EVENT AND CATERING SOUS CHEF

Lula Cafe, the farm-to-table institution and beloved Logan Square community member, is hiring an EVENT AND CATERING SOUS CHEF.  

For 24+ years we have strived to be a vibrant and empathetic restaurant, always looking for new paths forward.  In the same way our CATERING DIVISION brings an ever-changing, dynamic menu of seasonal dishes designed to make our guests feel alive, to bring them closer to beauty, honesty, and care.  These values are more important than ever when the event is a wedding, a special birthday, or a graduation party.  We recognize that these days are the markers in people’s lives and we want to leave impactful, heartfelt, delicious memories.  

(At every wedding we do, we want the takeaway to be, “I’ve never had food like this at a wedding!”)

We are looking for someone who can bring energy, skills, vision and passion to the off site events program and to support our Catering Chef in all their duties.   This individual should share our values first and foremost, but they also must have experience with large scale cooking off site.  Our kitchen is built around care and respect, where we do our best and assume that others are doing the same.  Our Catering Chef centers teaching first.  Under their guidance, the team strives to succeed together, because they like the craft, respect the products, care for the community, and want to learn.  This culture extends beyond our kitchen to our relationships with farmers and purveyors who share these same ambitions. 

We believe that great hospitality can be nourishing, purposeful, funny, tender, and real.  We believe in respecting the hard labor that goes into this work, by giving our team the resources, training and guidance they need to excel, and by listening and collaborating with them as we go.   Together, our team of managers and chefs mentor and guide, lead by example and courage, and not by fear.  We believe in serious effort, conscious choices, hard work for good outcomes, and enjoying each other’s company. 

Our Events Sous Chef is responsible for supporting the Catering Chef in the planning and execution of off site and on premise private events.  

Responsibilities and Qualifications

Key responsibilities include production organization and planning for special events, supporting the Chef in their efforts around product quality control, cost and waste management, ordering and receiving, special menu development and production staff management. 

The Event Sous Chef will have the following qualifications: 

• Experience at a management level with off-site catering and events for at least 2 years. 
• Experience with fine dining or similar food and service
• Experience with high volume food service.
• Ability to cook at the highest level in hot boxes, circulators, outdoor grills, etc. 
• Ability to make swift and critical decisions 
• Understanding and proficiency with budgets, spreadsheets and financial analysis
• Proficiency with production scheduling, ordering, product organization and vendor relationships
• Ability to scale recipes while maintaining quality.
• An open schedule, both early mornings and late nights are a possibility
• Ability to work ~50 hours per week, depending on business needs
• Ability to lift 50 pounds and work on their feet for long periods of time
• Ability to communicate in Spanish. 
• Fluency with IT and google, excel, quickbooks, POS,  misc. scheduling software

The Event Sous Chef will take on the following responsibilities:

• Support the Catering Chef
• Center Lula's core values, vision, mission (see website)
• Elevate food quality and efficiency standards in event kitchen
• Collaborate on special event menu planning and development. 
• Reduce waste, uphold sustainability standards.
• Maintain team orientated culture for BOH employees 
• Oversee health and safety standards for event production employees
• Manage pantry, production and organizational systems for events
• Oversee menu inventory, production lists, ordering and receiving
• Collaborate and organize special programming, offsite events and daily production 
• work with Event Chef on offsite execution and setup
• Uphold financial growth for Events and special programming 
• Review and streamline spending for COGS and event production labor 

Compensation Details

Compensation: Salary (Based on Experience)

Benefits & Perks: Health Insurance, Dental Insurance, Vision Insurance, Paid Time Off, 401k, Potential Bonuses