Executive Pastry Chef

Role overview

Culinary direction and operations

• Set pastry and bakery vision; create innovative products, signature items, seasonal menus, afternoon tea, festive collections, and bespoke event and VIP offerings.
• Maintain high standards for taste, temperature, texture, presentation, portioning, product consistency, and luxury positioning.
• Direct daily production; forecast requirements, manage par levels, and supply hotel outlets on time.
• Coordinate restaurant, banquet, room-service, event, stewarding, stores, purchasing, and culinary teams; oversee setups and service timing.
• Standardize recipes, specifications, production procedures, portion control, displays, and menu cards; reduce waste and spoilage.
• Conduct tastings, menu reviews, benchmarking, and innovation sessions; respond to guest feedback and prepare for quality assessments.

Team and financial management

• Lead, motivate, coach, and train pastry and bakery colleagues; set standards, schedules, responsibilities, and accountability.
• Manage briefings, demonstrations, performance reviews, staffing, recruitment, onboarding, retention, succession, and career development.
• Own food-cost performance; manage recipe costing, yields, inventory, purchasing, production quantities, waste, budgets, and profitability reviews.
• Prepare annual operating CAPEX plans; evaluate equipment and technology, manage purchase controls, and work with finance, purchasing, and suppliers.

Food safety and sustainability

• Maintain HACCP, food safety, allergen, sanitation, and regulatory compliance, including temperature, storage, labeling, traceability, and cross-contamination controls.
• Train staff in food-safety procedures and maintain hygiene and cleanliness throughout pastry and bakery areas.
• Reduce food waste and use ingredients, energy, water, packaging, and other resources responsibly; support hotel sustainability initiatives.
• Coordinate with engineering on preventive maintenance and equipment needs; work with the Chief Steward on cleaning standards.

Qualifications and experience

• At least eight years in an international-class hotel, including at least two years in a similar capacity; at least ten years of progressive pastry experience is also specified.
• Previous Executive Pastry Chef, Executive Sous Pastry Chef, or equivalent senior leadership experience; experience managing multicultural pastry and bakery teams.
• Diploma or degree in Pastry Arts, Culinary Arts, Hospitality Management, or equivalent professional qualification.
• Strong expertise in French and international pastry, bakery, chocolate, confectionery, viennoiserie, and plated desserts.
• Experience in food costing, budgeting, inventory, menu development, and commercial management; strong HACCP, food-safety, and allergen knowledge.
• Experience with LQA or equivalent luxury hospitality standards is highly desirable.

Personal attributes and skills

• Oral and written fluency in English is required; other languages and basic local-language knowledge are preferred.
• Strong hands-on leadership and supervisory skills, initiative, creativity, teamwork, adaptability, and finance knowledge.
• The posting also lists physical fitness and culinary-related certificates or apprenticeship as desirable qualifications.

Role performance areas

• Performance areas include luxury quality audits, guest satisfaction, product consistency, menu innovation, afternoon tea standards, and culinary knowledge.
• Financial and operational measures include food cost, waste, inventory variance, profitability, purchasing efficiency, production efficiency, outlet and banquet satisfaction, par accuracy, food safety, and equipment efficiency.
• People and sustainability measures include engagement, retention, training, internal promotions, succession, productivity, food-waste reduction, sustainable sourcing, and resource efficiency.

Application process

• Applicants receive a prompt from AssessFirst to create a profile and complete a questionnaire; the posting states this step is mandatory for candidacy consideration.

Colleague benefits

• Benefits include complimentary upgrades and extended stays, discounted stays at Fairmont and Raffles properties, and dining and wellness discounts.

Workplace

• The position is based at Raffles Dubai, a hotel in Dubai.