About the role
We are looking for a Culinary Solutions Chef who can transform traditional dishes into simple, scalable and standardized recipes that can be consistently executed for hundreds or thousands of meals. This is not a conventional restaurant chef position. The role combines culinary development, recipe standardization, industrial catering, supplier coordination, client training and operational problem-solving.
Key Responsibilities:
1. Menu & Recipe Development
- Develop breakfast, lunch and dinner menus suitable for high-volume industrial catering and factory canteen operations.
- Create Malaysian, Asian and other relevant menu concepts according to client requirements.
- Develop menus based on the client’s workforce demographics, ethnic composition and cultural food preferences, ensuring meal selections are relevant and suitable for their factory workers.
- Develop practical menu rotations that provide sufficient variety for daily and weekly meal planning.
- Simplify traditional recipes into cooking methods suitable for large-volume production.
- Design recipes primarily around combi ovens and other efficient bulk-cooking methods.
- Minimize complicated preparation such as excessive chopping, marination, frying and multi-stage cooking.
- Maximize the use of ready-to-use sauces, pastes, seasonings and pre-portioned ingredients.
2. Recipe Simplification & Standardization
- Convert culinary concepts and traditional recipes into simple, repeatable cooking systems.
- For example: 1 pack sauce/paste + X kg chicken + X ml water + X g supporting ingredients → Cook at XC for X minutes → Ready to serve
- Standardize each recipe with clearly defined:
- Ingredient quantities
- Portion size
- Expected yield
- Cooking temperature and time
- Equipment settings
- Cooking sequence
- Holding requirements
- Serving instructions
- Conduct trials to ensure recipes remain consistent when scaled to different production volumes.
- Ensure recipes can be reproduced successfully by kitchen operators without requiring highly skilled chefs.
3. SOP Development
- Develop clear and practical Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for all approved menus.
- Ensure SOPs are simple enough for client kitchen operators to understand and execute consistently.
- Customize SOPs according to each client’s available kitchen equipment, production capacity and operational environment.
- Validate SOPs through actual cooking trials before client implementation.
- Maintain and update recipe specifications and SOP documentation whenever improvements or changes are made.
4. Raw Material & Ingredient Specifications
- Determine the appropriate raw material specifications for every menu developed.
- Define specifications including:
- Meat/chicken cut and portion size
- Vegetable type and cut size
- Seafood specifications
- Rice/noodle requirements
- Sauce/paste quantity
- Seasoning and supporting ingredients
- Design ingredient requirements to minimize preparation work at client kitchens.
- Work towards ingredients being supplied pre-cut, pre-portioned or ready-to-cook wherever commercially feasible.
- Ensure ingredient specifications provide consistent cooking results, yield and food quality.
5. Supplier Collaboration
- Liaise with poultry, meat, seafood, vegetable and other ingredient suppliers to establish the required product specifications.
- Communicate requirements such as cut size, portion size, packing format and quality standards.
- Conduct supplier ingredient trials where necessary.
- Evaluate alternative ingredients or suppliers when required due to cost, availability or operational considerations.
- Work closely with internal commercial and operational teams during supplier discussions and implementation.
6. Client Kitchen Assessment & Customization
- Conduct site visits to understand each client’s:
- Kitchen equipment
- Kitchen layout
- Cooking capacity
- Storage capacity
- Manpower
- Meal volume
- Operational limitations
- Customize recipes and cooking SOPs according to the client’s actual kitchen setup.
- Recommend the most suitable cooking methodology and equipment utilization to achieve efficient large-volume production.
- Identify potential operational challenges before menu implementation.
7. Client Training, Implementation & Post-Service Support
- Support new client onboarding and menu implementation.
- Conduct cooking demonstrations and hands-on training for client kitchen teams.
- Train kitchen operators on how to correctly read, understand and follow the provided SOPs, including ingredient quantities, cooking sequence, equipment settings, cooking time, portioning and serving requirements.
- Provide post-implementation training and follow-up support to ensure client teams can independently execute the SOPs correctly.
- Observe actual kitchen execution and identify gaps between the documented SOP and actual operating practices.
- Conduct refresher training where necessary.
- Conduct follow-up visits and operational audits when required.
- Troubleshoot cooking, food quality, product performance and SOP execution issues at client sites.
8. Cost & Operational Efficiency
- Develop menus with consideration for both culinary quality and commercial viability.
- Work with internal teams to evaluate:
- Cost per serving
- Ingredient utilization
- Food wastage
- Preparation time
- Cooking time
- Labour requirements
- Equipment capacity
- Batch size
- Portion control
- Cooking yield
- Continuously identify opportunities to simplify recipes, reduce operational complexity and improve efficiency.
- Ensure menu solutions are practical for high-volume commercial implementation.
About you
- Diploma or Degree in Culinary Arts, Food Service Management or a related discipline is preferred
- Minimum 3–5 years of relevant culinary experience
- Experience in industrial catering, factory/institutional catering, central kitchen operations, food manufacturing, QSR / chain restaurant operations, large-volume catering, or culinary R&D / product development is highly advantageous
- Strong understanding of bulk cooking, recipe scaling and portion control
- Hands-on experience with combi ovens is highly preferred
- Good understanding of ingredient functionality, cooking yield and food quality
- Able to develop recipes using precise measurements and standardized processes
- Able to prepare clear recipe documentation and cooking SOPs
- Comfortable communicating and working directly with suppliers and clients
- Willing to travel to client sites when required
Pay: RM3,500.00 - RM5,500.00 per month
Benefits:
Application Question(s):
- What's your current salary?
- What's your expected salary?
Experience:
- Catering: 2 years (Preferred)
Work Location: In person