A country club executive chefs have a vast skill set that applies to much more than the menu—including labor, finance, event planning and more.
Fundamentally, Executive Chefs (EC) have an excellent overall knowledge base in culinary arts. Additionally, EC must have excellent management and leadership skills, good communication skills, presentation skills, financial skills, and strong business acumen.
Highly skilled in the culinary arts, EC must be able to develop recipes, create menus, understand nutritional guidelines, and maintain food safety and sanitation protocol. Country Club EC will have the added responsibility of creating menus for various daily events including members’ golf outings, bridge club events, board and committee meetings, and banquets and wedding events. Additionally, country club EC must be willing and able to accommodate special requests from their members and guests, even with items are not listed on the current menus.
Country club EC must also exhibit strong management and leadership skills. Country club operations consist of multiple dining outlets including the member dining restaurant(s), poolside dining, golf course dining facilities, banquet areas as well as employee dining outlets. The country club EC must have efficient training programs in place to ensure standards and consistency are met in all outlets as well as a strong management team to help oversee each of these outlets. The country club EC will also possess the skills necessary to operate any of these outlets as necessary.
Participation in member relations, as well as interdepartmental communications, are an added responsibility of country club EC, requiring strong written and verbal communication skills. In addition to daily interaction with members and their guests, many country club EC are required to attend specific committee meetings, discussing topics of concerns as well as proposed ideas.
Interdepartmentally, country club EC must maintain professionalism and a strong level of communication with other department head managers. With various activities and events occurring simultaneously at a country club, open lines of communication between the EC and department heads becomes protocol.
From a business perspective, country club EC must also maintain fiscal responsibility. Country club EC are responsible for creating fiscal budgets specific to their operations. Food costs are one of the largest expenses in a club operation; country club EC must have the ability to accurately identify and resolve fiscal deviations. Country club EC are responsible for maintaining consistent food and labor costs, in addition to skilled forecasting and fiscal planning.
