Chef de Cuisine

Place of Work: Shy Bird

Shy Bird is a rotisserie, cafe, and bar with locations in Kendall Square & South Boston.. Our food is thoughtful, with a reverence for chicken, celebrating both vice and virtue. Our kitchen culture is defined by our ‘All In, All Day’ mentality, shared by all team members. This means line cooks prep, prep cooks dishwash and everything in between.  

Scope & General Purpose: The Chef de Cuisine of Shy Bird executes the day-to-day operations of their location and lead the culinary team. The primary focuses of this role are team leadership, culinary systems for standardization and quality control, care of the restaurant and kitchen space. 

In order to thrive in this role you must:

• Recognize that your success is directly correlated with your ability to facilitate success and growth for others.
• Lead and manage with empathy, humility, positivity, and tenacity. 
• Cultivate meaningful, professional relationships built on these principals and the tenets of leadership included below.
• Embrace the ‘all in, all day’ philosophy of Shy Bird wherein everyone contributes to the whole. 
• Seek to make Shy Bird as busy as possible from your role in leadership. 
• Ask questions, seek help, and use all the resources available to you.

Schedule: Full Time, varying schedule. As dictated by the needs of the restaurant while recognizing that balance between time in the restaurant and away is critical to being successful.

Management Structure: Reports to Culinary Director, Trevor Kunk

Direct Reports: Hourly Kitchen Team

Professional Resources: Works closely with Culinary Operations Team,  Service Management Team

Responsibilities

People:

• Manage and lead prep cooks, line cooks, and dish team across all service periods. 
• Motivate those around you, leading by example and modeling behaviors for the team.
• Efficiently and effectively schedule the team ensuring a high level of execution and targeted labor costs.
• Interview, hire, and train your team effectively using all the tools available to you.
• Coach your team constantly offering praise and corrective feedback.
• Commit to teaching  line and prep cooks knife skills, cooking techniques, food safety and other necessary skills.
• Teach others to properly use and maintain all kitchen equipment and spaces.
• Advocate for food and beverage education for kitchen and service team. 
• Use progressive discipline as necessary to correct behaviors.

Kitchen & Restaurant Operations:

• Understand line operations and duties of all stations, including prep and dishwashing.
• Ensure proper dish execution across all menus using systems for standardization and consistency:
  • Daily Prep Lists, Line Checklists, Recipes, Cooking Methods, and Build Sheets.
• Order effectively and efficiently to achieve food costs goals using existing systems.
  • Order guides, daily inventory management, daily cost tracking.
• Manage kitchen sanitation, instruct and teach others to keep kitchen to health code.
• Display commitment to volume oriented service with precise execution.
• Open the kitchen with adequate frequency to maintain quality & standards.
• Expedite or be present on the line at peak periods of service or as needed to support the restaurant.
• Recognize the importance of takeout & delivery at Shy Bird and contribute to a culture of hospitality and regulars outside our walls.
• Communicate important information to the full Shy Bird management team regarding the menu and overall kitchen operations.
• Participate in menu development and specials as directed by the Culinary Operations Team.
• Work line shifts as needed though not regularly scheduled.

Financials:

• Understand food cost and how it affects the financial viability of the restaurant.
• Control ordering, inventory, portion, waste, and menu costing to maintain target food cost.
• Track purchasing daily based on existing systems.
• Be conscious of labor cost and manage hours efficiently based on business levels.
• Communicate effectively and urgently when issues arise with either food or labor costs.
• Ask questions, seek help, and use all the resources available to you.