Executive Chef

Executive Chef / Kitchen Manager – Workplace Café

Location: Downtown San Jose, California

Job Type: Full-time

Anticipated Start Date: October 2026

Schedule: Primarily Monday through Friday, daytime hours, with occasional catering and special events

Position Overview

Grace Bistro is seeking an experienced, creative and hands-on Executive Chef/Kitchen Manager to lead the opening and daily culinary operations of our new full-service workplace café in downtown San Jose.

The ideal candidate combines strong culinary skills with disciplined kitchen management. This person will develop menus, supervise production, control food costs, train the kitchen team and maintain consistent quality across daily café service, grab-and-go offerings, internal catering and special events.

Our culinary program will feature fresh, approachable and health-conscious food with rotating international menus, including Italian, Mexican, Mediterranean, Asian and American cuisines.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead all back-of-house operations, including preparation, production and service.
• Develop and execute rotating international menus and daily café offerings.
• Create standardized recipes, preparation procedures and portion-control systems.
• Maintain consistent food quality, presentation and service speed.
• Manage food purchasing, vendor relationships, inventory and waste reduction.
• Monitor food costs and support pricing and profitability decisions.
• Recruit, train, schedule and supervise kitchen employees.
• Establish kitchen workflows, opening procedures and operating standards.
• Maintain compliance with health department, food safety and sanitation requirements.
• Develop vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and allergen-conscious options.
• Support internal catering, executive meetings and special events.
• Coordinate with ownership and front-of-house management on menu planning and customer feedback.
• Maintain an organized, professional and respectful kitchen environment.

Qualifications

• At least five years of professional culinary experience.
• At least two years in a chef, sous chef or kitchen leadership position.
• Experience with high-volume cafés, corporate dining, catering, institutional dining or similar operations strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to prepare and manage multiple international cuisines.
• Strong knowledge of recipe costing, purchasing, inventory and labor management.
• Experience supervising, training and developing kitchen employees.
• Knowledge of dietary restrictions, food allergens and special-menu requirements.
• Current ServSafe Manager certification or ability to obtain certification before starting.
• Strong communication, organization and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to work actively in the kitchen and lead by example.
• Ability to meet the physical requirements of a commercial kitchen with or without reasonable accommodation.

Preferred Background

• Experience opening a new café, restaurant or food-service operation.
• Corporate workplace or institutional dining experience.
• Breakfast, lunch, grab-and-go and catering production experience.
• Experience creating seasonal, healthy and plant-forward menus.
• Familiarity with online ordering, kiosks and modern café service systems.

What We Are Looking For

We are looking for a chef who is creative but operationally disciplined—someone who can build an exciting menu while maintaining consistency, food safety, cost control and efficient production. This is a hands-on leadership role for someone who wants to help shape the culinary identity and long-term success of Grace Bistro.

• To apply, please submit your résumé along with a brief introduction describing your kitchen leadership, high-volume production, catering and international-cuisine experience.