Executive Sous Chef, Catering and Private Events

From fine dining restaurants to residential dining,
USC Hospitality serves thousands of students, athletes, faculty, and staff, as well as our many visitors. Hospitality is one of the six core business units that comprise
USC Auxiliary Services and one of the largest employers on campus. We are renowned for our fresh take on self-operated food concepts with restaurants between both campuses. The team at USC Hospitality is led by innovative executive chefs and directors who strive every day to craft nourishing and wholesome alternatives for our hungry Trojan Family and our guests. Students, faculty, staff, and visitors to the Trojan campus count on USC Hospitality to provide a fresh, made‑to‑order, nourishing meal.

Amidst all of the hustle and bustle of student life, our eateries are the ideal social gathering locations to grab a quick bite or enjoy a group meal. We are driven to succeed by our commitment to uphold our unifying values.

We are seeking a Executive Sous Chef, Catering and Private Events to join our rapidly growing team.

The Executive Sous Chef, Catering and Private Events serves as a culinary leader in Private Events & Conferences kitchens. This culinary leader provides support to the Executive Chef of Private Events & Conferences in menu and recipe development, food cost maintenance, labor management, and culinary execution of all catered events.

• Creates and updates Private Events & Conferences catering menus at least twice a year on an as needed basis, after Executive Chef's approval. Assists Executive Chef with creation of recipes, sourcing, pricing, and implementation of menu items, training of staff and consistent execution up to Private Events & Conferences standards. Reviews product mix and other menu engineering reports and adjusts accordingly.
  
  Ensures Cost of Goods and food inventories remain within budgeted standards and as directed by the Executive Chef. Creates and updates culinary options according to USC and industry standards for Private Events & Conferences VIP clients such as Office of the President, Cultural Relations University Events, and other senior University leaders and guests.

• Assists Executive Chef with the maintenance of current kitchen schedules, staffing templates, staff trainings, ordering, and production targets within assigned units. Oversees processing of time cards and delivery to payroll in assigned unit. Assists the Executive Chef with regular operational meetings with culinary team.

• Engages with Hospitality and Hotel management to develop systems to improve operational efficiency, facilitate departmental revenue and growth, improve general kitchen maintenance and cleanliness and adherence to all food safety standards at all times. Ensures adherence to all systems, procedures, and policies from federal, state, county and the university. Assists the Executive Chef to set, maintain, and implement culinary Standard Operating Procedures in coordination with Hospitality Management.

• Assists Executive Chef with the culinary team staffing, partners with Talent Acquisition to perform recruitment, screening, hiring, orientation and training of department staff. Works with the department head and venue managers to identify high performers and develop them as Department leaders. Provides feedback to the line level employees and mid-level managers to grow and develop them further.

• Directs and coordinates the production of food in a dining operation. Provides professional culinary advice and expertise. Plans, prices and develops new menus and recipes. Schedules meal production.

• Prepares and cooks foods of all types, either on a regular basis or for special functions.

• Develops and recommends goals and objectives for unit. Implements and communicates to staff. Reassesses or redefines priorities as appropriate in order to achieve performance objectives.

• Directly supervises at least two full‑time subordinate staff, or the equivalent. Recruits, screens, hires, orients and trains staff. Evaluates employee performance and provides guidance and feedback to assigned staff. Counsels, disciplines and/or terminates employees, as required.…