Lead Culinary Excellence at Splendido

Bring your culinary expertise and leadership skills to Splendido, a premium Life Plan Community in beautiful Oro Valley, Arizona, where exceptional dining, wellness, and hospitality come together. As a Lead Cook, you’ll help bring elevated dining experiences to life while supporting a talented culinary team and preparing high-quality meals for our residents and guests.

In this hands-on leadership role, you’ll help lead the culinary team during your assigned shift while ensuring food is prepared with consistency, creativity, and the highest standards of quality and safety. From elevated plate presentations and scratch-made soups and sauces to a variety of à la carte, banquet, and rotational menus, you’ll have the opportunity to showcase your culinary skills in an environment where dining is an important part of the resident experience.

At Splendido, we believe exceptional dining is about more than what’s on the plate, it’s about creating experiences that support wellness, connection, and enjoyment. If you’re an experienced cook who takes pride in culinary excellence, enjoys leading a team, and is passionate about creating memorable dining experiences, we’d love to have you join the Splendido culinary team.

This is a full-time opportunity, and the role offers a varied schedule based on business needs. Weeknight, weekend, and holiday availability is required.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Assists the Sous Chef or Chef de Cuisine in leading a team of cooks and utility team members during their assigned shift.
• Prepares quality food at designated times according to regional campus recipes, working knowledge of both a la carte, banquet, batch cooking techniques, restaurant and rotational style menus, demonstrating kitchen sanitation practices according to HACCP procedures to ensure a fresh, quality product is served.
• Prepares standard portions and plate presentations with garnishment and monitors food temperatures to ensure food is presented in an elevated fashion.
• Regularly checks menu to ensure all food items are available and/or thawed in advance, notifying the Sous Chef or Chef de Cuisine of any shortages.
• Demonstrates proper use and cleaning of equipment and supplies and performs daily and weekly cleaning assignments. Helps maintain organization of coolers, freezers, storage areas, and storerooms and promptly reports equipment malfunctions or safety hazards to management.
• Minimizes waste and over production, handles leftovers according to procedures and assures that all items are labeled, dated, and properly stored.
• Follows instructions on daily production sheets and helps prepare production lists.
• Assists with receiving deliveries, puts away deliveries when necessary, and assists with the organization of dry storage, walk-ins and freezer using proper rotational practices to avoid spoilage.
• Assists Kitchen Attendant as needed / assigned with dish and ware washing, receiving, transportation of food and equipment, and cleaning duties.
• May be assigned to assist Pastry Chef with basic or fundamental tasks.
• Identifies areas for improvement, proposes possible solutions, and participates in data collection and process changes as part of the Quality Assurance Process Improvement process.

QUALIFICATIONS AND SKILLS

Required:

• Advanced knowledge and understanding of cooking techniques.
• Ability to communicate with supervisors, co-workers, residents, and guests and to follow standardized recipes.
• Able to operate kitchen equipment and tools found within the hospitality/health care industry and demonstrate proper use, maintenance and cleaning to others.
• Current sanitation certification.
• Effective written communication skills, and the ability to read and interpret instructions.
• Reliable, predictable, and punctual attendance, to provide timely service to internal and external customers and to support uninterrupted business operations.
• Must be sensitive to the needs of older adults and enjoy working with a senior population.
• Ability to lead productively in a team environment.
• LobsterInk Level 4 completion and certification or equivalent experience.

Preferred:

• Formal culinary training. • Prior experience within a high-quality restaurant, country club, hotel or senior living company preferred. • Advanced knowledge and understanding of therapeutic diets, recipe ingredients, adherence to heart healthy guidelines and other dietary restrictions. • Shifts vary, flexibility in scheduling is preferred. • English language proficiency.