Culinary Innovation Chef

Farmer Focus•Remote VA, CO

About The Position

As a Culinary Innovation Chef at Farmer Focus, you will develop new flavors and food products for the prepared foods division, helping expand the company’s culinary reach and grow its business. You will collaborate with sales, marketing, quality, operations, and R&D teams to ideate, conceptualize, develop, scale, and launch products for retail and foodservice channels. The role calls for extensive culinary expertise, a refined palate, knowledge of global ethnic cuisines, and an understanding of culinary trends across restaurants, retail, and online channels. You will create flavor profiles ranging from authentic global flavors to broadly appealing “Middle America” tastes, while considering commercial viability, distribution opportunities, and company profitability. The role also involves regulatory awareness, market and competitor evaluation, presentations, taste panels, and learning production processes required to commercialize food products.

Requirements

Culinary Arts degree and/or five years of experience operating as a chef.
Passion for food and culinary creativity.
Strong desire to make an impact on the national food scene.
Knowledge of global ethnic cuisines.
Strong leadership and project management skills.
Excellent communication and organizational skills.
Understanding of USDA and FDA regulations.
Understanding of fully cooked poultry.
Understanding of MAP and product shelf life.

Nice To Haves

Two years of CPG development experience preferred.

Responsibilities

Develop “Gold Standard” foods, flavors, and recipes for commercialization in retail and/or foodservice channels.
Manage innovation from ideation through commercialization.
Collaborate with Marketing, Sales, Operations, and R&D to scale and launch new products.
Manage team-level annual budgets and understand project-level retail pricing and recipe engineering to maximize distribution opportunities and company profits.
Understand USDA and FDA product regulations and ensure products meet industry regulations and safety standards.
Stay current on culinary trends and flavor adoption cycles in conjunction with Marketing and Sales.
Visit markets to understand domestic and global culinary trends and opportunities for the company.
Provide detailed, actionable evaluations of competitive food items to inform product development and innovation.
Present to executive leadership, company team members, and customers.
Conduct internal and external taste panels to refine recipes and assess the viability of new food items.
Apply knowledge of production processes and commercialization, and develop that knowledge over time to improve innovation and product-development efficiency.