Executive Chef – Key Job Responsibilities
1. Culinary & Kitchen Operations
- Lead and oversee all culinary operations across the hotel, including restaurants, banquets, room service, bar/café, and special events.
- Ensure consistent food quality, presentation, taste, portion control, and adherence to established recipes and standards.
- Develop and maintain SOPs for food preparation, production, storage, service, and kitchen operations.
- Ensure smooth coordination between the kitchen, F&B service, stewarding, purchase, stores, and other operational departments.
- Drive innovation in culinary offerings while maintaining the hotel's brand positioning and guest expectations.
2. Menu Planning & Engineering
- Develop and periodically review menus based on guest preferences, market trends, seasonality, and business requirements.
- Conduct menu engineering to maximise profitability while maintaining quality.
- Introduce new dishes, concepts, promotions, buffets, themed events, and culinary experiences.
- Ensure appropriate menu pricing in coordination with F&B and Finance teams.
3. Food Cost & Profitability
- Take ownership of food cost and kitchen profitability.
- Ensure food cost remains within the approved budget and established benchmarks.
- Monitor wastage, pilferage, overproduction, portion control, and yield.
- Analyse food cost reports and take corrective action wherever required.
- Work closely with Purchase and Stores to ensure effective procurement and inventory management.
4. Revenue & Business Contribution
- Actively contribute towards achieving the hotel's F&B revenue targets.
- Develop culinary promotions and special experiences to generate incremental revenue.
- Support banquets, weddings, corporate events, festivals, and other revenue-generating activities.
- Work closely with Sales & F&B teams to develop customised menus and commercial offerings.
5. Guest Experience & Quality
- Drive improvement in guest satisfaction through food quality, consistency, presentation, and service coordination.
- Monitor guest feedback, online reviews, complaints, and food-related GSI scores.
- Ensure prompt resolution of food-quality-related guest complaints.
- Maintain high standards of culinary presentation and overall dining experience.
6. Hygiene, Food Safety & Compliance
- Ensure strict compliance with FSSAI requirements, HACCP principles, hotel hygiene standards, and food safety procedures.
- Conduct regular kitchen inspections and hygiene audits.
- Ensure proper storage temperatures, labelling, FIFO/FEFO, cleaning schedules, pest control, and personal hygiene standards.
- Ensure all kitchen equipment is properly maintained and operated safely.
7. Team Leadership & People Development
- Lead, motivate, and develop the entire culinary team.
- Plan manpower requirements in line with business volumes and operational needs.
- Conduct training, coaching, skill development, and performance reviews for kitchen associates.
- Identify high-potential talent and develop succession plans for key culinary positions.
- Maintain discipline, grooming, attendance, productivity, and professional standards within the kitchen team.
8. Procurement & Inventory
- Work closely with Purchase and Stores to ensure timely availability of quality ingredients.
- Approve specifications and quality standards for food products.
- Monitor inventory levels and minimise unnecessary stock holding.
- Evaluate suppliers based on quality, consistency, pricing, and delivery standards.
- Ensure proper receiving, storage, issuing, and utilisation of food materials.
9. Budgeting & Financial Management
- Prepare and manage the annual culinary budget in coordination with F&B and Finance.
- Control manpower, food, consumable, and operational costs.
- Monitor monthly financial performance against budget.
- Identify opportunities for cost optimisation without compromising guest experience or quality.
10. Kitchen Infrastructure & Equipment
- Ensure proper utilisation and maintenance of kitchen equipment.
- Identify requirements for new equipment, replacement, upgrades, and kitchen improvements.
- Coordinate with Engineering for preventive maintenance and timely resolution of equipment breakdowns.
- Ensure kitchens remain operationally efficient and appropriately equipped.
11. Coordination & Leadership
- Participate in daily operational meetings and management reviews.
- Coordinate closely with the General Manager, F&B Manager, Purchase, Finance, HR, Sales, and Engineering teams.
- Provide regular updates on culinary performance, food cost, manpower, guest feedback, and operational challenges.
- Take ownership of corrective actions and ensure timely closure of identified gaps.
Overall responsibility: The Executive Chef should be accountable for culinary excellence + guest satisfaction + food cost + F&B profitability + team capability + hygiene and food safety, rather than being responsible only for kitchen production.
