Culinary Director

Culinary Director — Three-Location Italian Restaurant Group (Essex County, NJ)

$85,000–$95,000 base + up to $16,000 annual bonus ~50 hours/week — and we mean 50 Fluent Spanish required Reports directly to the Owner Stop commuting to the city

If you're a strong line cook, sous chef, or CDC riding the train into Manhattan for $50–60K, read this one carefully.

We're a family-owned Italian restaurant and pizzeria group in Essex County — three locations, eight figures in annual revenue, and a kitchen standard that's a lot closer to a chef-driven restaurant than the words "pizzeria" suggest. We make our own dough and sauce. We care what things taste like. And we're about to build a fresh pasta program from nothing.

We want the person who builds it.

No commute. No 65-hour weeks. Real money, real ownership, and your name on the food.

What This Job Actually Is

Read this part closely, because it's unusual.

You are not the ordering guy. We already have two experienced managers who handle ordering, receiving, inventory counts, and scheduling across our locations. That system works. We're not breaking it.

You own the craft. Specs, recipes, technique, pars, portions, yields, prep standards, and training. You decide what the food is and how it gets made. Our managers execute the logistics; you set the standard everything gets measured against. You'll have full visibility into invoices and inventory, because you're accountable for food cost — you'll just be moving it through recipe discipline, yield, waste, and portioning rather than purchase orders.

The three of you will work as a unit. If that sounds like a job you'd have to fight for territory in, this isn't your spot. If it sounds like finally being able to focus on cooking instead of paperwork, keep reading.

The Fresh Pasta Program

This is the centerpiece.

We're launching fresh, made-in-house pasta at our newest location and you'll build it end to end: dough formulas, shapes, extrusion and production workflow, yields, portioning, costing, equipment selection, staff training, and menu rollout. You'll have a dedicated pasta cook on the payroll — the program is yours to design and train, not to personally stand at a machine forever.

Real creative ownership. Real budget. Your call on the equipment.

We're targeting launch around month four. The first months are about learning our kitchens and our people before you change anything.

Everything Else You'll Own

• Recipe standards and consistency across all three kitchens — dough, sauce, par-bakes, proteins, sides
• Food cost accountability through yield, waste, portioning, and prep discipline
• Building and training the cook bench so each kitchen runs without anyone hovering
• Cross-training cooks across stations
• Food safety, sanitation, and health department readiness
• Menu development and seasonal specials
• Working with our social media manager to get the good stuff on camera — dough, pasta, prep. You don't need to be an influencer, but you should be comfortable with a phone in the kitchen.

Who We're Looking For

Non-negotiable:

• Fluent Spanish and English. Most of our kitchen team speaks Spanish. This is the one thing we can't flex on.
• Real culinary chops — technique, palate, and the judgment to taste something and know what's wrong with it
• Experience in a high-standard kitchen and comfort with volume. You should understand both why it matters and how to get it out the door on a Friday night.
• Someone who leads people well. Our crew stays because they're treated like professionals.

We care more about ability than resume. If you've been a sous chef or a strong CDC and you've never held a director title, apply. If you've got fine dining technique but limited management experience, apply — we'll train the business side. We'd rather hire raw talent with judgment than a polished resume with no palate.

Nice to have: fresh pasta experience, ServSafe Manager certification (or willing to get it within 60 days), recipe costing experience.

Physical: able to stand for full shifts, lift 50 lbs, work in a hot kitchen. Reliable transportation — you'll move between three locations.

• A real 50-hour week. If we tell you 50, we mean 50. Ask us about it in the interview.

How to Apply

Email [email protected] with your resume and a short note covering:

1. The highest-standard kitchen you've worked in, and the busiest
2. Any experience with fresh pasta — or why you think you could build the program without it
3. One dish you're proud of and why

Finalists do a paid working day in our kitchens. We want to see you work, not just talk about cooking.

We are an equal opportunity employer.