Executive Sous Chef in Baltimore, Maryland at Maryland Food Bank
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Job Description
The Maryland Food Bank (MFB) is a nonprofit, anti-hunger organization whose mission is to feed people, strengthen communities, and end hunger for more Marylanders. MFB does this work by expanding access to nutritious food while also seeking to eliminate the root causes of hunger.
MFB distributes food through a statewide network of community-based organizations from Maryland’s western mountains to its Eastern Shore. Last year, the Maryland Food Bank distributed enough food to provide the equivalent of more than 41 million meals, or about 114,000 meals every day. This healthy food supports children, seniors, veterans, and hard-working families. Beyond food distribution, MFB works to end hunger for more Marylanders by offering job training programs, access to supportive services and benefits, and by advocating to change to the laws, policies, and practices that create food insecurity for more than 1 in 3 Marylanders.
The Maryland Food Bank embraces a philosophy which recognizes and values diversity. Our goal is to attract, develop, retain, and promote a talented, diverse workforce in a culture where all employees will contribute to their fullest potential.
About the position:
The Executive Sous Chef partners with the Director, Meals Program & Logistics/Executive Chef to lead daily FoodWorks meal operations. This role supervises the kitchen team, oversees production and food safety, and ensures meals meet quality, nutrition, program, and organizational standards. The Executive Sous Chef also drives continuous improvement in menus, processes, food quality, and resource use.
Primary Responsibilities:
- Lead daily kitchen operations, ensuring efficient, timely, and high-quality meal production.
- Supervise, coach, and develop kitchen staff; establish clear expectations for safety, quality, teamwork, and performance.
- Oversee meal production to ensure recipes, portions, nutrition requirements, and quality standards are consistently met.
- Maintain daily production schedules, assignments, and priorities for the kitchen team.
- Ensure compliance with food-safety, HACCP, sanitation, allergen, and health-department requirements.
- Monitor inventory, ingredient usage, product availability, waste, and ordering to support production needs.
- Coordinate allergen-related meal substitutions and ensure accurate documentation and safe production practices.
- Support menu planning and the development, testing, and standardization of recipes and production procedures.
- Identify and implement improvements to food quality, production efficiency, resource utilization, and waste reduction.
- Serve as the Executive Chef’s key operational partner, providing updates on production, staffing, equipment, and food-safety priorities.
Basic Qualifications:
- High school diploma or equivalent.
- At least five years of food-service experience, including work in a high-volume commercial kitchen or meal-production environment.
- At least two years of culinary leadership or supervisory experience, such as Lead Cook, Kitchen Supervisor, Sous Chef, or similar role.
- Experience supervising, coaching, training, and developing culinary or food-production staff.
- Strong knowledge of high-volume food production, commercial kitchen equipment, food safety, sanitation, and quality control.
- Ability to lead daily kitchen operations; prioritize and assign work; and adapt to staffing, inventory, and production needs.
- Ability to read, scale, test, and standardize recipes; calculate quantities, yields, portions, and substitutions; and maintain accurate operational records.
- Strong communication, leadership, problem-solving, and sound decision-making skills.
- ServSafe Manager Certification upon hire or within 90 days of hire.
- Successful completion of required pre-employment drug screening and background check.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Completion of an accredited culinary arts, food-service management, hospitality management, or related program; an equivalent combination of education and experience will be considered.
- Experience in high-volume meal production, catering, healthcare or institutional food service, or community-based meal programs.
- Experience with menu and recipe development, production planning, inventory management, food-cost awareness, waste reduction, and food-safety compliance.
- Experience translating new program ideas into practical recipes, production processes, staffing plans, training, and standard operating procedures.
- Proficiency using technology for ordering, inventory, scheduling, documentation, reporting, and communication.
- A collaborative, creative, adaptable approach to improving food quality, operational efficiency, and program outcomes.
Supervisory Responsibility:
- This position directly supervises kitchen staff, including the Lead Cook, Cooks, and Kitchen Porter.
Work Environment:
- This position works in both office and commercial kitchen settings, with regular time spent in food-production, storage, receiving, refrigerated, and freezer areas. The role requires working safely around commercial kitchen equipment, moving carts, material-handling equipment, noise, and fluctuating temperatures typical of a high-volume meal-production environment.
Pay Range:
- $30 - $33 / per hour
Nothing matters more to the Maryland Food Bank than our strong ethical and safety commitments. As such, all positions require a background check and drug screen.
To learn more about the Maryland Food Bank, visit www.mdfoodbank.org.