Banquet Chef

Virgin Hotels Central Services LLC•New Orleans, LA

About The Position

You are passionate about the culinary world; you embrace our city’s food offerings as a way of life. You must love the local food community as well as watch the world for the next great culinary idea. Our Food and Beverage areas are sure to impress! This won’t just be a restaurant, or a hotel banquet operation. It will be a culinary hub for gatherings and entertaining. Open for all meal periods and late night snacks. Our goal is to create an ambiance where locals and visitors feel at home and we always have something up our sleeve to impress. This is achieved with a solid grounded team lead by a seasoned hospitality professional. This position is made for someone who is driven by the need to create memorable cuisine and guest experiences each and every day. This person finds passion being present in the kitchen during service; directly impacting the guest and staff experience.

Requirements

Ability to work a shift other than a day shift, such as pm, swing or overnight shift
Ability to work on weekends and holidays
Stand for periods of 8-10 hours
Great team player with the ability create excellent working relationships across the group. Collaborative approach with all departments, particularly food & beverage and sales & marketing
Ability to break down barriers and resolving potential conflicts swiftly and effortlessly
Strong communication and presentation skills to all levels of management
Ability to think outside the box and approach all issues with a completely fresh approach
Ability to anticipate needs and over deliver wherever possible
Able to change direction and work on multiple project aspects at once. Creatively solve problems
Enthusiastic, passionate, able to enthuse and motivate others
Leadership ability and behavior consistent with Virgin Hotels Core Values: Fun, innovative, original and personable, and striving to deliver high quality and brilliant customer service
Current, legal and unrestricted ability to work in the United States
Food Service Handler Card, ServSafe and TABC certification that is currently valid for a minimum of at least 6 months
3-5 years of medium to large scale hotel banquet or catering experience.

Nice To Haves

Associate or Bachelor’s degree preferred but not required
Preferred: 3-5 years’ experience in a full service restaurant or lounge in hotel management

Responsibilities

Train, train, train! It all starts here. You are responsible for building a team of talented individuals who never let the ball drop. This means creating and monitoring a consistent training program that keeps the team on their toes. The initial training program has to prepare our new members for what lies ahead and set them up for success. Then you follow up with daily, weekly and monthly lessons to keep everyone learning and growing.
Communication. Monitor and track the flow of information coming to you from your superiors, hotel side, culinary side and distribute consistently to your hourly teammates. Be highly involved in decisions and communication on the floor and share results with fellow teammates and superiors. Manage the communication relationship between guest and all areas involved: special requests from guests, needs of guests to the kitchen, service issues and guest recovery opportunities. You must communicate your expectations for your team mates clearly each shift and remain consistent in your messaging.
Guest Interaction. This is not an office job! How can you know what is happening on the floor or with a guest if you are not present? Information should flow through you to the staff, not the other way around. You are responsible for detailing and confirming guest profiles and communicating that to FOH and BOH. You handle guest issues directly, with confidence and achieve positive results. Although you lead your team through the process of troubleshooting and you empower them to resolve upset, you are still actively involved in the solution. Your presence to guests and team is actively seen on the floor.
Leadership. This position has an enormous responsibility of keeping everyone moving in the right direction each and every day. You have to keep your team on track, energized and focused. Your team will be impacting the guest experience every minute of the day. Achieving that will take a consistent attitude about standards and service. Many people will count on you for direction and your message will need to be clear and concise.
Organization and Time Management. There is always a lot of progress to be done. Balancing the needs of your team, guests and business will be crucial. The outlets are designed to encourage unplanned gatherings and last minute events. You must be able to adapt to the needs and level of business to not sacrifice the guest experience. Your time management skills will be tested between having a strong floor presence, dedicated training time and business deliverables.
Other Responsibilities: The main priority is the guest experience, monitoring the floor, training and consistent leadership. However, there is still work to be done. Schedules must be completed to balance needs of business and labor profits. Inventory controls, P&L knowledge, waste of product, china, glass, equipment, etc must be monitored daily. All human resource aspects must be completed according to protocol.
Strong floor presence
Communication to kitchen, other outlets and front desk about food issues, VIP’s, reservations and changes in business levels
Communication to hourly colleagues: same as above, guest expectations, changes in food or drink menus, special events/programming. To be achieved by a pre-shift team meeting as well as a post-shift re-cap
Handling daily tasks of: scheduling, properly cutting staff or assigning additional staff, driving revenue through various competitions, checking opening/running/closing duties of staff, monitoring that uniform & grooming standards are met, ensuring Virgin standards and protocol are being practiced through departments
Training of Teammates: organize onboarding, delivering consistent training, twice daily sit downs with new members (before and at end of shift), exams are conducted on time and according to flow of manual. Making sure the new members are correctly input into the system and have all the tools, uniform and supplies to have a positive training experience
Adhere to protocols of the hiring and disciplinary process as outlined by the people department
TABC certification, ServSafe and Food Handlers Cards must be on file
Comply with all safety and health department procedures, as well as, all state and federal liquor laws