Overview

This role is an academic year position.

Shift: TBD

Tufts Dining is a self-operated food service provider managing a comprehensive collegiate dining program on the Tufts University Medford/Somerville and SMFA/Fenway campus, delivering high quality, contemporary and innovative food, and hospitality services to meet the various needs of students, staff, faculty, administrators, and visitors in a fiscally responsible manner. Our team provides a progressive resident dining program as well as innovative retail services, and a distinctive university catering program serving a campus community comprised of 6000 undergraduates, 2100 graduate students, and 2300 staff, faculty and administrators.

Residental Dining Centers and Catering are open 7 days a week. Working weekends and evenings will be expected.

What You'll Do

The Sous Chef is the second highest ranking culinary professional under management assisting in the leadership of a complex, fast paced and high volume, well-equipped kitchen.

• Will demonstrate the ability to master top quality batch cookery techniques, to develop and test recipes for quantity preparation, to authentically prepare a wide variety of international cuisines and to lead an experienced culinary team serving as many as 3000+ meals per day.
• The Sous Chef is responsible for preparation and presentation of a variety of hot and cold foods following standardized department recipes in quantities forecasted and planned in advance using a variety of preparation methods.
• Will determine daily kitchen workload, making daily job assignments and overseeing the work of all kitchen and service personnel.
• Will evaluate finished products to ensure quality and addressing sub-quality production and presentation by analyzing problems and implementing solutions in collaboration with management.
• Will work in all areas of the kitchen as needed but primarily in hot food production with focus on batch cookery.
• Will review inventory regularly and communicate food and equipment needs to management to ensure all products and supplies are ordered and scheduled for delivery on time for the production needs.
• Will research, develop, test, and adjust recipes for all production areas.
• Will adhere to overall kitchen sanitation and food safety practices, keeping all kitchen staff on task and assigning side work and equipment maintenance duties to kitchen personnel.
• Will coordinate and expedite food preparation from the kitchen and action stations ensuring safe food handling and on time production according to established department procedures.
• Will plan and execute production and presentation for assigned meals including designing and executing buffet presentation.
• Will take charge of kitchen operations, ordering and FoodPro duties as assigned.
• Will collaborate with management to fulfill the culinary goals of the unit by facilitating the implementation of management initiatives in the kitchen, exceeding customer expectations.
• Will demonstrate the ability to work under periods of high pressure and service demands.
• Will prepare specialty meals as needed in a timely manner meeting the deadlines for that particular meal.
• Will execute line checks, complete all standard forms, service records and checklists properly.
• Must demonstrate the ability to work under periods of fast pace and high pressure.
  • All employees are responsible for punching in and out in accordance with department policy and standards.
  • The Sous Chef must be given permission from a manager to punch in early or stay past their schedule.
  • All employees will adhere to posted schedule, and all requests for time off will be granted based on business needs.
  • In accordance with the CBA, schedules will be posted 14 days in advance (excludes Catering).
  • Time off requests must follow proper procedure and will be approved/denied in accordance with department needs.
  • No request will be honored for Senior Week, Holidays, Alumni Weekend, Commencement, Orientation, Matriculation, or Special Events during the Academic Year.

What We're Looking For

Basic Requirements:

• Associates Degree in Culinary Arts preferred.
• 5-7 years' experience planning and preparing hot and cold foods for service and coordinating the work of a culinary crew in a restaurant, hotel or institutional operations.
• Expertise or high level of interest in various cuisines and cooking methods, quantity food preparation and batch cookery, and general culinary techniques and skills. Demonstrated mastery of all cooking methods.
• Practical experience leading a kitchen crew in a logical, efficient and fair manner, coaching and training culinary skills and techniques, designing plate and buffet presentations and developing recipes and menus.
• Comprehensive knowledge and understanding of kitchen sanitation and food safety practices and ability to enforce safe food handling guidelines.
• A team player who is willing to be held accountable for the quality of products produced by others, for meeting tight deadlines, and for contributing to the success of all kitchen and action station production.
• Speaks, reads, understands and writes in English and is hospitality-oriented and customer service sensitive.
• Must read, speak and understand English and have a working knowledge of basic math. Tufts Dining is a hospitality-oriented service provider, all employees are expected to be customer service sensitive.
• ServSafe and Allergen training certified.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience in a university food service, especially in a residential dining center with a top tier program.
• Experience cooking for catered events especially in a university or institutional setting with a top tier program.
• Experience utilizing computers for work and the capability and willingness to learn the Foodpro software system.
• Experience supervising the culinary work of others.

The pay rate for this position is $30.65 / hour.