Culinary Director

The Healthcare Culinary Director combines healthcare knowledge, culinary expertise, and hospitality leadership to develop a food service program that reflects the organization's commitment to exceptional care. The Director is expected to lead with a strong service mindset, recognizing that food, presentation, hospitality, and personal interaction are important components of the overall patient and resident experience.

• Provides overall leadership and direction for Culinary Services and Food & Nutrition operations across the organization.
• Oversee daily food preparation, meal service, dining operations, staffing, scheduling, purchasing, inventory, sanitation, and department workflow.
• Develops and maintains efficient department processes while ensuring high standards for food quality, presentation, consistency, safety, and service.
• Provides visible, hands-on leadership and maintains an active presence within culinary operations and dining areas.
• Recruits, trains, develops, evaluates, and supports culinary and food service team members.
• Establishes clear performance expectations and promotes accountability, teamwork, professionalism, and excellent customer service.
• Works collaboratively with nursing, clinical leadership, administration, dietitians, long-term care leadership, and other departments to ensure culinary services support the needs of patients and residents.

• Provides culinary leadership in menu development, food preparation, presentation, quality, and consistency.
• Develops menus that balance nutrition, clinical requirements, resident and patient preferences, food quality, variety, presentation, and cost effectiveness.
• Promote fresh, appealing, high-quality meals appropriate for a healthcare environment.
• Ensures standardized recipes, portion controls, production standards, and appropriate food preparation techniques are consistently followed.
• Evaluates opportunities to enhance menus, special events, holiday meals, employee dining, catering, and resident dining experiences.
• Maintains awareness of culinary trends and identifies appropriate opportunities to improve healthcare dining services.

• Ensure food service operations comply with applicable federal, state, and local requirements, including healthcare, long-term care, food safety, sanitation, infection prevention, and life safety standards applicable to the organization.
• Maintains appropriate policies, procedures, documentation, logs, and quality-control processes.
• Ensures compliance with dietary orders, therapeutic diets, allergies, food intolerances, texture modifications, and other clinically required dietary accommodations in collaboration with appropriate clinical professionals.
• Participates in regulatory surveys, inspections, audits, quality initiatives, and corrective action plans as appropriate.
• Works collaboratively with Infection Prevention, Nursing, Quality, Risk Management, and other departments to maintain safe food handling and environmental practices.
• Ensures staff receive required education and competency training related to food safety, sanitation, infection prevention, dietary requirements, and department procedures.

• Creates a culture of…