Chef de Cuisine – Pan-Asian Restaurant at Serena Hotels

Job Purpose:

Nairobi Serena Hotel is seeking an experienced, creative, and quality-focused Chef de Cuisine to lead the culinary operations of our Pan-Asian restaurant. The successful candidate will be responsible for designing and executing an authentic, innovative, and commercially viable Southeast Asian-inspired menu while ensuring consistency, quality, cost control, food safety, and an exceptional guest dining experience.

The ideal candidate should demonstrate strong expertise in authentic Southeast Asian cuisine, with practical knowledge of dishes, ingredients, cooking techniques, sauces, herbs, spices, and presentation styles from cuisines such as Thai, Vietnamese, Malaysian, Indonesian, Singaporean, and other regional Asian culinary traditions.

Key responsibilities

• Lead the day-to-day culinary operations of the Pan-Asian restaurant’s kitchen, ensuring smooth kitchen workflow, high productivity, and excellent service delivery.
• Design, develop, and implement authentic Pan-Asian menus that reflect quality, creativity, seasonality, and cultural authenticity.
• Prepare, standardize, and maintain detailed recipes, including ingredients, methods of preparation, portion sizes, plating standards, allergen information, and yield controls.
• Conduct accurate food costing for all menu items and work closely with the Executive Chef and Cost Controller to maintain approved food cost targets.
• Ensure consistent quality, taste, presentation, portioning, and temperature of all dishes served from the restaurant’s kitchen.
• Carry out regular quality checks on raw ingredients, mise en place, cooked products, à la carte items, and final plate presentation.
• Train, coach, supervise, and motivate kitchen team members in Pan-Asian cooking techniques, hygiene practices, food safety, presentation standards, and service expectations.
• Maintain high standards of food safety, sanitation, cleanliness, and storage in line with Nairobi Serena Hotel’s policies and applicable public health regulations.
• Monitor stock levels, and ensure the proper use, storage, rotation, and control of ingredients, especially specialty Asian products.
• Work collaboratively with service teams to ensure menu knowledge, smooth guest communication, and prompt resolution of guest feedback relating to food quality or presentation.
• Introduce creative chef’s specials, tasting menus, promotions, and culinary concepts that enhance the restaurant’s reputation and guest experience.
• Ensure kitchen equipment is used properly, maintained in good working condition, and reported promptly when repairs or replacements are required.

Required Qualifications & Experience

• Professional training in Culinary Arts, Hotel Management, Food Production, or a related field.
• Working experience of 3-5 years as a Chef de Cuisine, Sous Chef, Specialty Chef, or senior culinary leader in a Pan-Asian, or high-quality specialty restaurant.
• Strong hands-on ability to prepare authentic Southeast Asian dishes using traditional and contemporary cooking techniques.
• Excellent knowledge of Asian ingredients, condiments, sauces, spices, noodles, rice dishes, broths, marinades, seafood, meats, vegetables, and specialty cooking methods.
• Demonstrated experience in menu design, menu engineering, recipe writing, costing, portion control, and quality assurance.
• Strong leadership, organizational, planning, training, and team management skills.
• Good understanding of food hygiene, HACCP principles, kitchen safety, stock control, and waste management.
• Ability to communicate clearly and professionally in English, both verbally and in  writing.
• Proven commercial awareness especially in food costing and cost control.