R&D Chef I

Detailed Responsibilities

R&D New Meals

• Conceive accessible, creative new recipes in the test kitchen that apply to cost, ingredient, caloric/nutritional, and time constraints
• Collaborate with kitchen team, to improve and test each other's dishes, potentially coordinating daily taster assignments
• Take extensive and honest feedback every day on meal accessibility and flavors and incorporate into recipes
• Work closely with the recipe development team to ensure constraints are met, recipe tester feedback is incorporated, and customers will be able to execute meals
• Collaborates with photography team in order to plate dishes in a way that will appeal to customers for menu surveys
• Manages a minimum average rating of 4.00 with equal success across all product lines
• Averages a minimum 3 meals weekly through the Selection Committee process

Evaluate Customer Feedback

• Thoroughly understand how average customer cooks and strive to make meals as streamlined, quick, and easy as possible
• Analyze customer comments on meals from both menu runs and beta runs, and incorporate learnings into new recipes

Weekly Culinary Meetings

• Attend and participate in weekly culinary team meetings, including Performance Board, Team Check-ins, and Taster Pre-shift with opportunity to lead
• Attends and supports cross functional teams initiatives, new product lines, sampling ingredients, supply team check-ins

This position requires 0-10% travel.

Qualifications

• Completion of a two-year program such as an Associate degree
• Culinary degree preferred
• 10+ years experience working in a kitchen or other professional cooking environment. Able to work in a clean and organized manner.
• 2+ years prior recipe development experience.
• Self-starter and highly motivated to make meals that an average person can successfully cook at home.
• ServSafe or food handling certification preferred
• Sense of teamwork and collaboration. Works well in group settings to move projects forward, provide constructive feedback when needed, and support the overall team workload
• Strong verbal communication skills
• Willing and able to receive feedback and implement suggestions
• Understanding of current nutrition, food and food industry trends.
• Must be able to taste and provide thorough feedback on every meal and ingredient sample test in the kitchen, including vegetarian, pork, chicken, steak, and seafood meals.

Perks and Benefits

• Candidates can experience Home Chef as a customer - enter promo code PEOPLE30 for $30 off your first order!
• Medical, dental, vision, life and disability insurance available
• Paid holidays, sick time and vacation time
• 401k program
• Flexible spending accounts for qualified medical, dependent care, parking, or transit expenses

How We Work Together

• We are humble team players.
• We are warm and gracious with team members and customers. We seek feedback to improve ourselves - and respectfully listen to and accept input.
• We are pragmatic next-level thinkers.
• We come up with novel and unique ideas. We explore new strategies to avoid being constrained by conventional thinking.
• We take ownership.
• We approach ambiguous problems, prepared to dive in, get curious, and learn more. We are results-driven, always challenging ourselves to exceed goals.

Be at Home at Home Chef

• We all show up authentically at Home Chef.
• Our team includes individuals with a variety of identities, backgrounds, and perspectives.
• You can trust that you'll be able to bring your whole self to an inclusive and enjoyable workplace.

• Home Chef offers the base salary range as posted below, with the exact offer depending on factors such as geographic location, experience, skills, and internal equity.
• While compensation is within the provided range, it is not typical for offers to be made at the upper end.
• In addition to base salary, Home Chef provides a comprehensive benefits package, including healthcare coverage, 401k match, and paid time off.

• Illinois Pay Range $65,000—$75,000 USD
• To view the California Applicant Notice