Chef

As the largest of the ICC cooperatives, Escher is the only one which employs a cook to fill the roles of Head Chef, Food Steward, and Kitchen Maintenance Manager.

Responsibilities

Meals

• Plan all weekday menus, along with weekend menus on weekend days when menus are not planned by members.
• Order all food. (Planning and ordering typically take 15-20 hours per week when Chef Lynn is at home.)
• Prepare all weekday meals
• Monitor guff refrigerators on a daily basis for food safety (appropriate labeling etc.) and adjust as needed. See that items omitted by cleaning crews are restocked.
• Attempts to accommodate all member requests, and incorporate food survey results into meal planning

Training

• Train and supervise weekday cooking crews
• Train lunch prep on deli slicer and food processor

Finances

• Maintain expenses within assigned food budget while satisfying member needs
• Provide the ICC finance office with an inventory buy-back figure at the end of each semester to ensure equitable distribution of student food expenses

Health & Safety

• Ensure that state food safety and sanitation requirements are met
• Keep abreast of current food and nutrition studies and trends by subscribing to and reading publications including:
  • Tufts University's Health and Nutrition letter
  • Environmental Nutrition Newsletter
  • Center for Science in the Public Interest Newsletter
  • Vegetarian Resource Group
  • VegNews
  • Food and Wine
  • Cook's Illustrated, and all sister publications
  • Fine Cooking.
  • Recipes in newly-published cookbooks and on the web.

Maintenance

• Keep cleaning supplies stocked: paper towels, toilet paper, hand soap, laundry detergent, etc.
• Make sure the city picks up missed trash and recycling and calls for extra pick-ups as needed
• Coordinate the repairs of kitchen equipment, and operation reconfiguration, as needed:
  • Walk-in compressor failure, approximately once per year
  • Various dishwasher repairs: 8-10 times per year
  • Garbage disposal replacements, about once a year
  • Occasional major events (e.g. sewer blockage under O'Keeffe milk machine)