Culinary R&D Assistant ( Culinary Students & Recent Graduates Are Encouraged to Apply)

Culinary Student Position

Orbital Kitchens is looking for culinary students who want to gain hands-on experience in culinary research & development, recipe testing, and large-scale food production.

This position is designed for students who want to explore a side of the culinary industry beyond traditional restaurant kitchens. You'll work directly with our Culinary and R&D teams and learn how food concepts are developed, tested, scaled, documented, and ultimately executed in a high-volume production environment.

You do not need previous R&D experience. We're looking for someone with a solid culinary foundation, attention to detail, curiosity, and a genuine interest in learning how food production works at scale.

What You'll Do

• Assist with recipe development and culinary testing
• Prepare ingredients and recipes for R&D trials
• Help scale recipes from small tests to large-batch production
• Participate in batch-cooking and production tests
• Record yields, measurements, cook times, temperatures, and testing observations
• Assist with tastings and product evaluations
• Help maintain standardized recipes and culinary documentation
• Support shelf-life and product stabilization testing
• Compare results between small-batch and large-scale production
• Help develop repeatable production methods and procedures
• Work with Culinary and Operations teams to improve food quality and consistency
• Maintain an organized, clean, and food-safe working environment

Our R&D process involves multiple stages, including concept development, gold-standard recipes, shelf-life and stabilization testing, large-batch validation, operational testing, and approvals.

What You'll Learn

This is a hands-on learning opportunity where you'll develop experience in:

Recipe Development Learn how culinary ideas are developed, tested, adjusted, and turned into standardized recipes.

Recipe Scaling Learn how to take a recipe developed in a small batch and successfully translate it into larger-scale production.

Food Production Systems Understand how equipment, labor, production methods, and kitchen workflows affect a recipe when it is produced at scale.

Quality & Consistency Learn how R&D teams evaluate food quality, recipe practicality, equipment limitations, labor requirements, and execution challenges.

Testing & Documentation Gain experience with large-batch testing, shelf-life testing, stabilization, documentation, and operational handoff.

Culinary Operations See how a food product moves from an idea in the R&D kitchen to something that can be produced consistently by an entire operation.

Who We're Looking For

We're looking for culinary students who are:

• Currently enrolled in a culinary arts or related program
• Interested in culinary R&D, product development, or food production
• Comfortable working in a professional kitchen environment
• Detail-oriented and organized
• Curious about how and why recipes work
• Interested in learning about large-scale food production
• Able to follow recipes, procedures, and food-safety standards
• Comfortable taking notes and documenting testing results
• Open to feedback and experimentation
• Reliable, professional, and eager to learn

Previous R&D experience is not required .

Why This Role?

If you're interested in food but aren't sure that the traditional restaurant path is the only direction you want to take your culinary career, this position provides exposure to another side of the industry.

You'll see how culinary creativity, food science, operations, production, documentation, and business considerations come together to create products that can be consistently executed at scale.

This experience can provide a foundation for careers in:

Culinary R&D Product Development Culinary Operations Food Production Commissary/Central Kitchens Multi-Unit Restaurants Quality Assurance Culinary Training