Culinary Specialist (Texas)
Culinary Specialist, Texas:
A Culinary Innovation and product development role creating new product ideas, prototypes from Authentic Italian Cuisine. A key member of our Dinners and Sauces R&D team focusing on core research, product development, and innovation. Core products include Pasta Sauces, Pasta, Soups, Italian Frozen Entrees, and a pipeline of new ideas readied to expand the brand into new categories. The role is a key culinary and creative position a part of our R&D center of excellence.
In this role, you will be joining a team of passionate food professionals who are consumer obsessed! We pride ourselves on creating delicious food for joyful living. As we focus on Taste Leadership and Exceptional User experiences, we are looking for a consumer obsessed culinary professional to join our team – someone who is creative, strategic, independent and collaborative and who can execute with a high attention of detail and communication with expertise in Authentic Italian Cuisine
This is a hands-on culinary kitchen and retail product development role, under the guidance of a seasoned culinary and product development leader and team. You will work cross functionally during the strategic planning, development and execution of food marketing plans and frequently deliver trends and consumer food insights to the businesses. You will also work cross functionally with R&D, Marketing, Sales, to support new platforms and innovation pipelines.
Key Components of Responsibilities:
- Advance culinary basics with focus on Authentic Italian Cuisine: The principles of cooking techniques; Product characteristics; Safe food handling techniques; Food & nutrition idea development; Product performance testing protocols.
- Generate new products, gold standards, and advance our Innovation, Renovation and Line extension pipelines.
- Partner with research scientist to advance gold standards and application of culinary recipes into production ready products for retail and club channels.
- Develop well-written and consumer inspired food ideas, using established formats and styles and support brand concept development.
- Conduct product performance tests and comprehensive evaluations for foolproof package directions and claims substantiations.
- Effectively apply and implement consumer food insights and trends along with sensory attributes and principles into project work to guide decision-making.
- Communicate Culinary best practices and Authentic Italian Cuisine within the department and to business partners. Apply knowledge from proprietary culinary tools and research.
- Communicate ideas and research in presentations to cross-functional teams.
- Work well in a cross-functional team environment, able to balance multiple and/or shifting priorities, and flex to provide support to colleagues as needed with clear communication.
- Proactively track food trends to determine where product innovation and content creation opportunities exist, then translates how those trends could come to life to support the business strategies.
- Represent the Culinary function and participate in internal and external culinary initiatives.
Qualifications
You are…
- A Certified Research Chef
- A self-starter, take initiative and get stuff done with a high degree of excellence
- You are passionate about helping people achieve their goals and improve themselves
- An “A” player who is willing to jump in and wear different hats when needed to meet our goals and deliver results
- Curious, creative and driven improve yourself everyday
- A creator who thrives in a fast-paced team, is change ready, and maintains professional results
You have…
- Minimum 2-3 years of experience in culinary, food and nutrition with experience in Authentic Italian Cuisine with Professional culinary training from an accredited institution.
- Commitment to food safety and sanitation; ServSafe Certified preferred
- Familiarity with USDA/FDA guidelines
- A strong understanding of key dietary lifestyles such as the Ketogenic Diet, low/slow carb diet, vegan and vegetarian diets, plant based and new trends.
- A passion for staying up to speed on the most current research on the science of nutrition
- Sensitivity and experience working with diverse populations, cultures, and socioeconomic backgrounds