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Job Description:

Amara, located at 670 N Midvale Blvd in Madison, WI, is seeking a Sous Chef to join our team. 

 

Amara is our take on contemporary coastal Italian cuisine featuring sharable small plates and bites, hand-crafted pastas, and entrées showcasing the bounty of Madison Wisconsin. Our wine list will feature cutting edge Italian and Italian-inspired artisan wines farmed by hand and made with classical methods. Our bar will showcase the art of Italian drinking including aperitifs, negronis, cocktails and espresso​. Amara will open its doors in the late summer of 2022.

 

The name Amara derives from the Ancient Greek ‘Amáranthos’, which means ‘everlasting flower’. Amore in Italian, Amará in Spanish, and Amara in Arabic all refer to love. Yet, Amara in Italian means bitter, conjuring some of the hallmarks of Italian cooking and drinking, where herbs, bitter greens, and digestivi are celebrated for their health benefits and healing botanical qualities. Bitter and sweet are often found together, and at the same time, and couldn't be more relevant to us now as we move forward with purpose and intention seeking balance, healing, health, sustainability, and love.

 

Sous Chef - Amara - Madison, WI

The Sous Chef will, will work under the direction of Rule No. One Hospitality, our Madison-based hospitality group, create and maintain a culture championing knowledge, excellence, fun, service and approachability (internal and external).  Orientation to our mission and our customer at all times is key.  You will be working with a chef team led by some of the Madison's top talent, including RNO Beverage Director, Caitlyn Nicholson and RNO Culinary Director Jon Nodler, a James Beard Foundation nominated semi-finalist and Executive chef of Food & Wine Magazine’s “#1 Best New Restaurant” in 2019, and RNO Wine Director and partner in Amara, James Juedes.

 

The Sous Chef will be a member of the Amara Management Team overseeing the day to day operations of the kitchen.  The Sous Chef will work to create and maintain a culture devoid of ego and entitlement championing knowledge, excellence, fun, service and approachability (internal and external).  Orientation to our mission and our customer at all times is key. 

 

The Sous Chef role is divided between kitchen administration and cooking.

Kitchen Administration

  • Staff scheduling and overseeing staffing levels to maintain proper labor costs and performance

  • Ensure all delivery receiving and invoice documentation

  • Overseeing cleanliness and organization in accordance with policies set forth for all Rule No. One Hospitality (R.N.O.) kitchens and Health Departments standards

  • Work with Culinary Director to plan and coordinate all on and off-site events, Cook If Forward, specials, promotions and other pertinent events outside of the in house operations

  • Attendance of necessary meetings with the management team 

  • Maintain a strong understanding of sales, food cost (cost of goods sold), labor cost, budgets, and what steps can be taken to manipulate performance to meet target goals

  • Overseeing personnel decisions including disciplinary action, hiring and firing

Culinary

  • Maintaining food quality standards for the restaurant. Oversee all phases of food procurement, production and service including inventory and ordering, storage and rotation, preparation, recipe adherence, plate presentation and service and production time standards

  • This position is a working/cooking position that will require you to be heavily involved with the day to days of kitchen 

    • This position will require to work stations on the line when necessary 

    • Expedite service when necessary

  • The Executive Sous Chef is responsible for ensuring service goes smoothly and that all food leaving the kitchen is to the standards of Amara

  • Collaborate with the R.N.O. Culinary Director in recipe writing, development, maintenance and oversight

  • Oversee all training of new or developing staff

Creative / Technical / Industry

  • Report to and collaborate with the Culinary Director and ownership to maintain a culinary program that reflects our city’s evolving food culture, seasonality, personality and tradition.

  • Assist with building impeccable purveyor and farmer relationships, understand kitchen & marketing trends.

  • Social media outreach - work with Executive management including, but not necessarily limited to, the Executive Chef and the RNO. Marketing Director,  to understand and lead professional and strategic messaging.

  • Participate in necessary off site events around the city as an ambassador for Amara and RNO

  • Creating and enforcing a kitchen culture that is positive, inclusive and empowering in accordance with Amara’s mission and values​

Reporting:

The role will report directly to the Chef de Cuisine of Amara and the RNO Culinary Director.

Benefits:

  • Competitive wages

  • A flexible and predictable schedule that is posted two weeks in advance

  • 50% dining discount for your friends and family

  • Free and healthy GF Vegetarian or Regular staff meals

  • Access to Amara's online classroom with training materials, recipes, and checklists.  After full orientation, we offer weekly paid training opportunities to taste wine, spirits and food with industry experts

  • Our mission is centered around treating each other and ourselves well through our love of food, drink, and community.

  • Sustainability must be possible and attainable in our industry!

  • All employees are offered health, dental and vision insurance

  • Paid time off

  • 401k contribution

  • The chance to work in a brand new clean facility with state of the art new equipment

  • The chance to contribute to one of the most dynamic restaurant groups in the region

 

Our ideal Executive Sous Chef has the following attributes:

  • 1-2+ years of high level fine dining kitchen management experience.

  • Calm, confident, and focused

  • Able to thrive in a team environment as a reliable and trustworthy player.

  • Awareness and communication are key.  Be vocal and communicative, communicating to managers and the kitchen team.

  • Be impeccably clean, neat and tidy in their personal appearance and also in their working habits. Must adhere to the uniform policy outlined upon hire

  • Also maintain the highest standards of hygiene in their workplace.  Sanitation is a vital aspect of working in the kitchen, equal to the ability to cook.

  • Corporate experience is highly preferred with professional use of email communications as well as proficiency in Google Workspace (Gmail, Drive, Classroom, Sheets, Docs etc.)

  • Self motivated and respectful.  Respect across the kitchen team, FOH and bar, with caring for not only the employees but also the food and the process.  Promote the role of the cook as a Trade and a career and help spread professionalism throughout the industry.

  • Embody the organizational mission and caring, inclusive, and authentic values in terms of who we are and what we believe (outlined below).

RNO is a mission-driven lifestyle company dedicated to creating spaces for celebrating and treating each other and ourselves well.  We seek to provide warm, fun and an endlessly interesting mix of inspired programming that challenges, invigorates and delights our guests by celebrating our craft, who we are, what we do and what we believe. As a community-driven hospitality management organization, we are active in social causes supporting women, Black, LGBTQ+, and Indigenous communities everywhere. Cook It Forward is a non-profit advocacy arm of Rule No One Hospitality, Inc. with a mission to address ongoing inequities in our food systems. We are all working collectively on social entrepreneurship, social equity, and social justice-- one meal at a time.

 

Our Values:

  • Inclusivity.  We will establish a culturally diverse and  inclusive environment, one that specifically supports minorities, all genders, and those historically underrepresented in our industry.

  • Humility. We are modest about capabilities, admit mistakes, and create the space for others to contribute.

  • Effective Collaboration. We are a team centered around positivity, that stands for one message which involves empowering others, empathizing with each other, and uplifting others as a collective.

  • Respect and Justice / Health and Well-Being. All team members need to be treated respectfully and fairly.  This pertains to equity in pay, and specific attention to physical/mental health, well-being and safety.

  • Positivity and Love of Food and Community. Cooking and serving others is a powerful act of caring and love for one another.  Let us work together to bring our community together through the power of food and drink

Pay Rate:

$50k, plus benefits

Amara is an equal opportunity employer, with a mission to support women, Black, LGBTQ+ applicants.  As an organization, we support a minimum wage of $16/hour.

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Application For:

Sous Chef - Amara - Madison, WI

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Contact Us

Rule No. 1 Hospitality Group

106 E. Doty St.

Madison, WI. 53703

info@rulenoone.com

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