Senior Development Chef

Senior Development Chef
Food Manufacture - Experience in development  
£ 40,000 - £50,000 – DOE

Have you got Food manufacturing experience? 

My clients is going through a very exciting time where they have invested heavily into their NPD Function with their new state of the art NPD facilities. 

This information, including any processes, concepts and ideas expressed within it, is confidential and proprietary. This should not be disclosed to third parties other than as agreed, and should only be used for the purposes for which it has been disclosed.

Reports to: Product Development Manager

Job Purpose

The Development Chefs will be responsible for the generation, development and introduction of innovative snacks and bakery products, for our clients. Working in a fast-paced environment, they will use creative thinking to devise new and exciting food concepts and present them to internal teams and clients, confidently selling the benefits and rationale behind the products. Once a product is ‘signed off’ the Development Chef will support the Process Technologist in bringing those ideas to market.

Key Accountabilities

1. Act as the culinary lead on projects, adhering to the NPD gate process with manufacturing partners and project teams.

2. Develop appropriate recipes and concepts utilising market, customer and product insight to inform and guide.

3. Present culinary and packaging ideas to clients, demonstrating creative expertise in order to gain and grow customer confidence.

4. Understand a variety of criteria which may influence the product development process including: agreed company NPD processes; packaging, case and pallet densities; manufacturing capabilities; food safety and quality regulations; and technical requirements.

5. Inspire and be a source of knowledge for the NPD Team and wider teams.

6. Work with the Process Technologist in the transfer of approved product concepts to the manufacturer.

7. Responsible for managing the development kitchen in an orderly and efficient manner, ensuring compliance with health & safety and food safety standards.

8. Lead the management and maintenance of the stock control and ordering processes.

Experience Required

• A deep-rooted passion for food from all over the world, with a good knowledge of food ingredients and flavours

• Solid experience as a chef in a fine dining restaurant or high-quality hotel or catering company

• Ability to gather and interpret consumer and market insight to use in the application of product development

• An excellent understanding of food hygiene, kitchen housekeeping, environmental health, and health & safety requirements. Ideally level 3 food safety

• Strong organisational and IT skills. (Word, Excel, power point)

• Excellent interpersonal skills, with the ability to engage with all individuals across the business, external clients and manufacturing partners

If this is something of interest and you would like more information then please call Scott Ballantine at D R Newitt on 0131 226 5060 .