Category: CHEF

         EXECUTIVE CHEF         Professional Summary    I have honed my professional craft by working in New York City (most recently Gastro Arte and Oxford Kitchen Fort Greene Brooklyn), Hoboken, Oaxaca Mexico, as well as presiding over two top rated, highly coveted award winning well known extremely high volume Knowles family restaurants and hotel in New Jersey in which my skills were perfected and completed in all aspects of running award winning restaurants. With this comes a proven track record and an excellent reputation .After my time at the Highlawn, I was given the reigns of their sister restaurant The Manor as the Chef D' Cuisine because of my work ethic, dedication to my staff and my craft. With the opportunity to run my own establishment, I was brought on to open gastro pubs such as Sixty Park next door to the PAC Center and the Tap House Grill. I opened these establishments as upscale casual and rustic comfort food with banquet and catering on site to excellent reviews and a steady following. I am also heavily involved as a lead chef consultant for creating successful menus and kitchen designs to open such restaurants as Halcyon and Montclair Station in Montclair NJ and Bistro Seven Three in Bernardsville. I stand by my food with simple and colorful plate designs with bold flavors and my ability to train and inspire my staff with my progressive and lead by example philosophy. With me you will get a loyal hardworking chef with a love of our industry. I take my craft seriously bringing no ego just passion, pride and ambition number. I am available to interview at your earliest convenience if you believe I meet your standards.      Skills          Beautiful presentation of food  Strong attention to safe food handling procedures  Effective planner              Work History      Executive Chef  ,   01/2013   to   Current     Company Name   –   City  ,   State      Designed and purchased entire kitchen Created all menus and menu design, brunch included Hired all staff/created employee handbooks and set pars Personally trained staff of 15 to open kitchen within 10 days of hiring Implemented my complete opening manual for restaurant Brought on all vendors( mostly local) Introduced sanitation guidelines/ day dots/ FIFO/ Auto Chlor systems Complete from scratch kitchen including duck egg pastas and ramen 25% food cost to start Received very well by community and reviews have been excellent.  Maintained a skilled kitchen staff by properly coaching, counseling and disciplining employees.  Verified proper portion sizes and consistently attained high food quality standards.  Positively engaged with customers, offering menu information, providing suggestions and showing genuine appreciation for their business.  Planned lunch, dinner and bar menus, as well as special menus for in-house special events and catering.  Prepared operational reports and analyses and made appropriate recommendations about progress and negative trends.  Created and managed budgets for operations and capital equipment.  Enhanced and maintained the central standardized recipe and ingredient repository, including nutritional and cost information.  Inspected kitchens to observe food preparation quality and service, food appearance and cleanliness of production and service areas.  Maintained smooth and timely operations in preparation and delivery of meals and kitchen sanitation.  Achieved and exceeded performance, budget and team goals.  Regularly interacted with guests to obtain feedback on product quality and service levels.  Led shifts while personally preparing food items and executing requests based on required specifications.  Ensured all staff understood expectations and parameters of kitchen goals and daily kitchen work.         chef de cuisine  ,   01/2012   to   01/2013     Company Name   –   City  ,   State      HEAD CHEF 65k Ran all daily operations for the BOH Retrained staff/made kitchen efficient/ complete from scratch( sauces stocks, pastas, desserts) Raised check averages/  control of food cost Staffing/ ordering and purchasing Developed all menus including desserts for the holiday season as well as our many parties ranging from 40- 100 people per event Average covers 180- 250 nightly/ brunch Sat-Sun 100-250 Taphouse Grille, Wayne, NJ EXECUTIVE CHEF 62 k Redesigned failing and outdated menu/ complete from scratch kitchen Retrained staff/made kitchen efficient/ Raised check averages/ regained control of food cost Staffing ,training, scheduling of staff ordering and purchasing Incorporated our 25 craft beer list into our food Implemented proper food handling and storage to save money Average covers 180-250 nightly Increased profits 16% to an annual gross of $800,000.         chef de cuuisine  ,   01/2010   to   01/2012     Company Name   –   City  ,   State      CHEF D'CUISINE 55k Succeeded with the challenge of taking control and revamping the menu and retraining my cooks to a high level of quality in one year.  Profits of 2-3million solely a la carte not including banquets and weddings 2 stars NY Times/ 3 stars Star Ledger Responsible for 12-15 kitchen employees including banquet personnel and wait staff (training, quality control, motivation, problem solving).  Ordering foods and supplies for entire restaurant which includes bar, banquet, and a la carte kitchen.  Scheduling, menu development and food costs and waste control maintained accurately using excel spreadsheets.  Working closely with purveyors to ensure best possible prices to keep an accurate food cost.  Developed better techniques and recipes for the Banquet department to produce superior food and improve service times.  Responsible for weekly chef tasting menus, holiday menus and numerous private a la carte functions being held in addition to nightly service.  Believes in training FOH in all aspects of the kitchen (menu, prices, procedures) to better suit the expectations of customers.  Received high marks from health inspectors for cleanliness, proper labeling, storage of food items and temperature control.         BANQUET CHEF/SPECIAL EVENTS LEADER  ,   01/2006   to   01/2008     Company Name   –   City  ,   State      Learned the trade of saucier.  Worked many events with Chef's from around the country for the James Beard Awards plating for over 1,000 guests per event.  Trained in high volume production of foods, soups and stocks and proper cooling, storing and handling of said products.         EXECUTIVE CHEF  ,         Company Name   –   City  ,   State      Annual profits 800,000-1million Created menu lunch/dinner/brunch/craft beer list Hired all employees/trained/scheduling Handled all purchasing and ordering for restaurant Received high marks from health inspectors for cleanliness, proper labeling, storage of food items and temperature control.  All foods and staff were ready and trained in 5 days before opening Upscale casual concept opened to great reviews.         executive sous chef  ,         Company Name   –   City  ,   State      EXECUTIVE SOUS CHEF/MASTER SAUCIER 48k Responsible for maintaining a 24-25% food cost by teaching how to keep inventory properly and manage waste with better prep procedures.  Annual gross 5-6 million Training staff of 10-15, ordering, scheduling including banquet department.  All sauces, stocks, soups were prepared by myself daily.  Excellent skills cleaning and portioning all meats and fish Mastered all stations on the hot line/salads Maintained the highest quality of food while inviting the pressure of a high volume kitchen (250- 300 guests per night.) Instilled and managed closely all daily prep lists and solely responsible for holiday prep and menus.  400-750 guests for a la carte holidays) EXCELLENT NY TIMES/ 4 STARS STAR LEDGER Proudly presided over James Beard Award Dinner for Executive Chef Mitchell Althoz(also of highly recognized Jocelyn in Maplewood NJ).         Education      Graduate  :         Passaic Valley High School   -   City  ,   State           Graduate  :         Institute Culinary of Education   -   City  ,   State           Serve Safe Certified
NYFC/ DOH  Certified  :               Skills    concept, DOH, hiring, inventory, Ledger, excel spreadsheets, money, personnel, problem solving, purchasing, quality, quality control, Sat, Scheduling, Staffing, Sun, teaching, employee handbooks