Executive Sous Chef Temporary

Sonesta Hotels•Chicago, IL

3d•$80,000 - $90,000•Onsite

About The Position

Incredible guest experiences start in the kitchen. As the Executive Sous Chef, you’ll play a key leadership role in delivering exceptional culinary experiences while helping lead the day-to-day operations of our kitchen teams. This role is perfect for someone who thrives in a fast-paced hospitality environment and loves combining culinary creativity with operational leadership. You’ll partner closely with the Executive Chef to oversee restaurant dining, banquets, catering, room service, and special events while ensuring consistency, quality, efficiency, and an exceptional guest experience across all culinary operations. You’ll help lead and inspire kitchen teams, support menu execution, drive operational excellence, and create a positive, collaborative culture that reflects Sonesta’s people people philosophy. If you’re passionate about food, leadership, hospitality, and creating memorable dining experiences — we’d love to meet you.

Requirements

3+ years of culinary leadership experience in hotels, restaurants, resorts, banquets, or high-volume hospitality environments.
Strong knowledge of food preparation, banquet operations, catering, inventory management, and kitchen operations.
Experience managing food quality, labor productivity, food costs, purchasing, and operational performance standards.
Strong leadership and team development skills with the ability to motivate and support culinary teams in a fast-paced environment.
Knowledge of food safety regulations, HACCP standards, sanitation practices, and health department compliance requirements.
Ability to multitask, problem-solve, and remain calm under pressure during busy service periods.
Excellent communication, organizational, and collaboration skills.
Creative mindset with a passion for hospitality, food innovation, teamwork, and exceptional guest experiences.

Nice To Haves

Culinary degree or formal culinary training preferred.
Previous Sous Chef or Kitchen Leadership experience preferred.
Flexible availability including evenings, weekends, and holidays as required in a hospitality environment.

Responsibilities

Support the Executive Chef in leading all day-to-day culinary and kitchen operations across restaurants, banquets, catering, room service, and special events.
Supervise kitchen team members, providing coaching, training, scheduling, and hands-on leadership to ensure operational excellence and strong team performance.
Ensure food quality, consistency, presentation, portioning, and service standards are maintained across all culinary outlets.
Assist with menu development, seasonal offerings, banquet menus, and food innovation initiatives.
Oversee food preparation, kitchen workflow, and line operations to ensure efficiency during high-volume service periods.
Support inventory management, food ordering, receiving, and product quality control processes.
Monitor food costs, labor costs, waste reduction, and kitchen productivity to support profitability goals.
Ensure compliance with food safety regulations, sanitation standards, HACCP guidelines, and health department requirements.
Partner closely with Banquets, Catering, Food & Beverage, and hotel leadership teams to execute meetings, weddings, conferences, and events, successfully.
Help maintain a clean, safe, organized, and high-performing kitchen environment.
Step into operational leadership responsibilities in the absence of the Executive Chef as needed.
Support employee engagement, culinary training, development, and succession planning initiatives within the kitchen team.
Any other duties as assigned.