Senior Director Culinary

The Sr. Director, Culinary will play an important role in providing guests with a dining experience that delivers the Paradies Lagardère Brand promise through developing, testing, and commercializing new menu food and beverage offerings and the optimization of existing products & enhancement to the business model through process innovation.  Reporting to the Vice President of Dining Operations, this position will work collaboratively with cross-functional teams and lead the integrated strategic direction and innovation of menu development and product improvement to increase overall guest satisfaction while understanding the core brand attributes guests expect from Paradies Lagardère. The Sr. Director, Culinary must be an effective leader and innovator (“difference maker”) within the Paradies Lagardère organization who will partner with key stakeholders within the organization – one who will integrate efforts and lead culinary teams who strive for performance excellence.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Serve as the company's primary culinary subject matter expert and communicates and educate the latest trends for business and industry.
• Establish short and long-term culinary and menu strategies that build upon and support Paradies Lagardère’s brand promise and align closely with brand positioning, consumer insights, and operational and financial business needs.

• Establish KPIs for entire culinary enterprise including waste and labor model.
• Establish and enforce strict quality assurance standards to maintain exceptional food safety, hygiene, and service standards.
• Oversee, at a strategic level, the development, testing, and deployment of a continuous pipeline of new menu items, keeping an eye on the most relevant issues in nutrition, wellness, taste, brand strategies, and business objectives.

• Partners with Marketing and Operations to determine how new menu items are best promoted nationally to ensure consistent execution in Paradies Lagardère’s restaurants.

• Effectively communicate culinary innovation strategy across the organization, building relationships and relaying department and organizational opportunities and objectives.
• Build, retain, and motivate a team to support bench strength and future growth and development of the culinary division with the ability to create a highly effective team- based work environment.
• Builds effective relationships with senior management in operations, finance, brand management, training, purchasing, quality assurance, supply management, and the vendor community to ensure open, honest communication, mutual respect, and strong teamwork.

• Build effective relationships with franchisees through strong communication and appropriate participation.
• Facilitation of recipe development process and costing through accurately estimating and managing food cost, waste, labor and inventory, and SKU management.
• Engaging in Cost Reduction and Item consolidation projects.
• Support the business development process by working closely with SR. Director’s and Director of Business Development as assigned.

• Conducting event walks and interacting with team members, guests, partners, and VIPs.
• Ensure compliance with local, state, and federal regulations related to food and beverage operations.
• Ensures the recipe management software is up-to date and tested for accuracy.
• Maintain and enforce strict food safety and sanitation standards in line with industry regulations.
• Oversee food sourcing, procurement, and vendor relationships to ensure  the highest quality ingredients are used.
• Integral member of the dining senior team that will develop a comprehensive, longterm dining master  plan.

• Responsible for all capital requirements for our kitchens, specifically as it pertains to equipment, costs; space, layout and logistics, vendor selection.
• Experience designing, developing and maintaining standardized recipes for various applications (Full Service, Quick Service, Bars and Coffee Concepts). Use deep knowledge of current  food trends to develop and maintain seasonal, on-brand food and beverage menu.
• Experience managing, developing  and training  direct reports  is required.
• Stay current on food technology  ensure  efficient controls  for inventory, waste, allergens, and recipe management.
• Develop strong relationships with vendor to effectively manage  the supply chain and optimize food spend and manage  waste.
• Proven track record leading large transformational projects.
• Ability to identify, design and implement operating system support resources and performance analytics to drive the improved  performance of the business.
• Excellent organizational skills, detail-oriented with