The Grist Mill and Gardens at Keremeos is a twelve acre provincial historic site that features spectacular heritage gardens (both ornamental and vegetable), fascinating heritage buildings and the only working waterwheel-powered flour mill in Western Canada. We also have a small restaurant, gift shop and campground and host a large number of special events through the season including community events, weddings, Sunday Dinners, concerts and much more.
We’re currently looking for a full time (5 days/week; 8 hours/day) Kitchen Manager/Lead to oversee the responsibilities of our busy kitchen. Our kitchen is a hub of daily lunch preparation, baking, preserving, and cooking/catering for special events. In addition to preparing food, this person would be responsible for menu planning, inventory, acquiring supplies, scheduling and supervising the rest of the restaurant/kitchen staff and maintaining a high level of customer satisfaction and food quality. Typically, the site offers a daily lunch service, and we also cater on-site events ourselves and will be hosting a number of dinner events through the summer.
Our ideal candidate would have experience in a variety of heritage cooking skills including canning and other forms of food preservation and preparation as well as a strong desire to work with fresh quality ingredients from our own heritage garden and our neighbour’s gardens and orchards. That candidate also understands the important role the meal they’re preparing plays in terms of the overall visitor experience and educational aspects of this historic site. Our goal is to consistently serve time-honoured recipes that reflect the heritage of our valley and evoke a memory or experience to return for. The Kitchen Manager/Lead will also be responsible for supervising and mentoring the summer students who come to us to gain valuable work experience, so a patient, teaching, and flexible attitude will be an asset.
More specifically, we’re looking for someone with the following:
- Current “Food Safe” and “Serving it Right” certificates
- Minimum of 2 years of cooking and managing experience required
- Demonstrated knowledge of food, quality, production, sanitation, food costs controls, and presentation required
- Ability to lift up to 50 lbs.
- Effective communication skills and attention to detail in all areas of work
- Superior time management skills, multitasking skills and ability to prioritize tasks with minimal supervision
- Ability to understand and follow instruction from management
- Dependable, dedicated, flexible, and work hard (and have some fun)
The successful candidate will help us to achieve these goals for this year:
- Managing a schedule that will allow for two daily kitchen shifts with the goal of doubling our lunch service and production of preserves
- Create a menu with management that includes costing and testing with our equipment
- Establish a system for tracking our spending, waste, and sales
- Provide performance reviews for each kitchen staff
Although we can only guarantee a seasonal position (May-Nov) at this time, the successful candidate will have a significant opportunity to work with management to develop a menu and clientele that allows the position to become full-time, year-round.
Wage Range: $19-$24/hr, commensurate with skills and experience.
About Our Restaurant
Our restaurant is open daily from early-May to Mid-October, serving soups, salads, sandwiches and baked goods daily. There are 30 seats indoors and up to 30 more outdoors on our patio and picnic tables. The food style is rustic, with a strong focus on local and seasonal produce and other products from the Similkameen. Naturally, we want to highlight the incredible fresh flour coming daily from our working waterwheel-powered flour mill and we’ll also be growing more than an acre of heritage veggies and herbs for fresh daily use in our kitchen. Our small kitchen is open to our seating area and so a positive attitude, tidy presentation, and friendly personality are a necessity.
How to Apply:
Please direct questions and submit resumes to:
Chris Mathieson
Grist Mill and Gardens
2691 Upper Bench Road
Keremeos, BC V0X1N4
chris@oldgristmill.ca
(250) 499-9021
The deadline to apply is April 22, 2024, although applicants will be interviewed in the order that applications are received.