Director of Culinary / Corporate Executive Ch

Buddy's Pizza•Farmington Hills, MI

2d•Onsite

About The Position

Buddy's invented Detroit-style pizza in 1946. Today we run 19 restaurants across metro Detroit and sell frozen Buddy's pizza through grocers and distributors across the country, including Meijer, Kroger, Walmart, Target and Whole Foods. We're hiring one culinary leader for both businesses. The pizza in the restaurant and the pizza in the freezer aisle carry the same name, so they should come from the same kitchen thinking. You'll own the recipe, the standard and the pipeline of what's next, from a test kitchen in Detroit to a production line at our co-manufacturer. The job has three parts: Protect the original. Our pizza has 80 years of history. You make sure it tastes the way it should in every restaurant and every box, every time. Build what's next. New menu items, LTOs, catering and frozen products that fit the brand, hit a food cost and can actually be executed on a Friday night or on a production line. Make it repeatable. Specs, recipes, training and quality checks that hold up without you standing in the kitchen.

Requirements

Culinary background. 8+ years in professional kitchens, including 3+ years as an Executive Chef, Corporate Chef or Culinary Manager in a multi-unit restaurant company
Product development. Hands-on experience taking a product from bench to commercial production with a co-manufacturer or plant: gold standards, scale-up, plant trials, specs
Pizza and dough. Strong working knowledge of dough, fermentation, baking and cheese. Pizza or bakery experience is a strong plus
Restaurant execution. You've launched menu items across multiple locations and know what a busy kitchen can and can't do
Cost discipline. Recipe costing, food cost management and working with purchasing
Food safety. ServSafe Manager certification or ability to obtain it quickly. Working knowledge of HACCP, allergens and labeling
Communication. Comfortable training a line cook, presenting to a retail buyer and working with finance on margins
Travel. Regular travel across metro Detroit and to our co-manufacturing partner in the Midwest

Nice To Haves

Bachelor's degree in Food Science, Food Engineering, Cereal Science, Baking Science or related discipline.
Certified Research Chef (CRC) or Certified Culinary Scientist (CCS) from the Research Chefs Association
Frozen food or CPG retail experience, including buyer presentations and line reviews
Experience with a heritage brand, where the job is to protect a recipe as much as to invent one

Responsibilities

Brand recipes and specs. Keep the gold standard for every recipe: dough, sauce, cheese, bake, portioning. Document it, train it and audit it across restaurants and CPG.
Restaurant menu development. Lead new items, LTOs and menu updates from idea to launch. Work with operations on what the kitchen can execute and with marketing on what guests will buy. Every launch comes with a recipe card, a build guide, a plated standard and training.
CPG product development. Lead frozen product work from bench to shelf. Develop gold standards, translate restaurant recipes for frozen, run plant trials with our co-manufacturer, and sign off on first production. Support line extensions and buyer tastings at retail. The successful candidate must be capable of personally developing formulations, running trials and solving manufacturing issues rather than simply managing outside resources.
Quality in market. Run regular quality checks on restaurant pizza and on frozen product pulled from store shelves. Find where we drift from standard and fix it at the source, whether that's a recipe, an ingredient, a process or training.
Food cost and ingredients. Partner with purchasing and finance on recipe costing, menu pricing and food cost targets. Evaluate ingredient and supplier changes for taste, cost and availability, and qualify substitutes before we need them.
Kitchen training. Build the culinary side of training for kitchen managers and line cooks: recipe standards, new-item rollouts and pizza-making certification.
Catering. Develop and maintain the catering menu so it travels well, holds well and is profitable.
Food safety and labeling. Make sure recipes and products meet food safety standards and support accurate allergen, nutrition and label information for restaurants and retail.
Trends and competitors. Keep us current on what's happening in pizza, frozen and casual dining, and bring ideas that fit who we are.