Executive Chef

Embrace your passion for hiking, skiing, snowboarding and many other outdoor activities in Banff National Park while pursuing a fulfilling career at Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise. Take a risk, make a change and experience a new adventure while further developing your career. To live and work in a National Park is a once in a lifetime opportunity.  Our team is a network of empowered individuals with a strong sense of themselves and the hospitality industry. Work hard, play hard and receive extraordinary benefits including subsidized onsite accommodations, which make saving money very easy to manage. Join our Fairmont family today!

We are seeking an experienced Executive Chef to lead our diverse culinary & stewarding teams in our luxury resort hotel, renowned for its high volumes across multiple restaurants and banquet facilities. The ideal candidate will possess exceptional leadership and communication skills, capable of inspiring and guiding a large team of culinary professionals to deliver outstanding guest experiences. Passionate about developing culinarians, they should have a proven track record of mentoring talent, fostering creativity, and maintaining high standards of quality and presentation. This role offers the opportunity to shape the culinary direction of a prestigious property, working in an environment that values innovation, teamwork, and excellence in service.

What you will be doing:

• Oversee the operation of all kitchen operations including Pastry, Garde Manger, Banquets, Colleague Restaurant, and multiple restaurant kitchens heading a team of up to 110 team members ensuring the consistent drive for a balanced scorecard.
• Lead and mentor the Executive Sous Chef, Chef de Cuisines and sous chefs, and their teams, across diverse outlets.
• Manage a large Stewarding team (up to 60 in peak season), including the Chief Steward, ensuring effective collaboration between restaurants, kitchens and stewarding.
• Work with senior culinary team on menu development and product innovation, supported by detailed analysis and accurate costing to ensure appropriate food cost attainment.  Apply, and monitor menu engineering principles to optimize profitability.
• Oversee standards of scheduling to ensure effective payroll cost results.
• Monitor food standards (including consistency and food safety) and presentation across all outlets and banquet operations.
• Provide oversight to food waste reduction and divisional operating expenses.
• Maintain strong relationships with purchasing and food store teams to optimize par levels and minimize waste.
• Ensure food safety and hygiene standards are adhered to at all times, implementing best practices in food handling.
• Conduct regular walk-throughs to maintain cleanliness, organization, and operational readiness of kitchen and stewarding areas.
• Actively participate in marketing/media opportunities to showcase the hotel’s food and beverage offerings.
• Support and champion hotel sustainability and environmental goals undertaken by the resort.
• Recruit, train, and retain top culinary talent.  Adopt and continue the hotels internal succession planning program to develop the culinary team.
• Directly responsible for the engagement of the culinary and stewarding teams.  Adopt/maintain/update the departmental action plans to ensure effective collaboration with the wider culinary team to drive their engagement.
• Maintain effective performance management, training, recognition throughout the kitchen/s and stewarding.
• Liaise closely with other F&B and hotel leaders to ensure collaborative and efficient operations.
• Develop and update departmental SOP Manuals as required, detailing standards of performance, policies, procedures, and service standards in line with hotel policies, brand standards, and municipal requirements.
• Ensure all Fairmont standards are upheld within the culinary and stewarding areas; including H&D, Antitrust, PCI, etc.
• As an executive member, uphold the highest standards of safety, service, and guest satisfaction through all interactions and decisions.
• Carry out other duties as assigned by the Director of Food & Beverage.