Executive Chef

Position Summary:

Responsible for the consistent preparation of innovative and highest quality creative cuisine, presentation and flavor for the dining rooms, banquets and other food facilities, resulting in outstanding guest satisfaction. Additionally, responsible for the smooth running of the kitchen and management profit, stock areas, wastage control, hygiene practices and training within the kitchen.

Note: Native American preference will be given.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities:

• Trains, develops and motivates supervisors and culinary staff to meet and exceed established food preparation standards on a consistent basis.
• Teaches preparation according to well-defined recipes, follows up, and discusses ways of constantly improving the cuisine at the property.
• Expedite all dishes from the kitchen line to ensure quality and appearance.
• Display exceptional leadership by providing a positive work environment, counselling employees as appropriate and demonstrating a dedicated and professional approach to management. Ensures disciplinary procedures, training, and documentation are completed according to Casino operational standards and management policy.
• Attend the daily pre-shift meetings
• Should be able to provide direction for all day-to-day operations in the kitchen.
• Understand employee positions well enough to perform duties in employees' absence or determine appropriate replacement to fill gaps.
• Utilizes interpersonal and communication skills to lead, influence, and kitchen staff.
• Advocate sound financial/business decision-making, demonstrates honesty, integrity and leads by example.
• Provides and supports service behaviors that are beyond for customer satisfaction and retention.
• Improves service by communicating and assisting individuals to understand guest needs, training, providing guidance, feedback, and individual coaching when needed.
• Delegates as appropriate to develop supervisors and subordinates to accept responsibility and meet clearly defined goals and objectives.
• Reviews and ensures staffing levels meet guest service levels, operational needs and financial objectives are met.
• Actively involved in menu development and maintaining updated and accurate costing of all dishes prepared and sold in the Food and Beverage operations in order to obtain food cost objectives.
• Determines how food should be presented, and create decorative food displays.
• Recognizes superior quality products, presentations and flavor.
• Ensures compliance with food handling, proper hygiene, and sanitation for all staff.
• Ensures all equipment in the kitchen is properly maintained and in working order in accordance with local Health department and Casino standards.
• Ensure all products are prepared in a consistent manner and meet departmental appearance/quality standards.
• Ensures all kitchen employees maintain required food handling and sanitation certifications.
• Ensure proper purchasing, receiving and food storage standards in the kitchen. Maintain quality levels of receiving, storage, production and presentation of food.
• Interacts with guests to obtain feedback on food quality, presentation and service levels.
• Actively responds to and handles guest problems and complaints.
• Reviews social media and guest comment cards for guest satisfaction results and other data to identify areas of improvement.
• Follows and enforces all applicable safety procedures specified for kitchen and food servers.
• Identifies the developmental needs of kitchen staffs and provide coaching, mentoring, and helping them to improve their knowledge or skills.
• Trains kitchen associates on the fundamentals of good cooking and excellent plate presentations. Also, interview and hire new applicants for kitchen.
• Frequently review finished products for quality and presentation before the orders are send to guest.
• Able to perform additional duties as requested by the F&B director.
• This list of duties and responsibilities is illustrative only of the tasks performed by this position and is not all-inclusive.

Experience and Education:

• High School diploma or equivalent.
• At least two years related experience and or/ a combination of experience and a Bachelors in Culinary Arts.
• Knowledge of dining and food maintenance operations and customer service.
• Ability to demonstrate outstanding guest service utilizing the Tesuque Proud Standards at all times.

Minimum Qualifications:

• At least 2 years of Executive Chef experience. 
• Ability to exhibit a fair and constant management style that includes high integrity, positive attitude, self-motivated, confident, respectful, flexible, and non-bias approach to all situations. 
• Must be dependable, performance driven, great communitive skills, and have a teamwork driven attitude.
• Knowledge of food handling procedures and menu development.
• Must be a self-starter with excellent follow through.
• Must be able to work flexible hours including holidays, nights and weekends.
• Must be 21 years of age or older.
• Must have or obtain Serve Safe or HIS Food handlers’ certification.
• Must obtain and maintain an alcohol server’s permit form state of New Mexico Alcohol Beverage Control and POTC licensing. 
• Must be able to obtain and maintain a Pueblo of Tesuque Gaming license.

Supervisory Responsibilities: 

The Executive Chef is responsible for overseeing, Sous Chefs, Kitchen Managers, Line Cooks, Prep Cooks and Dishwashers in the Food & Beverage department. Ensuring alignment with departmental and organizational objectives. This supervisor provides guidance and assistance in addressing unusual situations that may arise, particularly those without clear precedents or requiring interpretation of policies and regulations. Ability to know when and how best to say “no” to something that is too much for the departmental team to accomplish in a professional manner, and company standards. 

Following initial training, the Executive Chef is expected to perform duties independently, demonstrating proficiency and autonomy in task execution. Regular spot checks are conducted to evaluate accuracy, adequacy, timeliness, and compliance with relevant rules, regulations, and policies.

Physical Requirements:

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is required to stand and walk for extended periods. The employee occasionally is required to sit, stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl.  The employee will be required to talk for extended periods and must be able to hear and understand. The employee must occasionally lift or move up to fifty (50) pounds.  The work environment includes a variety of setting the following: food, oils, and cooking surfaces. The incumbent occasionally exposed to loud noise, change in temperatures, and second-hand smoke.

Work Environment:

Within the Kitchen, Restaurant, Event Room, Bar, and Lounge, where most of the work is generally performed in a casino setting with exposure to second-hand smoke and a high noise level. Due to the nature and scope of this position, evenings, weekends, holidays, and extended hours and irregular shifts will be required.    

ADA/EEO Compliance: 

The Pueblo of Tesuque Development Corporation (POTDC) and Tesuque Casino is an Equal Opportunity Employer. In Compliance with the American Disabilities Act, the Corporation will provide reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities and encourages both prospective employees and incumbents to discuss potential accommodations with the employer. 

Drug-Free Disclaimer 

You will be required to pass a drug screening examination successfully. The use of any drug or other controlled substance that is illegal under Federal Law is not permitted, including medical cannabis.

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed. They should not be construed as an exhaustive list of all the essential duties, responsibilities and requirements of personnel. Company reserves the right to substitute, amend, change, modify or discontinue any or all portions of this description/job function.

Statement of Understanding:       

I have read and understand what is expected of me in this position and agree to perform these responsibilities and duties to the best of my abilities for the compensation provided.