Chef, Pastry

Churchill Downs IncorporatedLouisville, KY
Onsite

About The Position

The Pastry Chef position is a role primarily defined by the leading of the Derby City Gaming & Hotel culinary team while creating diverse breadmaking, pastry, and dessert offerings. The Pastry Chef contributes to the success of the Food & Beverage department by directing and guiding the restaurant operations to ensure a positive guest experience while ensuring company profitability.

Requirements

  • Management abilities demonstrated in managing the kitchen's effectiveness.
  • Maintaining interpersonal working relationships among all personnel.
  • Oral and written communication skills.
  • Willingness to assume overall responsibility relative to the performance of the kitchen in the absence of the upper management staff, work flexible hours, and handle high-pressure deadlines.
  • Three to five years’ experience as a sous chef, pastry sous chef, or pastry chef.
  • 2-year degree from an accredited university in Culinary Arts, Hotel and Restaurant Management, or related major.
  • Valid health certifications, if required.
  • Able to obtain and maintain a valid Kentucky racing and gaming license.

Responsibilities

  • Provides leadership and guidance to all employees within the pastry department, ensuring exceptional quality of product and service standards are upheld.
  • Provides leadership and guidance to all employees within the culinary department in the absence of the Executive Chef and Sous Chef.
  • Assists the Executive Chef with menu development related to pastry.
  • Develop and create new pastry ideas and design presentations that are presented in a tasteful and appealing way.
  • Develop new seasonal recipes and menus that relate with current trends.
  • Ensures proper handling of all food products.
  • Maintains food and labor costs related to the pastry department.
  • Meet with the marketing department to discuss occasion-related desserts or baked goods needed for the property and/or guests.
  • Maintain sanitation procedures and organization of work area, adhering to all OSHA regulations.
  • Monitor and order ingredients, supplies, and equipment.
  • Establishes menu forecasts based on customer counts or business forecasts and previous experience of dates and holidays. Responsible for posting the menu forecast for all kitchen team members to review.
  • Reviews the prep team's staffing levels to maintain budget employment levels and delegates authority or assigns duties to all staff as necessary.
  • Assists and advises upper management in training and developing staff, interviewing new hires, completing the hiring process, and evaluations.
  • Reviews and improves service execution, ticket times, and production schedule.
  • Verifies that kitchen staff maintains all portion sizes, quality standards, departmental rules, policies, and procedures and supervises the production of all food items.
  • Verifies that all sanitation and nutrition practices are maintained by kitchen staff.
  • Ensure the safety and security of employees and guests.
  • Implement programs and processes to reduce loss-time injuries.
  • Responsible for the enforcement of company policies and procedures.
  • Works with the marketing team to prepare for events and promotions.
  • Maintains a cooperative relationship with vendors.
  • Meets with departmental directors and managers as necessary.
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