The Culinary & Quality Specialist serves as the local extension of the R&D team. This role is responsible for supporting customer growth through the preparation of sales samples, product demonstrations, and culinary presentations while also providing routine quality oversight of production activities.
The ideal candidate is a hands-on culinary professional who enjoys both product development and operations. This individual will partner closely with Sales, Customer Experience, Operations, Menu, Nutrition, and R&D to ensure products meet quality, consistency, presentation, and customer expectations.
Key Responsibilities- Prepare customer samples for sales presentations, district meetings, customer tastings, and bid opportunities.
- Support culinary demonstrations and product presentations.
- Ensure samples accurately reflect production standards and menu intent.
- Coordinate sample requests, packaging, labeling, and delivery logistics.
- Assist in preparing foods for RFP and bid tastings.
- Maintain sample inventory and ingredient readiness.
- Perform routine production floor audits.
- Verify recipes are being executed according to approved standards.
- Review portion sizes, presentation, and product quality.
- Monitor product consistency across shifts and production runs.
- Identify quality concerns and communicate improvement opportunities.
- Assist in validating corrective actions when quality issues are identified.
- Assist with recipe testing and product evaluations.
- Conduct ingredient and product benchmarking activities.
- Support commercialization and production trials.
- Collect feedback and observations during testing activities.
- Document trial results and recommendations.
- Verify compliance with approved recipes and specifications.
- Review production records and quality documentation as needed.
- Support implementation of new products and menu changes.
- Assist with validation activities including portioning, fitment, and product evaluations.
- Partner with Operations to improve product execution.
- Support Customer Experience and Sales with customer-specific requests.
- Work with Menu and Nutrition teams to maintain product integrity.
- Communicate observations, risks, and opportunities to the Head of Culinary.
QualificationsRequired- Culinary/Food Science degree or equivalent experience.
- 3+ years of culinary, food manufacturing, quality assurance, or foodservice operations experience.
- Strong understanding of recipe execution and food production.
- Ability to work independently with minimal supervision.
- Excellent organizational and communication skills.
- Valid driver's license and ability to travel between facilities and customer locations.
Preferred- Experience in K-12, healthcare, senior meals, or large-scale food manufacturing.
- Experience performing food quality audits.
- Experience supporting customer tastings and sales presentations.
- Knowledge of USDA Child Nutrition requirements.
- Experience with production-scale food preparation.
Salary Range: $78,000 - $95,000
