Executive Chef - Central Kitchen

About the role

The Senior Manager / Executive Chef leads the daily production, culinary curation, and delivery logistics of the central kitchen hub. This role bridges strategic menu engineering with high-volume production to deliver thousands of nutritious, medically compliant meals daily for nursing home residents. The incumbent is directly responsible for kitchen operational safety, cost management, culinary quality, and timely distribution logistics, while leading a team of 3 to 4 Head Chefs / Sous Chefs.

Key responsibilities

• Design and standardize high-volume menus that cater to diverse geriatric needs, including texture-modified diets (IDDSI frameworks for blended, minced, and pureed food), low-sodium, diabetic, and halal requirements
• Maintain consistent taste, presentation, nutritional value, and temperature profiles for all meals leaving the central kitchen
• Establish and enforce strict recipe cards, portion controls, and yield metrics to ensure uniformity across thousands of daily servings
• Oversee the end-to-end production planning and execution schedules across the kitchen lines to meet daily delivery deadlines
• Manage the dispatch, cold/hot chain integrity, and fleet logistics to ensure meals are transported safely and punctually to all designated nursing home sites
• Direct stock rotation (FIFO), raw material inventory levels, and food wastage tracking to meet strict food cost targets
• Manage, mentor, and evaluate a direct team of 3 to 4 Chefs, alongside broader kitchen technicians, stewards, and packing staff
• Optimize shift scheduling and manpower allocation to handle high-volume demands while managing overtime and labor costs
• Ensure the facility operates in 100% compliance with the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) regulations, maintaining an 'A' hygiene grading
• Enforce strict Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) and ISO 22000 protocols across all receiving, storage, cooking, and packing zones

About you

• Diploma or Degree in Culinary Arts, Food Science, Hospitality Management, or equivalent
• Minimum 8 years of culinary management experience, with at least 3 years in a high-volume central production kitchen, institutional catering, or hospital catering environment
• Proven familiarity with texture-modified diets, senior nutrition, and medical dietary restrictions is highly preferred
• Valid SFA Food Hygiene Officer (FHO) or Food Safety Course Level 3/4 certification
• Strong operational execution, mastery of cook-chill or cook-freeze technologies, excellent people management skills, and a high level of resilience under tight logistics timelines