Culinary Director - Luxury Senior Living

Thomas Cuisine•Plano, TX

8d•$90,000 - $110,000•Onsite

About The Position

Founded in 1986, Thomas Cuisine is an award-winning, privately held contract food service company. We advocate the healing power of whole foods and believe in preparing scratch-made cuisine fresh each day. Every Thomas Cuisine team member is an ambassador, carrying out our mission, reflecting our values, and building relationships while "doing the right thing". At Thomas Cuisine, we believe that dining is more than just a meal; it’s an experience. Within our premier senior living locations, we are dedicated to providing residents with exceptional culinary delights that nourish the body and soul. We are seeking a visionary Culinary Director to lead our culinary team and transform our dining services into a hallmark of excellence. Oversight and responsibility to support the contractual relationship and provision of Thomas Cuisine services. This includes leading a team, setting expectations, developing, and refining operating standards, continually improving resident and team member satisfaction, enhancing regulatory compliance, hiring, and developing leaders and team members, adhere to human resource policies and procedures, overseeing strong financial stewardship, and building relationships with the home office and community team members, residents and family members. In carrying out assigned responsibilities, the Culinary Director must comply with all client policies and regulatory agencies. This position reports to the District Manager

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree or at least 5 years’ experience in culinary leadership with increasing responsibility or operation.
Senior living, resort level hospitality, and or healthcare experience required.
Proven success in luxury environments with high service expectations.
ServSafe and State Certified in Safe Food Handling and Sanitation if state certification program exists.
Ability to read, analyze & interpret general business periodicals, professional journals, technical procedures, or governmental regulations. Ability to write reports, business correspondence & the ability to effectively present information & respond to questions from groups of managers, clients, customers, guests & the public.
Ability to add, subtract, multiply & divide in all units of measure, using whole numbers, common fractions & decimals. Ability to apply concepts such as fractions, percentages, ratios & proportions to practical situations.
Ability to solve practical problems & deal with a variety of concrete variables in situations where only limited standardization exists. Ability to interpret a variety of instructions furnished in written, oral, diagram or schedule form.
Uses hands to finger, handle, or feel; reach with hands & arms
Talks or hears & taste or smells.
The employee is occasionally required to sit; climb or balance; stoop, kneel, crouch or crawl.
Regularly lift and carry racks or stacks of equipment, boxes, food products, & frequently lift & or move more than 40 pounds.
Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, depth perception & ability to adjust focus.
Work indoors 90%; outdoors 10%
A hazard includes, but are not limited to, cuts from broken glass, knifes, production equipment and metal cans, burns, slipping and tripping.
Frequent washing of hands.

Nice To Haves

Certified Dietary Manager Active License (CDM) strongly preferred (Willing to study and pass the exam within the first year of employment).

Responsibilities

Leads a high performing culinary team with full responsibility for operational performance, including menu execution, budget management, operational initiatives and strategy along with service standards and overall resident satisfaction.
Honors all contractual and other commitments to the client.
Develop managers to maintain and exceed our operating standards.
Meets regularly with client partners, including scheduled 1:1’s, monthly budget and performance metric reviews, and quarterly business reviews, ensuring transparency, alignment and continuous improvement of the dining program.
Looks for ways to differentiate what we do in the name of food quality and service.
Acts and performs responsibilities to be perceived as: o Technically competent o Articulate with the ability to present ideas in a way that achieves desirable results o Flexible in your approach to meeting their needs, not hiding behind protocol or policy and procedures o Trustworthy, honest, and hardworking with their best interest in mind
Teaches and expect a “meal by meal” review of the basics of our business…i.e. temperature, food presentation, genuine service, professional image.
Ensure the operations are clean, neat, safe, and organized according to Thomas Cuisine and customer standards. Has a deep understanding of a regulatory environment and requirements of operational regulatory agencies.
Works with managers to ensure we are procuring specified ingredients.
Demonstrates and promotes Thomas Cuisine culture, values, and philosophy.
Ensures compliance with human resource policies and procedures.
Responsible for selection and orientation of exempt team members.
Positively impacts community team member morale.
Communicates in a timely and direct manner with team members.
Drafts and maintains exempt job success profiles and job descriptions.
Interfaces regularly and professionally with residents and clients.
Sets the example and teaches quick and friendly customer service.
Obtains knowledge and demonstrates the principles of person directed care, and successful aging philosophies.
Demonstrates values of commitment, respect, compassion, dedication, teamwork, and quality. Team members will support, actively participate, and act in accordance with the principles of the service culture and be familiar with and fluent in the language and service pillars.
Participates in Residents Council, Dining Committee, and other community meetings as needed.
Oversee financial obligations of the contract.
Provides revenue building guidance to Culinary Directors.
Understands all accounting requirements and can teach them to culinary leaders.
Ensure that we have accurate and complete financial information with which to operate and make business decisions.
Prepare and manage accurate budgets.
Analyzes P & L’s and understand the revenue and cost ratios of our business.
Understand monthly and YTD variances and provides explanations.
Reviews purchasing, master distributor compliance, and purchasing opportunities.
Effectively use your calendars as a planning tool and expect your units to do the same.
Oversee annual capital planning and requests.
Demonstrates and promotes Thomas Cuisine culture, values, and philosophy.
Interacts positively at levels.
Recognizes the need for and demonstrates good communication and listening skills.
Attends classes, workshops, and seminars to learn of trends and changes within the industry.
Demonstrate proficiency with all involved technology applications.