Executive Chef Position: Olympic Club
San Francisco, CA
About the Olympic Club
Established on May 6, 1860, The Olympic Club enjoys the distinction of being America’s oldest athletic club. Long a west coast powerhouse in amateur sports, the Club is the home of many local, regional, national and international champions and tournaments.
Their 5,000 active members compete in over 19 sports and enjoy two historic clubhouses in San Francisco: the City Club, near Union Square, and Lakeside overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
The 260,000 square foot City Clubhouse is located on Post Street in downtown San Francisco, and has recently been gloriously restored. It features two gymnasiums, a fitness center, cardio solarium, hotel facilities, handball and squash courts, an indoor running track, circuit training facilities, massage, steam/sauna and two beautiful swimming pools. Food service is available in the Main Dining Room, Grill & Café. The City Clubhouse hosts over 500 member events each year including wine dinners, weddings, sports tournaments, children's holiday parties and events for all occasions.
Located ten miles away in the southwestern corner of the city, the 61,000 square foot Lakeside clubhouse is surrounded by three golf courses (Lake, Ocean, and Cliffs Courses) and a world-class tennis center (eight lighted tennis courts including two clay courts). The Clubhouse features an exercise center, swimming pool and locker rooms; with food and beverage service in the Main Dining Room, Grill Room, Grill Bar and Main Bar and includes banquet facilities and meeting rooms.
The Olympic Club sponsors over 21 team and individual sports programs which compete on a local, national and international basis. The Club has a long history of national and Olympic champions. Athletic programs include golf, tennis, fitness, basketball, cycling, handball, lacrosse, rugby, running, shooting, ski and snowboard, soccer, softball, squash, swimming (both pool and rough water), water polo and triathlon.
In the spirit of giving back to the community, the Board of Directors created the Olympic Club Foundation in 1992 to support and encourage participation by Bay Area youth in amateur athletics.
History
The Club built the City Clubhouse in 1912, after the 1906 earthquake and fire destroyed the original building, and it was restored in 2006 to its original glory. The City Club is located in downtown San Francisco, one block from Union Square.
In 1918, the Club assumed operations of the Lakeside Golf Club, including an 18-hole golf course. Famed architect Arthur Brown, designer of the San Francisco City Hall, designed the Lakeside clubhouse, which officially opened in 1925. The Golf Shop was completely renovated in spring 2011. .
The Olympic Club has hosted five USGA US Open Championships, in 1955, 1966, 1987, 1998 and 2012.
Food & Beverage
With 5,000 members, an average age of 53, and annual F&B revenues of approximately $8M, The Olympic Club has a very active, year-round food and beverage program. Approximately 49% of F&B revenue is a la carte and the remaining 51% is banquet business.
Dining rooms at the City Clubhouse include the Main Dining Room (100) Grill Room, and Café. Additionally, banquet rooms include the Olympian, Crystal and Squire dining rooms. Maximum occupancy for the Main Dining Room, Olympian, Crystal and Squire rooms is 300 for a special event. Currently the Grill Room and Grill Bar are undergoing renovations.
The Lakeside clubhouse has a Main Dining Room (200), Vista Lounge, Grill Room, Bar, and Main Bar. Maximum occupancy for the Main Dining Room and Vista Lounge is 400 for a special event.
The famous Burger Dog is a 50-year tradition and staple of the golf course and driving range snack shacks started by Bill Parrish (a/k/a “Burger Bill”). His family continues to offer concessions on the golf courses including the fresh (never frozen) mixture of ground chuck and lean sirloin molded into an elongated rectangular shape, cooked on a gas grill and served on a toasted, eight-inch hot dog bun.
Hours of Operation
The City Clubhouse is open seven days a week; Lakeside is open six days a week, Tuesday—Sunday, closed Monday unless Monday is a holiday or there is a special event... At the City Clubhouse, food service is available at the Main Dining Room, Grill Room and Café. Beverage service is available in the Grill Bar and Café. Currently the Wednesday night dinner features a 3-course prix fixe menu and a Thursday night seafood buffet and prime rib buffet.
