Senior Sous Chef – Continental Cuisine

Business Unit Purpose:

The Senior Sous Chef's primary responsibility is to aid the Executive Sous Chef in overseeing all facets of food production to ensure that food quality always meets customer expectations. This involves ensuring that food production is efficiently managed while also complying with all food safety regulations.

Job Purpose:

The responsibility of the job role will be to lead the daily kitchen operations, assigning duties and delegating tasks to Sous chefs, inspecting their work, and providing daily feedback to the Executive Sous Chef. This job role will supervise all locations and conduct spot checks, ensuring that kitchen staff carry out their duties efficiently and provide a high standard that complies with hygiene, quality, and safety standards. The role responsibility also includes investigation for complaints, if any, and take corrective actions as appropriate.

Key Result Areas:

• Ensure timely completion of duties by assigned production staff to maintain workflow continuity and prevent operational delays. Collaborate with the Executive Sous Chef to ensure compliance with all kitchen policies, procedures, rules, and regulations, sharing responsibility and acting as deputy in their absence.
• Lead culinary innovation in sub-continental cuisine, while also exploring diverse cuisines, ensuring excellence in taste, presentation, and consistency. Mentor junior staff to maintain high standards and foster continuous development
• Supervise and guide staff in their section to ensure adherence to established specifications for portion size, quantity, and quality. Promptly report and address any deviations, proposing solutions as needed. Proactively manage daily operational activities, anticipating and resolving challenges to maintain smooth workflow. Keep Executive Sous Chefs informed about daily production, encountered problems, and implemented corrective actions
• Assess and ensure the meals are correctly prepared according to the routing and meal specification and cooked in correct batching as per work orders, dish presentation, and items prepared per airline and commercial customer specifications.
• Manages production, processes and schedules in assigned areas in accordance with policies, regulations, specifications, recipes and requirements, applying effective controls.
• Effectively manage materials, equipment, and labor to ensure timely delivery of high-quality products, adhering strictly to established procedures. Proactively address issues related to products, equipment, labor, and material management, coaching the team to adopt a proactive problem-solving approach.
• Conduct daily sensory checks on food, including tastings, cascades, briefings, and reports as necessary, ensuring organization and accountability.
• Enforce strict adherence to procedures to ensure recipe compliance while actively fostering innovative ideas for cost reduction without compromising quality.
• Effectively address customer expectations and issues and suggest long-term solutions to any anomalies or improvement ideas reported or observed.
• Supervise production planning, ensuring separate breakdowns for EK and other airlines to optimize the efficiency and quality of production and assembly operations
• Understand the lean manufacturing standards established by Food Point and support the shift efforts to deploy and maintain the best practices that will reduce or eliminate the 7 areas of waste in operations.

Education Qualification:

• Hotel Management or Culinary degree as well as additional education or certification in culinary or experience in culinary or food manufacturing background
• Familiarity with food safety regulations (e.g., FDA, HACCP, GMP, ISO, BRC) and quality assurance practices.
• Possession of PIC3 certification and completion of other food-related courses are mandatory.

Must have:

• Minimum of 6 years of experience in a Sub-Continental focused kitchen at Sous Chef level or above.
• Knowledge of the Subcontinental cruises (India- North & South, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka)
• Demonstrating knowledge and proficiency in conveying the historical origins and contextual information surrounding all meals.
• Knowledge and experience of food products and processes in a facility with extensive in-house production.
• Experience working in food manufacturing facilities that implement low-care and high-care segregation protocols.
• Excellent knowledge and understanding of all aspects of cooking in various cuisines.
• Experience in creating recipes, menu development and costing.
• Demonstrated leadership skills to manage a large multinational workforce efficiently.
• Hotel Catering equivalent in a 5-star facility with excellent knowledge in all aspects of cooking and different cuisines.
• Previous experience in high volume a la carte and banqueting in a large kitchen team is preferential.