Culinary Director

F1 Arcade•Chicago, IL

1d•Remote

About The Position

The Culinary Director is responsible for leading the food strategy, culinary standards, and kitchen operations for F1® Arcade across the US, while also providing culinary leadership and operational support to franchise partners. This role owns the end-to-end development of the food offer, from concept creation and menu engineering to execution, training, supplier alignment, and ongoing performance improvement. The Culinary Director will ensure the F1® Arcade food experience is commercially strong, operationally executable, on brand, and consistent across our own venues and franchised venues. The ideal candidate combines creative culinary leadership with strong multi-site operational discipline and a clear understanding of hospitality economics, guest experience, and international market adaptation.

Requirements

Significant senior culinary leadership experience in a multi-site hospitality, restaurant, or entertainment led venue business.
Proven experience overseeing culinary operations across multiple regions or international markets.
Experience supporting franchise, licensed, or partner operated businesses strongly preferred.
Strong background in menu development, recipe standardization, kitchen operations, and cost control.
Demonstrated success in building food concepts that are both brand led and operationally sound.
Strong knowledge of food safety, allergen management, and regulatory compliance in complex operating environments.
Experience opening new venues and supporting new venue opening culinary execution is highly desirable.
Financial acumen, including menu costing, margin management, and labor aware operational decision-making.
Strategic and commercially minded, with the ability to connect culinary vision to business outcomes.
Hands-on and detail oriented, with strong standards around food quality and execution.
Strong leadership presence with the ability to influence cross-functional teams and franchise partners.
Excellent coaching, training, and communication skills.
Highly organized, adaptable, and comfortable working in a fast-paced growth environment.
Strong problem solver with a practical, solutions focused approach.
Able to balance brand consistency with local market needs.
Ability to travel globally up to 70% of the time.
Ability to work a minimum of 40 hours per week, with flexibility to support global business operations across multiple time zones.
Ability to consistently demonstrate F1® Arcade Core Values; Pursuit of Excellence, Positive Energy, Integrity, Team Spirit.

Nice To Haves

Experience supporting franchise, licensed, or partner operated businesses.

Responsibilities

Define and lead the culinary vision for F1® Arcade across the US, ensuring the food proposition aligns with the brand, guest expectations, and commercial goals.
Develop innovative, high-quality, and operationally efficient menus that complement the overall guest experience and support daypart, event, and group sales occasions.
Create a food strategy that can scale effectively across both corporate and franchise locations while maintaining consistency and flexibility for local market adaptation.
Partner with senior leadership to evolve the culinary proposition in line with business growth, consumer trends, and brand evolution.
Lead menu creation, testing, costing, rollout, and seasonal refreshes across all venues.
Balance creativity with practicality by designing dishes that are visually compelling, high quality, profitable, and executable in a high-volume environment.
Adapt menus for the US, considering local tastes, ingredient availability, pricing structures, regulatory requirements, and operational capabilities.
Build and maintain menu engineering processes that optimize mix, margin, labor efficiency, and guest satisfaction.
Oversee recipe development, portion standards, plating guides, allergen information, and specification sheets.
Establish and uphold culinary standards across all venues, ensuring consistency in food quality, presentation, preparation, and kitchen execution.
Conduct regular site visits, kitchen audits, and performance reviews to identify opportunities for improvement and ensure compliance with brand standards.
Work closely with operations teams to ensure kitchen systems, prep models, service workflows, and labor deployment support efficient operations.
Identify and solve operational challenges related to equipment, production flow, staffing capability, and quality control.
Serve as the lead culinary contact for franchise partners, supporting successful openings, menu implementation, and ongoing operational excellence.
Support franchise partners with culinary innovation and menu adaptation.
Develop franchise-ready culinary systems, playbooks, and training tools that enable consistent execution in different markets.
Provide guidance on kitchen design, equipment selection, supplier standards, product specifications, and new venue opening readiness.
Support franchisees with troubleshooting, performance improvement plans, and menu adaptation within approved brand guidelines.
Collaborate with franchise and international teams to ensure partners understand and deliver the F1® Arcade food experience to brand standards.
Partner with the L&D team to build and deliver culinary training programs for chefs, kitchen managers, and operations teams across both corporate and franchised venues.
Create clear SOPs, recipe manuals, training materials, and onboarding tools to support consistent culinary execution.
Coach venue leaders to improve quality, team capability, and operational efficiency.
Partner with procurement and supply chain to source products that meet quality, availability, and cost requirements across both US and international markets.
Support supplier selection, product testing, and specification development.
Monitor food cost performance and identify opportunities for margin improvement without compromising quality or guest experience.
Ensure menus and recipes are built with supply continuity, scalability, and operational simplicity in mind.
Ensure all culinary standards, recipes, and operating procedures align with applicable food safety, allergen, and regulatory requirements in the US.
Partner with operations and compliance teams to maintain best in class food safety practices across all venues.
Support audit readiness and ensure franchise partners understand and comply with required standards.
Work closely with Operations, Beverage, Training, Procurement, Finance, Marketing, and Franchise teams to deliver an integrated guest experience.
Partner with marketing on menu launches, promotional activity, and brand storytelling around the food offer.
Contribute to new venue openings, feasibility reviews, and strategic planning for future growth in domestic and international markets.