The Lakeside clubhouse offers a la carte lunches on Tuesdays and Fridays and a la carte dinner on Friday night. On Sundays an a la carte brunch and buffet dinner are served. The Lakeside clubhouse is closed on Mondays.
Organizational Structure
The Olympic Club operates under the General Manager/COO organizational structure. The Executive Chef reports to the GM/COO, Greg DeRosa. See page 4 for more information about Mr. DeRosa.
The EC coordinates closely with other key department heads, primarily as it relates to cooperative efforts surrounding planning, scheduling, special events and implementation of Club functions.
Executive Chef (EC) Position Overview
The Executive Chef at The Olympic Club is responsible for all food and beverage Back-of-the-House (BOH) operations while working closely with Front-of-the-House (FOH) staff to ensure quality and innovative services, products and offerings to members and guests.
The EC leads, manages, motivates and directs a staff of 35, to achieve the objectives set by the GM/COO and EC. The EC creates the standards for kitchen policies and procedures, communicates these policies and ensures that the policies are adhered to by all BOH staff.
The EC is responsible for ensuring that all food is consistently outstanding – from standard country club fare to special culinary events throughout all food venues. The EC understands that consistency in producing and delivering popular club menu items is just as important to the member experience as producing memorable and sophisticated culinary specialty dinners, and is responsible to ensure that their team approaches each activity with identical focus.
The EC is expected to be a positive and regular ‘face’ for culinary operations for the Club, and needs to be comfortable conversing and interacting in both back and front of house settings as they interface with multiple and diverse constituencies (members, staff, etc.) throughout the day.
The EC at The Olympic Club is a team builder who mentors kitchen staff and develops a pipeline of talented and creative individuals and interns/externs by building a reputation as an excellent learning and training ground for up and coming culinarians. Additionally the EC leads by example and will step in to work any place on the line as needed, but is expected to be the executive ‘lead’ in these areas on a day-to-day basis.
The EC leads the BOH initiative relative to accident prevention, training and retention of staff, and sanitation and safety standards. The EC pays sharp attention to detail, enforces the highest standards of sanitation and safety, and ensures that all BOH staff approach the standards with the same level of focus.
The EC has a proven track record of controlling food and labor costs. The EC is adept at creating and managing a budget and executing/reporting to defined business standards.
The EC provides food purchase specifications to control food quality and costs. The EC oversees the purchases of food product and sources quality products and ingredients from multiple vendors, if necessary. The EC manages storage areas to minimize quantity and maximize quality.
The EC leads the member service initiative in all F&B BOH areas and consistently strives for and meets (if already high) or exceeds higher scores in the member survey and in industry standards, than prior years.
The EC is responsible for leading the product knowledge training for FOH personnel through daily pre-meal meetings and special food knowledge training programs.
The EC creates and updates menus on a regular basis and develops and documents recipes and controls to ensure consistency.
The EC works as a strategic and operational partner with the managers and staff of the Olympic Club to develop information sharing, good communication, superior internal and external customer relationships and high performance teamwork to achieve club objectives.
The EC is someone who looks at mistakes as ‘opportunities’ for improvement, and instills this mindset and outcome into his/her team, while at the same time epitomizing the perspective of being ‘readily open and embracing of input,’ as well as is approachable by both members and staff.
The EC coordinates internally and is very involved with F & B Managers and Club service personnel on a daily basis to ensure timely, knowledgeable and efficient service. The EC is ‘obsessed’ with doing things well, consistently better, and has a strong “back door” focus to achieve financial goals and expectations.
Ultimately, the Executive Chef of The Olympic Club is a critical and positive ‘face’ of culinary operations at the Club. The EC is an integral part of the overall success of the operation, and is a strong ‘influencer’ on each constituency they interface with while performing their duties. The responsibility to lead this facet of the organization from a passionate, creative, supportive, progressive and ‘team’ focused perspective is of critical importance for long-term success.
Initial Priorities
·Consistently exceed member expectations for quality, presentation, creativity and value.
·Develop team members’ skills and abilities and create a culture among the staff that encourages creativity and passion for the work that they perform.
