Executive Chef

About Orient Express Artisan of Travel since 1883 Orient Express is a legendary brand, steeped in history and loved by past, present and future generations.
Representing the pinnacle of ultra-luxury hospitality within Accor Group, this brand is currently going through exciting phases of rebirth and expansion.
Orient Express embodies the refined nomadic spirit of travel, inviting each traveller to a place where the journey is the destination.
Bringing awe-inspiring travel experiences to a new generation of adventurers, its exceptional portfolio includes The Orient Express, with its original carriages reimagined as the new embassy of French luxury; Orient Express La Dolce Vita, a train embodying the 'Made in Italy' way; Orient Express Silenseas – the world's largest sailing ship; and hotels coming to Rome and Venice.
Progressively shaping the future of luxury hospitality, Orient Express is focusing on employee journey and growth.
About Arsenale Arsenale is a multi-brand Group capable of providing a comprehensive service to the largest and most renowned luxury global market operators who wish to expand in Italy.
Founded and supported by internationally renowned entrepreneurs and investors, Arsenale aims at creating the leading luxury hospitality group in Italy.
To pursue this ambition, the Group launched an impressive investments plan to boost tourism and made-in-Italy through the re-development and enhancement of iconic hotels and hospitality solutions in the most beautiful locations of the country.
About Orient Express La Minerva, Rome Considered as the beloved capital of the Orient Express legend, Rome will be home to the first Orient Express hotel, Minerva, in 2024.
Orient Express, in partnership with the Italian luxury hotel group Arsenale S.p.A, has entrusted the interior architecture and artistic direction of the hotel Hugo Toro.
The former Palazzo Fonseca is a sumptuous 17th-century palace with a huge, majestic façade.
A place of memory still adorned with its Roman columns, sculptures by Rinaldi Rinaldo, a disciple of Casanova, and the fascinating goddess Minerva.
At the end of 2024, a new décor and interior inspired by the Roman domus and the riches of the "Eternal City" will be revealed with a new touch of contemporary elegance.
Job Description: Position Overview: the Executive Chef will contribute to the performance of Kitchen area by facilitating the hiring and retention of exceptional talents and driving employees' engagement, learning, development and performances of our Orient Express hotel "La Minerva" in Rome.
The Executive Chef will have the desire and skill to achieve operational excellence through several metrics and maintaining constantly all the company luxury standards.
The ideal candidate possesses a strong experience as Executive Chef within the luxury hotels.
Key Responsibilities: Culinary Overseeing and supervising all culinary and stewarding areas of the hotel, ensuring top quality and operational standards are met and guest centricity and satisfaction are maintained across the resort, Synergically interacting with Food&Beverage and Sales&Marketing to ensure all guests receive utmost levels of service, Being constantly entrepreneurial and thinking beyond the boundaries to elevate experiences and exceed guest expectations and satisfaction, Working with creativity, leading by example and showcasing a sincere passion for excellence in culinary operations, Ensuring the culinary team is well trained, efficient and keen on growth and development, Devoting time to the guests and being committed to service excellence and building loyalty also with the employees, Maintaining a high level of communication and feedback within the departments, Ensuring that the reports and the statistics are prepared and distributed as required, Communicating new or amended procedures to kitchen employees in timely manner, ensuring they have been understood.
Working closely with Procurement, F&B and Engineering to ensure all operations and standards are well maintained, Assuring food safety and cleanliness practices are fully compliant including HACCP and the local regulations, Ensuring guests' expectations are met and designing the menus in line with expectations, seasonality, MICE and other events and occasions, Keeping a strong focus and sensitizing on sustainability.
