Executive Chef – Upscale Italian Restaurant Boca Raton, Florida | Full-Time |Salary: $180,000 - $220,000 per year
About the Opportunity:
A new upscale Italian restaurant opening in Boca Raton, Florida is seeking an accomplished Executive Chef to lead its culinary program and back-of-house operations. This is a confidential search for an experienced culinary leader with a strong background in upscale or fine-dining Italian cuisine. The Executive Chef will play an integral role in shaping the restaurant’s culinary identity, building the kitchen team, and establishing the standards that will define the guest experience from opening day forward.
Key Responsibilities:
Lead the overall culinary vision, menu development, and execution. Create and refine an elevated Italian menu rooted in quality ingredients, authenticity, seasonality, and exceptional presentation. Recruit, train, mentor, and lead a high-performing back-of-house team. Establish recipes, plating standards, prep systems, kitchen procedures, and quality controls. Lead kitchen operations during service and ensure consistency at the highest level. Manage food cost, labor cost, inventory, purchasing, waste, and vendor relationships. Source exceptional ingredients and build strong relationships with specialty suppliers. Partner closely with ownership and front-of-house leadership on the overall restaurant experience. Maintain outstanding standards for sanitation, organization, food safety, and kitchen operations. Participate in pre-opening tastings, training, menu refinement, and opening preparation.
What We’re Looking For:
Proven experience as an Executive Chef or senior culinary leader in an upscale or fine-dining restaurant. Significant experience with Italian cuisine and a strong understanding of regional Italian cooking, ingredients, and technique. Demonstrated success developing menus and maintaining exceptional culinary consistency. Strong command of food cost, labor management, purchasing, inventory, and kitchen financials. Proven ability to recruit, develop, and retain talented culinary teams. Hands-on leadership style with exceptional attention to detail. Experience opening a new restaurant is strongly preferred. Culinary degree or formal culinary training is preferred but not required. Compensation
Base salary: $180,000 - $200,000 per year, commensurate with experience.
Hiring Process:
Resume/application review and introductory conversation. Interview with ownership and restaurant leadership. Final culinary discussion and/or tasting assessment, followed by professional references and offer. All applications and conversations will be handled confidentially. We are seeking a chef who wants to build something exceptional from the ground up and establish a destination for elevated Italian dining in Boca Raton.
