide a path toward greater culinary leadership within The Oberon Group.

A potential progression may include:

Sous Chef → Executive Sous Chef → Chef de Cuisine / Executive Chef

Growth depends on culinary ability, leadership, organization, financial understanding, reliability, and the evolving needs of the company.

What Success Looks Like

A strong Sous Chef sees tomorrow's problems today.

You walk into the kitchen and know what needs attention.

You understand which prep can wait and which cannot.

You know which cook can handle a difficult assignment and which cook needs additional guidance.

You taste constantly.

You notice when a sauce is flat before 15 liters are produced.

You understand that a recipe yielding 50 portions cannot simply be multiplied without thinking when it becomes 500.

You protect expensive ingredients.

You communicate problems early.

You keep the walk-ins organized.

You know what is leaving for each event.

You teach rather than simply criticize.

You stay calm when plans change.

You jump into production when necessary without losing sight of the larger operation.

And before leaving, you already understand what the kitchen needs to accomplish tomorrow.

About The Oberon Group / Purslane

Purslane is part of The Oberon Group , a Brooklyn-based hospitality company focused on thoughtful food, sustainability, responsible operations, and exceptional guest experiences.

Our culinary program is built around:

Seasonality • Bright Flavor • Deep Flavor Development • Strong Technique • Global Influence • Thoughtful Sourcing • Sustainability • Modern Presentation • Consistency at Scale

We're looking for a Sous Chef who wants to lead people, develop food, build systems, and help create a stronger culinary operation—not simply execute someone else's prep list.