Chef, Research & Development

About the role

The Chef, Research & Development leads the culinary innovation process from concept through operational approval, creating exceptional food and beverage experiences that support business objectives, seasonal events, intellectual properties (IPs), and permanent menu offerings. This role combines culinary creativity with operational practicality to develop products that are innovative, scalable, financially responsible, and executable across multiple venues, and directly leads the Assistant Manager, Culinary Product Development.

What you'll do

• Lead the development of innovative food and beverage concepts for permanent menus, seasonal events, festivals, IPs, and limited-time offerings.
• Develop culinary strategies aligned with business goals, guest expectations, and brand standards.
• Research emerging culinary trends, ingredients, preparation techniques, and global cuisines.
• Create recipes balancing creativity, operational efficiency, quality, profitability, and guest appeal.
• Build culinary concepts that support storytelling, immersive guest experiences, and themed entertainment.
• Lead products through the complete development process, managing multiple concurrent projects and timelines.
• Conduct bench testing, recipe refinement, sensory evaluations, yield studies, hold-time validation, and shelf-life testing.
• Present concepts and recommendations to executive leadership for approval.
• Develop and maintain standardized recipes and product specifications.
• Collaborate with Culinary Operations to transition approved recipes into operational SOPs and training materials.
• Coordinate pilot testing and venue field trials; support venue rollouts and monitor product performance post-launch.
• Build relationships with manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, and strategic culinary partners.
• Mentor and develop team members.

Pay & benefits

Salary range: $80,000–$95,000/yr.