Beanlandia Food Program Director / Bean Chef

Job Description

Job Description

Beanlandia Food Program Director / Bean Chef

Full-time • Salaried • $50,000 to 65,000 + benefits • Target start: August 2026

About Krewe of Red Beans

Krewe of Red Beans is a New Orleans-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit creating community through food, culture, and celebration of New Orleans’ cultural heritage. Founded in the Bywater, we are best known for organizing Feed the Front Line and Feed the Second Line during the COVID pandemic — efforts that raised over $3 million and fed thousands of healthcare workers and culture bearers.

We operate Beanlandia at 3300 Royal Street, a cultural and community center that hosts weekly music nights, community dinners, festivals, a summer youth program, and a growing membership of more than 1,000 households. Our work sits at the intersection of food, music, history, and neighborhood life.

About the Position

This is not a traditional restaurant chef position. We are also open to someone with experience running a community food program, whether from a non-profit or educational background. 

The Chef leads a multi-revenue food program inside a mission-driven cultural nonprofit. You will cook for our weekly programming, build our catering business, develop wholesale and retail products, lead community dinners and cooking classes, and serve as head chef for our summer youth program.

Equal parts cook, entrepreneur, teacher, and culture worker — this role offers genuine creative ownership of the food program at one of New Orleans’ most distinctive cultural institutions. You will have the chance to build a food brand, not just run a kitchen, and to do it on a stage that already has the audience watching.

Most importantly, we are looking for someone who is excited by the challenge of creating something unique and new! And someone willing to venture down the “bean rabbit hole”. We want to see the world’s greatest bean dishes prepared by a passionate ambassador of the legume. Someone excited to learn new cuisines and cultures through beans.

What You’ll Do

Kitchen Leadership

• Lead all kitchen operations for weekly programming at Beanlandia (5 events per week, including swing dance Thursdays, La Louisiane Saturdays, Treme Mondays, community dinners, and special events)

• Manage food costs, supplier relationships, and inventory

• Maintain health code compliance and a clean, safe kitchen

Catering & Events

• Build and grow our catering business (private events, gatherings, community organizations)

• Plan and lead monthly community dinners ($30 ticket, ~40 guests)

• Plan and host quarterly donor / chef’s table dinners ($350+ ticket, intimate format)

• Plan for larger events like Day of the Dead

Programs & Products

• Lead cooking class programming for members and the broader community

• Serve as head chef for our 3-week summer Bean Camp youth program

• Collaborate with the Executive Director on grant-funded food programming

• Tradition creation, like Red Beans dinners, New Years Black-Eye Peas, St. Josephs Altar, Day of the Dead. 

• Game plan to develop an in-house king cake (red bean paste with mocha and UBE frosting)

• Frozen Soups / Beans-to-go

Operations

• Manage budgets, financial planning, and reporting for the food program

• Hire and supervise part-time kitchen staff as the program scales (Year 2+)

• Track revenue and expenses across multiple program lines; report monthly to the Executive Director

 

Community-building through food

• Plan and execute meals for our summer camps.

• Create kid and adult cooking lessons

• Create community meals designed to bring people together

• education cooking classes

 

What You’ll Bring

Required

• ServSafe Food Manager certification (or willingness to obtain within 30 days of hire)

• Nice person. Team oriented spirit. Self-motivated.

• Reliable transportation and willingness to work evenings and weekends as programming requires

• Excited about Beans

• Must enjoy people / children. We want a people person!

Strongly Preferred

2+ years of professional kitchen experience, including at least 2 years in a head chef, sous chef, or equivalent leadership role

• Catering experience (off-site events, multi-course service, large-format cooking)

• Experience launching or growing a food business, pop-up, or product line

• Familiarity with the New Orleans culinary scene 

• Wholesale or retail product development experience

Who You Are

• A self-starter who thrives building things, not just maintaining them

• Equal parts cook and entrepreneur — excited by both the menu and the business behind it

• Comfortable in a small, nimble, mission-driven team where roles overlap, and ideas come from everywhere

• Sees this role as building something — a food brand, a community institution, a culinary identity — not just running a kitchen

Compensation & Benefits

• Base salary: $50,000 to $65,000 

• Health insurance 

• Paid time off (3 weeks) 

• Professional development budget

• Real creative ownership of the food program — your menus, your vision, your culinary identity

• Opportunity to build something lasting at a beloved New Orleans cultural institution

• We are not open during Carnival Weekend. You are free to celebrate!

Working Schedule

This position requires a mix of weekday and evening/weekend hours to accommodate our programming. A typical week includes 3–4 evening events plus weekday prep, catering, classes, and administration.

 

This is a full-time position, 40 hours a week.

 

We also encourage work-life balance and travel. We expect responsibility, communication, and pre-planning with that. 

To Apply

• Resume

• Cover letter (maximum 2 pages) addressing why this specific role excites you and what you would bring to it

• References from two previous chefs, restaurateurs, or employers

Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis until the position is filled. Target start date: August 2026.

Krewe of Red Beans is an equal opportunity employer. We strongly encourage applications from Black candidates, women, LGBTQ+ candidates, and others historically underrepresented in culinary leadership.