Sous Chef | Commissary

Summerhill Market•Toronto, ON

5d•Onsite

About The Position

Summerhill Market is seeking an experienced culinary operations professional to lead a strategic initiative focused on recipe management, production standardization, food costing, nutrition compliance, labour optimization, and operational data integrity within our Guac platform. This is not a traditional project management role. We are looking for an individual with deep experience in high-volume food production who understands the realities of running a busy commissary and prepared foods operation. The successful candidate will combine culinary expertise, production knowledge, operational discipline, and project leadership skills to ensure our recipes, processes, labour standards, nutrition information, and costing data accurately reflect how our business operates. The Project Lead will work closely with Culinary, Production, Operations, Quality Assurance, Finance, and IT teams to validate and optimize approximately 350 prepared food items while establishing sustainable processes and standards for the future.

Requirements

10+ years of experience in culinary operations, commissary production, food manufacturing, or high-volume prepared foods environments.
Experience as a Chef, Sous Chef, Production Chef, Culinary Operations Manager, or similar leadership role.
Strong understanding of large-batch food production and manufacturing principles.
Proven experience developing, executing, and standardizing recipes in a commercial production environment.
Strong understanding of food costing, labour planning, yields, and inventory management.
Experience managing projects or operational improvement initiatives.
Excellent analytical, organizational, and communication skills.
Experience with recipe management or food production software platforms.
Knowledge of nutrition analysis and food labeling regulations.
Food safety program experience.
Lean Manufacturing, Continuous Improvement, or Operational Excellence experience.
Experience within prepared foods, commissary, grocery retail, or specialty food manufacturing environments.

Nice To Haves

Understands the complete journey of a recipe from receiving ingredients through production and ultimately to the customer.
Deep understanding of kitchen workflow and production sequencing.
Deep understanding of high-volume batch production.
Deep understanding of food quality and consistency standards.
Deep understanding of food safety and regulatory compliance.
Deep understanding of labour planning and workforce utilization.
Deep understanding of yield management and waste reduction.
Deep understanding of production efficiency and scalability.
Deep understanding of recipe development and standardization.
Deep understanding of costing and margin management.
Highly detail-oriented and naturally questions processes, recipes, labour assumptions, yields, and costing data to ensure information is accurate and meaningful.
Comfortable rolling up their sleeves, spending time on the production floor, working alongside culinary teams, and translating operational realities into sustainable systems and processes.

Responsibilities

Review, validate, and standardize approximately 350 recipes and production items.
Ensure recipes accurately reflect production methods, yields, ingredient usage, labour requirements, and quality standards.
Document receiving, preparation, cooking, cooling, packaging, and finishing processes.
Develop and maintain standardized recipe books and production documentation.
Validate that recipes can be consistently executed in a high-volume production environment.
Spend significant time on the production floor observing and understanding kitchen workflows.
Evaluate production sequencing, labour allocation, and process efficiency.
Identify bottlenecks, inconsistencies, and opportunities for improvement.
Ensure production processes align with quality, food safety, labour, and operational objectives.
Partner with culinary and production teams to implement best practices.
Lead the migration and validation of recipe and production information from existing systems into Guac.
Ensure all recipe, costing, labour, and nutrition information is accurate and maintained.
Support implementation of production standards and reporting tools within Guac.
Maximize utilization of recipe management, nutrition, costing, labour, and production functionality.
Validate recipe costing, yields, and ingredient specifications.
Ensure nutrition information and product labels are accurate and compliant.
Support nutritional analysis and coordination with external laboratory services as required.
Develop processes that maintain data accuracy and regulatory compliance.
Assess labour standards and production requirements.
Evaluate labour utilization and productivity opportunities.
Ensure recipes and production standards reflect realistic labour requirements.
Support continuous improvement initiatives focused on efficiency, consistency, and scalability.
Develop and manage project timelines, priorities, and milestones.
Coordinate stakeholders across multiple departments.
Provide regular updates and recommendations to leadership.
Drive accountability and ensure project objectives are achieved.