Role Overview
Totum Market and Cafe is seeking a Culinary Operations Lead to oversee all prepared foods, café production and back of house kitchen systems for our flagship Tampa location.
This role is designed for a chef operator who combines strong culinary instincts with operational discipline across inventory planning, labor management, forecasting and retail food production.
The Culinary Operations Lead will be responsible for building a scalable prepared foods program spanning grab and go, deli, fresh prepared foods, café offerings, smoothies, juices and seasonal menu rotations aligned with a natural grocery environment.
This position works closely with store leadership and the grocery buying team to ensure efficient production, strong margins and high product quality.
Key Responsibilities
- Oversee all back of house production including prep workflows, packaging systems and daily output scheduling across prepared foods stations
- Align prepared foods production with store inventory to reduce shrink and improve margin performance
- Maintain portion control standards, waste reduction systems and recipe costing discipline
- Optimize back kitchen layout and workflow for efficient production in a compact footprint along with labor allocation.
Café Food and Beverage Integration
- Oversee cafe food execution including smoothies, cold pressed juice program, baked goods, light cafe meals and prepared retail snacks
- Train cafe staff on product knowledge and upselling
- Coordinate production timing between kitchen and cafe teams
Inventory Planning and Forecasting
- Manage ordering
- Adjust output dynamically based on demand trends
- Maintain strong inventory accuracy across perishables and production ingredients
- Monitor food cost targets and contribution margins + work with management team
Food Safety and Compliance
Team Leadership and Kitchen Culture
- Recruit and develop the prepared foods and cafe production team
- Build a structured staffing model aligned with production demand
- Implement training systems for consistency across stations
- Foster a collaborative kitchen culture balancing creativity and operational discipline
Menu Development and Innovation
- Lead seasonal menu development across kitchen and cafe platforms
- Monitor Tampa Bay food trends and competitor positioning
- Collaborate with marketing on launches and product storytelling
- Introduce limited time offerings tied to seasonal produce and local vendors