Executive Chef

The head chef who coordinates the kitchen operation of at least one (but usually more) restaurants
The title “Executive Chef” has several interpretations depending upon the size of the operation and who is using the title. The terms Chef, Executive Chef, and Chef de Cuisine are used interchangeably for the head chef. Larger operations may have all 3 positions (as defined below), but a smaller operation may have one person who essentially fills all three roles.

First, it is rather loosely applied to whoever is the head chef at an any establishment which creates its own recipes. Some independently owned restaurant Chefs may call themselves an Executive Chef because they are “the top dog” at the establishment, even if the restaurant only has a staff of 3 or 4 cooks including the Chef.

Operations such as Denny’s or Olive Garden may have a Kitchen Manager, Lead Cook, or Head Cook but not an Executive Chef on property because all the recipes are created by Corporate Chefs and the cooks simply prepare those recipes and follow the guidance of the unit Manager.

Second, in the case of large corporate operations such as the ones run by Compass Group and Aramark, the Executive Chef is the chef in charge of implementing and managing corporate menus. They manage staff feeding hundreds or thousands of people at places like Microsoft or Boeing.

Third, in the hospitality industry as a whole, the title Executive Chef typically refers to someone who oversees multiple venues, such as the head Chef at a resort hotel which has multiple restaurants, or the Chef who oversees multiple restaurants in a conglomerate or small group of independent restaurants (i.e. not a restaurant chain such as Denny’s or PF Chang’s). In this setting there may be one Executive Chef, perhaps an Executive Sous Chef (his/her right hand person), and then either Chef de Cuisines if there is a Chef who writes menus for each restaurant, or Sous Chefs if the Executive Chef writes the menus and the Sous Chefs maintain the food/recipe standards.