Head, Food Production & Kitchen Operations

About this role

A full-time role for a disciplined, commercially minded leader to oversee food production and kitchen operations across KEV'S Eatery, Lounge Restaurant, Grill Kitchen, and any future units. The job focuses on establishing an integrated system for menu planning, recipes, portioning, costing, stock use, hygiene, staff, equipment, speed of service, and customer experience. The Head reports to the Operations Manager with functional accountability to the Chief Operating Officer. The employer operates KEV'S Hospitality and related food-service outlets as part of the Afri-9 Group across multiple sectors including hospitality and retail.

What you would do

• Lead daily operations and staff deployment across all assigned kitchens.
• Standardise menus, recipes, portions, yields, presentation, and production times.
• Control food cost, ingredient usage, waste, spoilage, staff meals, and kitchen variances.
• Enforce food safety, personal hygiene, cleaning, storage, temperature control, pest control and contamination prevention.
• Coordinate purchasing forecasts and stock availability with Procurement, Store and Finance.
• Lead, train and assess chefs, cooks, grill staff, kitchen assistants and supervisors.
• Generate daily, weekly and monthly reports on production, cost, quality, hygiene, people, equipment and customer outcomes.
• Ensure service readiness and timely handovers across kitchens.
• Plan and manage production for events, promotions and high-volume periods.
• Maintain a disciplined, customer-focused and profitable kitchen operation across multiple units.

What they are asking for

• Minimum five years of practical kitchen, restaurant, catering or food-production experience.
• At least two years of experience leading teams or coordinating more than one kitchen or service unit.
• Strong knowledge of menu planning, recipe standardisation, food costing, stock control and hygiene.
• Experience in improving food quality, service speed, cost control, staff discipline and customer satisfaction.
• High integrity, leadership maturity, commercial judgement, and ability to build systems and train teams.

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