Amtrak Culinary Development - Executive Chef
About The Position
Aramark is seeking a highly experienced Senior Executive Chef / Culinary Development Chef to lead menu innovation, culinary strategy, and large-scale recipe development supporting Amtrak Food & Beverage operations. This role is ideal for a culinary leader with strong experience in high-volume food production, culinary development, multi-unit foodservice operations, transportation dining, hospitality, or institutional dining environments. The position plays a key role in developing scalable culinary programs that balance operational execution, guest experience, food quality, and financial performance. The Senior Executive Chef partners closely with Operations, Supply Chain, Procurement, Marketing, Culinary teams, external chefs, and client stakeholders to create innovative menu solutions that can successfully execute across regional and national operations. This is a highly collaborative, client-facing leadership role requiring creativity, operational discipline, and the ability to scale culinary concepts for large-volume service environments. This role requires approximately 50% travel throughout the Northeast region.
Requirements
- AOS Culinary Degree required
- 7+ years of progressive culinary leadership experience required
- Experience in recipe development and large-scale production environments required
- Strong collaboration and leadership skills required
Nice To Haves
- Bachelor’s degree preferred
- Experience supporting multi-unit operations, transportation dining, hospitality, airline catering, commissary, or institutional foodservice environments preferred
- Experience with airline, transportation, hospitality, or flight kitchen operations is a plus
- Proficiency with Microsoft Office and recipe/production management systems preferred
Responsibilities
- Lead culinary innovation and menu strategy for Amtrak Food & Beverage operations
- Develop new menu concepts, recipes, and product offerings for large-scale production environments
- Create scalable recipes and operational standards that support consistency across multiple service locations
- Evaluate food trends, consumer preferences, and regional culinary opportunities
- Support seasonal menu updates, product launches, and culinary refresh initiatives
- Ensure recipe scalability, operational feasibility, portion consistency, and cost efficiency
- Partner with field operations teams to support successful culinary implementation
- Conduct tastings, operational reviews, and culinary evaluations across locations
- Support labor optimization, yield management, and food cost controls
- Maintain standardized recipes, procedures, and production documentation within culinary systems
- Collaborate with Culinary, Operations, Supply Chain, Procurement, Marketing, and external vendor partners
- Present culinary concepts and tasting outcomes to senior leadership and client stakeholders
- Support supplier partnerships, product evaluations, and sourcing initiatives
- Participate in workshops, food trend research, and culinary innovation sessions
- Support culinary training initiatives for field teams and onboard service crews
- Provide rollout support for new menu items and operational culinary programs
- Travel throughout the Northeast Corridor and nationally as needed to support field engagement and operational execution
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
Education Level
Associate degree
