EXECUTIVE CHEF, WESTMORELAND COUNTRY CLUB
Wilmette, Illinois
Club Background
Westmoreland Country Club is centrally located, within the exclusive North Shore community of Wilmette, less than 20 miles from Chicago. Founded in 1911, the Club just completed a full year of Centennial events and celebrations. Westmoreland is a member-owned club with approximately 550 members, is family oriented, and considered a Platinum top-tier country club. The Club is in excellent financial condition, with a wait list for full Regular golf membership and nearly no debt. The Regular golf membership Initiation Fee is $75,000; total operating revenues are $7M, of which F and B revenues are $2.5M.
The Club’s property includes an 18-hole championship golf course, which was redesigned by Arthur Hills, and is considered to have some of the best greens within the Chicago golf course community. Ten years ago, the Club developed its “West End Project” which included a new championship aquatics complex including a café, 6 Har Tru tennis courts, and pro shop. During the winter season, the Club offers 4 paddle tennis courts and skeet shooting. The entire 65,000 square foot clubhouse and campus is of Colonial Williamsburg style. F and B member dining amenities to the clubhouse, exclusive of the seasonal pool side café and halfway house, include a Grill Room (125 seating capacity), Blue Stone Patio (80 seating capacity), Men’s Locker Room Grill (50 seating capacity), Monticello Wine Room (16 seating capacity), Crab Apple Patio (50 seating capacity), and a beautiful cocktail lounge. The clubhouse banquet facilities include Living Room and Porch, Windsor Room and Porch and a tented Terrace that combined can handle events up to 300; we also have a Library/Board Room which can seat 20.
Westmoreland is in the midst of retaining an architect to study, and develop a concept, that will expand and renovate its a la carte kitchen and member dining venues into distinct areas that will accommodate both families and quiet adult dining, including a bar. In addition, the Club is finalizing the implementation for a new golf course drainage system that will put the icing on the cake of the championship, manicured course, as the greens and irrigation system are new within the last few years.
Executive Chef
Westmoreland seeks an executive chef to take its overall food program to the “next level” - a program that will be competitive with other top-tier country clubs, current, exciting, and a program that will create “buzz” within the membership.
The executive chef will report directly to the General Manager as well as working very closely with the clubhouse manager and catering director. The executive chef will have direct reports of a sous chef, banquet chef, pastry chef and lead cook.
Core Job Responsibilities
· Lead, motivate and directs kitchen staff
· Ensure that all food is consistently outstanding – from standard country club fare to special culinary events throughout out all food venues (member dining, banquets, club events, pool café); consistency in producing and delivering popular club menu items is just as important to the member experience as producing memorable and sophisticated culinary specialty dinners and the ability to ensure that their team approaches each with identical focus.
· Positive and regular “face” for culinary operations for the Club and needs to be comfortable interacting with in both back and front of house settings
· Team builder who mentors kitchen staff and develops a pipeline of talented and creative staff and interns by building a reputation as an excellent learning and training ground for up and coming culinarians
· Leads initiatives relative to accident prevention and staff retention, sanitation and safety standards; must pay sharp attention to detail, enforces highest standards of sanitation and safety
· Assist in leading the member service initiative with all kitchen areas and strives to improve member survey and comment card scores versus prior years.
· Responsible for leading the product knowledge training of front-of-house staff through daily pre-meal meetings and special food knowledge training programs
· Ability to look at mistakes as opportunities for improvement, and instills this mindset and outcome into their team, while at the same time epitomizing the perspective of being readily open and embracing of input, as well as approachable by members and staff
· Coordinates internally and is very involved with F and B Managers and service personnel on a daily basis to ensure timely, knowledgeable and efficient service; coordinates closely with other key department heads as it relates to cooperative efforts surrounding planning, scheduling, special events and implementation of club functions
· Executive Chef must be “obsessed” with doing things well, consistently better, and has a strong “back door” focus to achieve financial goals and expectations
· Strong work ethic “in season” and recognizes need to effectively plan, evaluate, recruit and re-tool “off season”; clubhouse is closed January, first half of February, and open 5 days per week from mid-February through April and October through December and 6 days per week May through September.
· Ability to control costs – both product and staffing – to achieve financial goals while still maintaining agreed upon quality levels throughout the overall culinary operation
Traits, Skills and Competencies that Westmoreland seeks in its new executive chef, include the following:
· Absolute passion for food preparation, consistency and being the very best within the financial parameters of the Club’s culinary budget
· Creative in menu development, banquets, and club events
· Strong and passionate leader with a culinary professional proven track record of providing Platinum level services
· Diversified kitchen and hospitality experience is a plus; but a minimum of two years experience in a member-owned private club(s) is necessary.
· Understand and practice member service philosophy and be fully engaged in and fulfilled by providing members with consistent, high quality food and innovative plate presentation
· Meticulous about food handling, cleaning, and organizing the kitchen and insists that all back and front of the house staff do the same
· Continually looks for opportunities to improve back of the house service and learns and incorporates lessons from prior experiences; willing to listen to staff and members for input and understands that the chef and kitchen staff exist to fulfill members’ needs
· Well respected, pro-active member of the management team and is able to generate thoughts and ideas that result in increased sales and improved member satisfaction
· Solid communication skills, both verbal and written, with appropriate personal presence and desire and ability to interact effectively before diverse constituencies of members, staff and vendors who are part of the success of Westmoreland
· Proactively solves problems, develops and proposes solutions to problems that occur, anticipates needs of staff and members, and can quickly react to it
· Manages time and establishes priorities; is a self-starter and well organized
· One who is a “difference maker” wherever they have been in the past
· Proven integrity and honesty
· One who is committed to professional growth and development, for him or herself and their staff
· Must have computer skills with Microsoft Outlook, Word and Excel
Education and Experience
· Minimum Associates Degree in culinary arts from a reputable culinary school
· Certified Executive Chef (CEC) designation preferred from the American Culinary Federation
· Prior executive chef experience preferred, but a current executive sous chef that is supported by their current executive chef of “being ready”, both with a proven, verifiable, positive career track, unblemished by inappropriate behavior of any sort that would be potentially detrimental or embarrassing to the membership
Interested Candidates should send a resume and cover letter to: John C. Guy, General Manager/COO
Westmoreland Country Club, 2601 Old Glenview Road, Wilmette IL 60022
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