Pastry Chef / Dessert Program Manager

Job Description

Job DescriptionLuigi’s Restaurant & Gourmet Express – Johnston, Rhode Island

Luigi’s Restaurant & Gourmet Express is looking for a talented pastry chef with the creativity to develop exceptional products and the leadership and business sense to grow an entire dessert program.

This is much more than a production pastry position.

We are seeking someone who wants to take ownership of an established department, introduce exciting new products, create memorable guest experiences and build a program they can be proud to lead.

Luigi’s is a successful, family-owned restaurant, prepared-food market and full-service catering company with multiple opportunities for dessert and pastry growth. The right candidate will have access to an established customer base and several active sales channels, including:

• Restaurant desserts
• Gourmet Express retail and grab-and-go offerings
• Catering and wedding desserts
• Holiday and seasonal specialties
• Cakes, pies, pastries and specialty orders
• Interactive dessert and cannoli experiences
• Potential wholesale and new-product opportunities

Compensation and Support

• Competitive annual base salary
• Guaranteed first-year compensation of $55,000
• Performance incentive tied directly to department sales growth
• Opportunity to earn beyond the guaranteed compensation as the program expands
• Dedicated pastry-production assistant for approximately 30 hours per week

You will not be expected to build the program alone.

Assistant support will be provided to help handle routine production, giving the Pastry Chef / Dessert Program Manager time to focus on product development, presentation, quality, organization and long-term growth.

The Opportunity

We are looking for someone who thinks like both a pastry chef and a department leader.

The person in this position will have the opportunity to:

• Develop signature desserts and pastries
• Refresh and expand existing offerings
• Create seasonal and holiday traditions
• Build profitable catering and wedding packages
• Improve merchandising, packaging and presentation
• Establish production systems and quality standards
• Control food cost, inventory and waste
• Train and direct a pastry assistant
• Collaborate with ownership and culinary leadership
• Share financially in the growth they help create

The Ideal Candidate

Our ideal candidate is creative, organized, dependable and commercially minded.

You should have strong pastry-production skills, but also understand that a successful dessert program requires consistency, attractive presentation, thoughtful pricing, cost control and products that customers genuinely want to purchase again.

We are not simply looking for someone to maintain an existing recipe book.

We are looking for someone who wants the freedom, resources and support to build something special.

You bring the talent and vision. We provide the customers, the platforms, the support and the opportunity to share in the growth.