Culinary Director

About the role

The Grid Restaurant and Winery is seeking a visionary Culinary Director to lead menu development, standardise culinary operations and mentor kitchen teams across all its locations. You will shape the culinary identity of the brand while ensuring commercial performance.

Key responsibilities

• Develop and refine menus for current and future concepts, aligning dishes with market trends and brand positioning.
• Standardise recipes, food presentation, and quality controls across all outlets.
• Train, coach and mentor executive chefs, head chefs and kitchen staff.
• Monitor food quality, consistency, kitchen performance and conduct regular audits.
• Collaborate with procurement on sourcing, supplier relationships and cost optimisation.
• Analyse food cost performance, recommend improvements and achieve cost targets.
• Support new restaurant openings, menu roll‑outs and ensure compliance with food safety and hygiene standards.

Required profile

• Minimum 7 years in senior culinary leadership roles.
• Proven experience managing multiple outlets or brands.
• Strong knowledge of menu engineering and food cost management.
• Experience designing training programmes for kitchen teams.
• Excellent leadership, coaching and commercial acumen.
• Formal culinary qualifications are advantageous.

Required skills

• Menu engineering
• Food cost management
• Food safety and hygiene compliance
• Culinary training programme development