Help Wanted: Line Chef Instructor With a Pinch of Patience

Like nearly all of our job postings here at Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center, there is an important proviso for potential employees and that caveat is this: You must be willing to empower an active student body and work closely alongside these young charges.

Our mountainside campus in Estes Park, Colorado, is in need of a line chef instructor, and our big concern isn’t that you be able to prepare chateaubriand with your eyes closed. Our big concern is that you can take teen-aged students under your wing and patiently teach them what you’ve learned in your culinary career.

We aren’t looking for a strict disciplinarian behind the counter or the arbitrarily shouting of “No soup for you!” Rather, we are seeking a chef willing to support students in finding and nurturing their own particular kitchen skills while simultaneously receiving the benefits of becoming reengaged in their own education. As a result, we seek someone who can help our students develop and customize their own potential passion for cooking, and we need someone to lead the way rather than bark orders like a fry cook.

Equally important for our successful applicant is the ability to remain calm and comfortable in a year-round residential high school setting where discipline is based on relationships and mutual respect. You’ll find at Eagle Rock that our staff works closely together to develop active-learning opportunities for our students in the school kitchen. We care about each other’s successes, our students’ experience, and we work hard to constantly innovate.

Truth is, working at Eagle Rock School is not for everybody. If you think students need to be “taught lessons,” or you believe a kitchen staff should follow standard curriculum or documents, or learning should only occur during the traditional school day, we’re not the place for you.

It’s not a nine-to-five job. It’s a lifestyle. Which is why we are seeking someone with boundless energy and an inherent trust in the ability of our youth. Our applicants not only need excellent cooking skills, but the ability to pass on that excellence to our students. Equally important are patience, humor, integrity and the desire to teach and push our students to realize their potential.

Our food philosophy is local, seasonal, sustainable and ethical. The food we serve is restaurant style. We are not a cafeteria.

You’ll work with other chefs along with our students for breakfast, lunch and dinner preparations. Our students are fully involved in the kitchen and are dependent upon your guidance in the area of culinary preparation and service. The ability to cook for between 100-150 people while safely leading a team of high school students in the kitchen is imperative.

Specifically, our new line chef instructor will be responsible for:

• Meal preparation in accordance to school scheduled meal times.
• Training and evaluation of students in each meal shift.
• Assuring compliance with county, state and federal laws and health regulations.
• Working on your feet in a kitchen environment for about 80 percent of your shift and be able to lift at least 50 pounds.
• Assisting in creating meal plans as a kitchen team.
• Working with deliveries from vendors and preparing/organizing deliveries.

We’re looking for candidates with an Associate in Occupational Studies (AOS) in Culinary Arts and three to five years of cooking experience with an emphasis in food production, service and nutrition or ACF Certified Cook Credentials. You should be able to operate comfortably in a kitchen environment with standard equipment such as ovens, dishwashers, slicers, mixers, etc.

If you believe you have the skills and the attitude for this non-exempt, full-time hourly position, please submit a brief cover letter, a resume, a brief skills self-assessment that indicates results produced in any area of responsibility at a previous workplace, three professional references (phone and email) to info@eaglerockschool.org. No phone calls please. We only accept electronic submissions.

The deadline for applications is March 20, 2017, with phone interviews scheduled from March 1 through March 24. Onsite interviews will take place from March 27 through March 31 and we would like our winning candidate to begin work beginning April 1, 2017.

For a complete job description, please see the Employment page on the Eagle Rock website.