Planning & Organizing: Coordinating purchasing for the Kitchen and stewarding departments with the finance team as per the hotel procedures, Conducting interviews for candidates and updating the job descriptions in conjunction with People&Culture team, Reporting and daily monitoring the Food Cost to ensure monthly targets are achieved without undermining the agreed product quality, Adhering to and monitoring departmental operating expenses as per departmental budget and forecast, Reviewing and monitoring departmental work schedules, overseeing that departmental payroll is in line with budgets, Assisting the Food & Beverage Director with the preparation and conversion on departments promotions calendar, Co-ordinating and changing programs and promotions according to seasonality synergically with Food & Beverage and Events team, In conjunction with the Food & Beverage Director, coordinating with Sales and Marketing teams so that all Food & Beverage Marketing collateral is prepared in advance, Ensuring that staff scheduling is done effectively and in line with business demands and posted a minimum of 7 days in advance, Guaranteeing all menus are accurately costed, have standard recipes and presentation photos, All new menu items to include service staff education and tasting, Full compliance with local municipality HACCP standards and certification, In conjunction with the Food&Beverage Director, seeking new potential revenue streams including outside catering opportunities.
Operations: Training and developing the kitchen and stewarding team in the departmental operating standards, Maintaining a consistent focus on improving the overall flow of the kitchen operations, seeking ways to maximize and improve the operation through productivity management and energy savings programs, Leading and support employees in the achievement of financial, operational and service delivery targets via effective organizational policy and procedural development and appropriate employee training activities, Fostering a winning, solution-oriented work environment, motivating and engaging employees to continuously deliver the best possible service and to provide feedback and suggestions, Leading daily departmental briefings and monthly meetings, Training and monitoring the full and constant compliance with Fire, Hygiene, Health and Safety procedures, Driving and maximizing the performance of the kitchen and stewarding team members, including completion of performance appraisals, coaching, counselling and performance management in conjunction with People&Culture, Assuring the team-work within the kitchen with a sales focused attitude and team are aware of sales opportunities within the hotel which will assist with the maximization of revenue, Ensuring all team members are aware of all F&B revenue targets as well as food cost targets and are kept informed of performance results, Guaranteeing a presence in the restaurants and interacting with guests during service and ensure this practice by the Sous Chef in your absence, Having full knowledge of all products and services provided by the property and in the local area, Actively participating in guests' events when requested, Ensuring daily shift handovers are conducted in a professional and constructive manner and regularly spot checking duty shift checklists to ensure tasks are fully completed, Being committed to the company culture and being a role model for delighting our guests, Ensuring at all times that workstations, fridges, freezers and preparation areas are accurately clean, well organized, equipped and properly maintained, Monitoring kitchen equipment and ensuring the team timely reports any defects to engineering team, Reviewing the employees' schedule and annual leave plan to ensure the correct allocation of resources in order to improve guest centricity levels as well as employee productivity and satisfaction, Overseeing the implementation of a training plan for the department, Monitoring and keeping updated training records and schedules to ensure planning and completion is carried out as per hotel standard, Keeping up to date and accurate HACCP records and documentation, Implementing checks and controls for each and every food delivery for quality and proper storage, Ensuring all purchases' requests for the kitchen are in line with the Hotel purchasing policy.
Employee Relations and Development Fostering a positive, stimulating and structured work environment which encourages the successful operation of the business, calling upon the necessary processes to deal with disciplinary, grievance and workforce change situations, Working alongside with the People&Culture team to investigate, document and administer corrective actions immediately and effectively to reach the mutual goals of the business and the employees, Supporting new employees' recruiting processes in conjunction with the People&Culture team, Striving to increase employee engagement by promoting a positive work environment where each employee is informed and proactive about the overall business goals, Developing kitchen members to give them constant feedback and development, Sensitizing the staff to exercise sound judgment and integrity at all times, ensuring confidentiality of protected information.
Prerequisites - Prior experience as Executive Chef with focus on food cost, menu planning and team building in a luxury and international hospitality company, - Leading by example about guest centricity, luxury standards, mise en place, HACCP and Health&Safety procedures, - Fluency in verbal and written English and Italian, - Microsoft office programs (Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Outlook)'s confidence, - Complaints management.
Role: Executive Chef Job Type: Permanent , Full Time Location: Rome, Apply for this job now.