R&D Chef

Founded in 2013, Home Chef is the leading meal solutions company with both a retail and online presence. Available online at homechef.com and in retail at more than 2,100 Kroger grocery stores, Home Chef is committed to inspiring and enabling more people to cook simple, delicious meals, no matter how busy they are.

In 2023, Home Chef introduced a new brand, Tempo! Tempo features a rotating selection of ready-to-heat meals delivered directly to your door. These meals are better-for-you versions of familiar favorites, designed to save you time and reduce stress while maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Our Tempo menu includes options that are protein-packed, fiber-rich, calorie and carb conscious, keto-friendly, and dietitian-approved.

Similar to our recipes, we recognize that variety is the spice of life, and therefore, our employees also bring their uniqueness and color to our fantastic team. We’re eager to work with humble team players and pragmatic next-level thinkers to innovate on Home Chef’s offerings.

The Research and Development Chef I will conceive and create new recipes for the Home Chef menu that meet our nutritional, cost and ingredient specifications. This is a kitchen centric role that works cross functionally throughout the department.

Detailed Responsibilities

R&D New Meals

• Conceive accessible, creative new recipes in the test kitchen that apply to cost, ingredient, caloric/nutritional, and time constraints
• Collaborate with kitchen team, to improve and test each other’s dishes, potentially coordinating daily taster assignments
• Take extensive and honest feedback every day on meal accessibility and flavors and incorporate into recipes
• Work closely with the recipe development team to ensure constraints are met, recipe tester feedback is incorporated, and customers will be able to execute meals
• Collaborates with photography team in order to plate dishes in a way that will appeal to customers for menu surveys
• Manages a minimum average rating of 4.00 with equal success across all product lines
• Averages a minimum 3 meals weekly through the Selection Committee process

Evaluate Customer Feedback

• Thoroughly understand how average customer cooks and strive to make meals as streamlined, quick, and easy as possible
• Analyze customer comments on meals from both menu runs and beta runs, and incorporate learnings into new recipes

Weekly Culinary Meetings

• Attend and participate in weekly culinary team meetings, including Performance Board, Team Check-ins, and Taster Pre-shift with opportunity to lead
• Attends and supports cross functional teams initiatives, new product lines, sampling ingredients, supply team check-ins

This position requires 0-10% travel. 

Qualifications

The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability needed for this role. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities.

• Completion of a two-year program such as an Associate degree
• Culinary degree preferred
• 10+ years experience working in a kitchen or other professional cooking environment. Able to work in a clean and organized manner.
• 2+ years prior recipe development experience. 
• Self-starter and highly motivated to make meals that an average person can successfully cook at home. 
• ServSafe or food handling certification preferred 
• Sense of teamwork and collaboration. Works well in group settings to move projects forward, provide constructive feedback when needed, and support the overall team workload
• Strong verbal communication skills
• Willing and able to receive feedback and implement suggestions
• Understanding of current nutrition, food and food industry trends.
• Must be able to taste and provide thorough feedback on every meal and ingredient sample test in the kitchen, including vegetarian, pork, chicken, steak, and seafood meals. 

More About Us

Perks and Benefits

• Candidates can experience Home Chef as a customer - enter promo code PEOPLE30 for $30 off your first order!
• Medical, dental, vision, life and disability insurance available
• Paid holidays, sick time and vacation time
• 401k program
• Flexible spending accounts for qualified medical, dependent care, parking, or transit expenses

How We Work Together

We are humble team players.
We are warm and gracious with team members and customers. We seek feedback to improve ourselves - and respectfully listen to and accept input.

We are pragmatic next-level thinkers.
We come up with novel and unique ideas. We explore new strategies to avoid being constrained by conventional thinking.

We take ownership.
We approach ambiguous problems, prepared to dive in, get curious, and learn more. We are results-driven, always challenging ourselves to exceed goals.

Be at Home at Home Chef

We all show up authentically at Home Chef. Our team includes individuals with a variety of identities, backgrounds, and perspectives. You can trust that you’ll be able to bring your whole self to an inclusive and enjoyable workplace.

We welcome people of all races, colors, religions, national origin or ancestry, sex (including sexual identity), age, physical or mental disabilities, pregnancy, veteran or military status, unfavorable discharge from military service, genetic information, sexual orientation, marital status, order of protection status, citizenship status, arrest record or expunged/sealed convictions, or any other legally recognized protected basis under federal, state, or local law.

Home Chef is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. As part of this commitment, Home Chef will ensure that persons with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please contact our People team at hr@homechef.com.

Home Chef offers the base salary range as posted below, with the exact offer depending on factors such as geographic location, experience, skills, and internal equity. While compensation is within the provided range, it is not typical for offers to be made at the upper end. In addition to base salary, Home Chef provides a comprehensive benefits package, including healthcare coverage, 401k match, and paid time off.

Illinois Pay Range$65,000—$75,000 USD

To view the California Applicant Notice click here