·Open the new City Clubhouse Grill with a new and creative menu.
·Develop the new organizational structure of the culinary team and program. A single Executive Chef over both clubhouses is a new management concept for the Olympic Club and the new Executive Chef will need to assemble a structure that is efficient and works financially and operationally for both clubhouses.
Performance Metrics
·Improved membership food & beverage satisfaction and increased member engagement and participation in social events because of a strong culinary program.
·Financial performance metrics including labor costs, food costs, meeting or beating budgets, etc.
·Employee performance evaluations and satisfaction.
General Qualifications & Experience
·A strong and passionate leader and BOH food and beverage professional with a proven track record of providing Platinum-level services in a multiple facility and membership constituency environment, and with a personality that is commensurately appropriate to the Olympic Club environment.
·Has a minimum of five years prior management experience as an Executive Chef in a busy, private club environment and at least eight years of diversified kitchen and hospitality industry experience to include banquet, fine dining, café and theme restaurant operations.
·Strong preference will be given to those candidates who have successfully lead larger scale, dynamic culinary operations in a private club environment.
·Success in ‘farm-to-table,’ locally grown or procured provisions, with a proclivity for healthy, yet innovative options will be favored.
·Has track record for sourcing quality products and ingredients from multiple vendors, if necessary.
·Has exceptionally strong food and beverage credentials, and most importantly, the ability to consistently define and achieve goals and objectives. This includes proven and verifiable leadership qualities with demonstrated ability to direct, coordinate and control all facets of an active food and beverage operation with revenues of over $8M.
·Has culinary knowledge across multiple ethnic and cultural cuisines.
·A professional with a verifiable, positive career track, unblemished by inappropriate behavior of any sort that would be potentially detrimental or embarrassing to the membership of the Olympic Club.
·Has experience working in and managing a union environment and proactively managing communications with city agencies and officials. The EC must keep up-to-date with city regulations which may impact the club’s culinary operations and deal with those matters in a timely fashion.
·Must be in compliance with and actively support a drug-free workplace.
·Must possess verifiably strong written and oral communications skills.
·Must have computer skills including but not limited to Microsoft Outlook, Word, and Excel. This position also requires technical skills to effectively manage multiple restaurants in one location. Experience with Jonas software is a plus.
·Is a very organized individual in preparing for and managing multiple events simultaneously.
Education and Certification
·Culinary arts degree from an accredited school or equivalent experience.
·Certified in food safety.
Traits, Skills and Competencies
·Must understand and practice the member service philosophy at the Club and be fully engaged in and fulfilled by providing members with consistent, high quality food and innovative plate presentation.
·Is meticulous about food handling, cleaning, and organizing the kitchen and insists that all BOH staff do the same.
·Continually looks for opportunities to improve BOH service and learns and incorporates lessons from prior experiences. Must be willing to listen to staff and members for input and understands that the EC and entire BOH department are there to fulfill members’ needs.
·Is a well-respected, proactive member of the management team and is able to generate thoughts and ideas that result in increased sales and improved member satisfaction.
·Inspires and motivates not only kitchen staff but everyone around them.
·Excellent financial skills, with the ability to quickly assimilate numbers and reports.
·Is knowledgeable regarding typical club BOH F&B critical benchmarking and financial metrics that lead to proactive responses to trending curves.
·Possesses strong organizational skills.
·Is an innovative leader in all aspects of the position. Is visionary and trend setting yet understands and is respectful of long-standing club culinary traditions and is able to balance both into menu, special, and banquet offerings.
·Exceptionally strong communication and facilitation skills, both written and verbal, with the appropriate personal presence, and a desire and ability to interact effectively before diverse constituencies of members, staff, vendors and others who are part of the success of the Olympic Club.
·Understands that flavors and consistency are key drivers of the private club experience in all food offerings. The EC is just as passionate about producing the shrimp and crab salad and prime rib as preparing the most complex dishes and exploring the latest culinary trends.
·Understands that Clubs are all things to all people and enjoys producing diverse offerings from casual to gourmet trends.
Miscellaneous