Culinary Director

Peruvian Fast-Casual Flagship
New York CityOpening: July 2026

Start date: Immediate / flexible for the right person
Salary: Competitive, dependent on experience
Progression: Clear pathway toward Group Executive Chef as we scale

About the opportunity:
One of the worlds leading Peruvian chefs is bringing a new fast-casual Peruvian restaurant concept to New YorkCity.This is the first site, but it is not intended to be the only site. We are building the flagship: the kitchen, the foodstandards, the training systems, the supplier base, and the operating playbook that future locations will follow.We are looking for an exceptional Opening Head Chef to help turn a world-class culinary vision into a disciplined,high-volume, scalable restaurant operation.This is not a role for someone who wants to inherit a finished kitchen. It is a role for someone who wants to buildone.

The role
You will lead the culinary opening of our first New York location from the ground up.You will work closely with the founding team and our chef partner to execute the menu vision, build the brigade,set up suppliers, create kitchen systems, establish food and labour controls, and ensure the restaurant opens toan exceptional standard.The right person will combine three things:

Real culinary talent:
You have strong taste, technique, and food instincts. You understand quality, flavour, seasoning, consistency, andpresentation. This does not have to come from fine dining, although that would be a strong proof point, but theremust be clear evidence that you are a serious cook.

Opening and operational experience:
You know what it takes to open a restaurant properly. You are comfortable with equipment, layout, hiring,onboarding, supplier setup, prep systems, health department readiness, and the pressure of the first weeks oftrading.

Systems and scale mindset:
You do not just solve problems in the moment. You build processes that other people can follow. You can turnrecipes, prep, training, service flow, ordering, and quality control into a repeatable operating playbook.

What you will achieve in your first 12 months

• Open the flagship successfully: Lead the kitchen opening for our first New York site, ensuring the team, equipment, prep systems, suppliers,recipes, and service standards are ready before launch.
• Execute a world-class culinary vision: Work with our chef partner and founding team to deliver the menu with consistency, discipline, and pride. You willbe trusted to protect the quality of the food while making it work in a fast-casual, high-volume environment.
• Build the kitchen team from scratch: Recruit, train, motivate, and lead a full brigade. Create a strong kitchen culture built on standards, urgency,respect, cleanliness, and consistency.
• Create the operating playbook: Write and implement the systems that will allow this restaurant to scale: recipe specs, prep sheets, stationguides, opening and closing checklists, training materials, ordering guides, service flows, and quality-controlprocesses.
• Own food cost and kitchen efficiency: Manage food cost, waste, purchasing, stock control, prep levels, portioning, and labour deployment from day one.We need someone who understands both food and numbers.
• Build the supplier base: Help source and manage suppliers for core ingredients, including Peruvian and Latin American products whererelevant. Ensure quality, consistency, pricing, and backup options are in place before opening.
• Maintain audit-ready standards: Own kitchen cleanliness, food safety, NYC Department of Health compliance, allergen management, HACCPprocesses, and daily discipline around standards.
• Build for future growthTreat site one as the prototype for future restaurants. The systems you create should not just work for onekitchen; they should help us open the next one faster, better, and more consistently

Who you are:

• You are a serious chef with strong culinary foundations and high standards.You may come from fine dining, premium casual, high-volume restaurants, chef-led concepts, fast-casual brands,hotels, or restaurant groups but wherever you come from, you have evidence of excellence.
• You are hands-on, calm, organised, and commercially aware. You can lead from the line, but you can also write aprep sheet, train a sous chef, challenge a supplier, manage food cost, and explain a labour plan.
• You are low-ego and collaborative. You are excited to work with a world-class chefs vision and help translate itinto a successful restaurant operation. You do not need the menu to be yours in order to take pride in it.
• You are ambitious. You want to be part of building something from the beginning, and you are excited by thepossibility of growing into a broader group culinary leadership role as the business scales.

What we are looking for:
Strong candidates will likely have:
Proven experience as a Head Chef, Executive Chef, Chef de Cuisine, Senior Sous Chef, Opening Chef, orCulinary Operations Lead
Clear evidence of strong culinary ability and high food standards
Experience opening at least one restaurant or major new food operation
Experience hiring, training, and leading kitchen teams
Strong understanding of food cost, labour, purchasing, inventory, and waste control
Ability to create and maintain recipe specs, prep systems, station guides, and training processes
Comfort working in a high-volume, fast-paced environment
Strong knowledge of NYC health, safety, and sanitation standards
Spanish language skills would be helpful but are not essential
Peruvian or broader Latin American cuisine experience would be a major advantage, but is not requiredif the culinary and operational calibre is high

You may not be right for this role if:
You are mainly looking for a settled kitchen with existing systems
You are strongest creatively but weaker on organisation, training, or cost control
You prefer talking about food more than building repeatable processes
You need full creative ownership of the menu
You have been involved in openings but have not personally led the operational detail
You are not excited by documentation, structure, and scale
You are not comfortable with the pace and pressure of a first-site launch

Why join us:
This is a rare opportunity to help build the first New York site of an ambitious Peruvian restaurant concept backedby serious culinary talent and growth ambitions.You will have the chance to put your fingerprints on the DNA of the business: the food standards, the kitchenculture, the supplier network, the training systems, and the operating model.For the right person, this is not just a Head Chef role. It is the opportunity to become a founding culinary leader ina restaurant group with significant growth potential.