Resort Executive Chef

Resort Executive Chef

Black Desert Resort is an ultra-premium destination resort in Southern Utah offering luxury accommodations, elevated dining, championship golf, wellness experiences, outdoor recreation, and exceptional event venues. The culinary program is a central part of the resort experience, supporting signature restaurants, banquets, group events, weddings, resort activations, and guest-facing amenities.

The Resort Executive Chef leads the resort culinary vision and is responsible for ensuring that all culinary operations deliver consistent quality, creativity, efficiency, and service excellence.

The Resort Executive Chef is responsible for overseeing the culinary operations for Black Desert Resort's signature restaurants and banquet culinary teams. This includes culinary leadership for outlets such as Basalt, Latitude, 20th Hole, Flo Bar, Lava Love, and banquet culinary operations supporting weddings, conferences, tournaments, corporate events, and resort functions. This also includes any outlets and/or venues that could be added in the future.

Reporting to the Director of Food & Beverage, the Resort Executive Chef provides strategic and hands-on leadership for culinary standards, menu development, food quality, kitchen operations, financial performance, sanitation, team development, training and overall guest and team member satisfaction. In addition, the Executive Chef functions as a fiduciary and achieves budgeted and forecasted labor, food and other expense margins. This role leads chefs, sous chefs, cooks, stewards, and culinary support teams to ensure all food quality, presentation and experiences that align with Black Desert Resort's ultra-premium hospitality standards.

The Resort Executive Chef must be both a creative culinary leader and a disciplined operator, capable of leading multiple kitchens, managing high-volume banquet execution, supporting fine dining standards, and developing a strong culinary culture across the resort.

Onsite: Black Desert Resort

Shift & Schedule Availability: Year-Round / Full-Time

Pay Range: $165,000 - $195,000 /year plus incentive eligibility.

Key Responsibilities including but not limited to:

• Lead culinary operations for signature restaurants and banquet culinary teams across Black Desert Resort.
• Oversee culinary execution for Basalt, Latitude, IRD, Pool operations, 20th Hole, Flo Bar, Lava Love, and banquet operations and any future outlets.
• Provide leadership, coaching, and accountability to chefs, sous chefs, cooks, stewards, and culinary support teams.
• Develop and maintain culinary standards for quality, presentation, consistency, flavor, sanitation, and timing.
• Partner with the Director of Food & Beverage to align culinary operations with financial goals, guest experience goals, and resort strategy.
• Lead menu development for restaurants, banquets, seasonal programming, VIP experiences, and special events.
• Develop and refine culinary concepts, menu direction, and food & beverage programming for upcoming projects, new outlets, and resort expansion initiatives at Black Desert Resort.
• Partner with the Director of Food & Beverage, ownership, and project stakeholders on concept ideation, tastings, prototype menus, costing, and kitchen design considerations for future restaurant and outlet openings.
• Ensure banquet menus and event culinary offerings are scalable, profitable, and aligned with client expectations and resort standards.
• Maintain strong collaboration between culinary, restaurant leadership, banquet leadership, conference services, purchasing, stewarding, and front-of-house teams.
• Monitor food cost, labor productivity, waste control, inventory usage, and overall culinary financial performance.
• Support forecasting, budgeting, capital planning, and operational planning for culinary areas.
• Ensure kitchen teams are properly staffed, trained, scheduled, and supported to meet business demands.
• Participate in recruiting, interviewing, hiring, onboarding, coaching, corrective action, and performance management for culinary leadership and team members.
• Build a strong culinary culture focused on professionalism, teamwork, accountability, safety, creativity, and continuous improvement.
• Ensure compliance with food safety, sanitation, health department, OSHA, and resort standards.
• Conduct regular kitchen inspections to ensure cleanliness, organization, food quality, and equipment readiness.
• Partner with Purchasing to maintain product quality, vendor relationships, cost controls, and inventory standards.
• Support major resort events, weddings, tournaments, conferences, VIP functions, owner events, and holiday programming.
• Respond to guest feedback, service opportunities, and culinary quality concerns with urgency and professionalism.
• Stay informed on culinary trends, regional ingredients, dietary needs, and industry best practices.
• Uphold Black Desert Resort's ultra-premium culinary and hospitality standards.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Preferred Qualifications and Skills:

• Minimum of 8-10 years of progressive culinary leadership experience.
• Prior Executive Chef or multi-outlet culinary leadership experience required.
• Luxury resort, fine dining, banquet, In Room Dining or high-volume event experience strongly preferred.
• Strong background leading multiple culinary outlets and banquet operations.
• Proven ability to lead large culinary teams and develop future culinary leaders.
• Strong financial acumen including food cost control, labor management, budgeting, forecasting, and inventory oversight.
• Strong knowledge of banquet production, plated events, buffet execution, VIP events, and restaurant service flow.
• Creative and strategic approach to menu development, culinary programming, and guest experience.
• Excellent communication, leadership, organization, and problem-solving skills.
• Strong understanding of food safety, sanitation, HACCP, and health department requirements.
• ServSafe certification required or ability to obtain.
• Ability to work flexible hours including mornings, evenings, weekends, holidays, and extended shifts based on business needs.