We are not actively seeking this position right now but love talking to passionate people!
Email [email protected] if interested in learning more.

About Zingerman’s Cornman Farms

Zingerman’s Cornman Farms is a multi-award winning and nationally renowned wedding venue and culinary destination. Cornman Farms hosts effortlessly elegant events tailored to each and every guest. Our unparalleled service, bespoke experiences, and meticulous attention to the smallest details create unforgettable moments for life’s most important occasions. We make the farm feel like home—a place that adds foundation to memories and provides a cornerstone to come back to.

We aren’t currently hiring a chef de cuisine, but we love meeting people who love food like we do!

If your culinary desire is to…
take your prior experience as a high-end private chef to the next level
build upon or create your own culinary story
augment our niche’ farm-to-table culinary experience
personally prep, prepare and plate dishes for a variety of events
develop an exclusive off-site Service de Restauration (catering)
…we would love to talk with you and consider you for this once-in-a-lifetime position.

Overview

This position manages the kitchen operations of Cornman Farms on an event based schedule, including nights, weekends, and holidays.
This position will focus on the culinary program including managing & teaching staff working in a culinary role.
This position oversees: Food Preparation, Staff Management, Vendor relations, Systems Development, Annual planning, budgeting, billing/costing, inventory, Safety/Sanitation

SUMMARY
Full time, Salaried – Days, Nights, Weekends, flexible hours required.
$52,000 annual salary; this position reports to the Managing Partner(s)

Essential Functions

Provide Zingerman’s Cornman Farms ‘look and feel’ through culinary experiences
Oversee all kitchen production
Create, maintain and improve task card systems and standard operating procedures (SOPs) for kitchen related work
Oversee the purchase of food supplies, including researching vendors and ingredients and building relationships
Develop recipe archives for our online presence and tell our culinary story through blog posts
Work with marketing team to develop food and beverage related content for marketing and press purposes
Manage and maintain costing, pricing and all things finance for the kitchen
Drive revenue (package upgrades, special menus, retail products, guest tastings, etc)
Plan and forecast department costs, set costs of goods and work to consistently meet or exceed financial goals
Participate in the annual planning process (ZAP)
Communicate and provide cost of goods information
Prepare meals for 4-100 people for private events
Lead, manage and train non-culinary staff to work in the kitchen
Develop and oversee culinary education program
Create elegantly plated dishes while providing exquisite service
Provide menu consultations and tastings with guests
Maintain high food quality through tasting and scoring
Create seasonal recipes and menus for our private dining clients
Collaborate with beverage manager to create seasonal cocktail menus
Create, implement and lead private/public culinary classes/workshops
Plan and launch an exclusive off-site catering operation
Manage the Chef’s garden
Responds quickly to requests from guests, co-workers, supervisors and managers while being accurate, polite and enthusiastic
Create systems and documentation to collaborate with all of our continuous improvement work
Integrate and participate in the local community as a representative of Cornman Farms and Zingerman’s
Everyone at Cornman Farms is a Process Engineer in addition to their primary role! Process engineering involves translating the needs of the guest into tasks and then the tasks into SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures), then executing the SOPs focusing on the value added steps the guest needs and wants to reduce the 8 forms of waste. Each use of a task and SOP focuses on continuous improvement to make these steps better for the guests, employees and the business.

Success Patterns:
Experience as a private chef preferred
Formal culinary training, specifically French classically trained, preferred
Strong math skills required; experience in spreadsheets preferred
Experience working in catering preferred
Experience working with finance, operations, and business fundamentals
Experience writing cohesive menus
Manager level Serv-Safe certified
Has a reputation for excellent relationships with coworkers
Can safely lift and carry 30 pounds and move product up and down stairs
Able to work a variety of shifts, especially nights, weekends and holidays
Able to follow established systems or solving problems on the fly, depending on the situation
Has experience using Google docs and spreadsheets

Desired Characteristics:
Passion for food and horticulture
Passion for events
Has a “soup to nuts” work mentality
Loves to work with people
Self motivated with a drive for greatness
Strong attention to detail and organized
A leader at heart but loves to work alongside a team
A decision maker – in-the-moment, short-term and long-term
Loves to organize
Experienced in scheduling labor based on events
Excited about managing in an open book environment
Excited about experiments, visual management, continuous improvement and systems
Maintains a professional image at all times through actions and appearance
Loves coaching staff to peak performance