Head of Food

Turtle Bay

Turtle Bay is a unique place which brings you the warmth, welcome and relaxed vibes of the Caribbean. Founded in 2011, Turtle Bay currently has 52 sites across the UK. Our inspiration has always, and will always, come from the magic of the Caribbean Islands.

From the outset, Turtle Bay has stood out amongst a cluttered high street with their unique Caribbean offering; simple yet bold food and drink menus, vibrant interiors - an immersive experience for the guest.

The business has focused on creating a relaxed and social environment. Turtle Bay has broad appeal where guests enjoy the experience on their own terms. Key to Turtle Bay are the notions of great food and drinks, in an environment that evokes the Caribbean experience.

The Role

This is a vital role in supporting the creation and implementation of innovative, high-quality food menus at Turtle Bay. The role should look to inspire our teams to be passionate about the dishes we serve.

The Head of Food should be a natural leader with strong interpersonal and influencing skills and should embody our Turtle Bay culture and inspire team members to do the same.

The Head of Food will have excellent culinary skill and strong understanding of current food trends and Caribbean flavour profiles. It is important that they love what they do, sharing a genuine passion for continual improvements to the menu, both in terms of flavour and authenticity, as well as delivering results across all KPI’s.

You will work closely with the wider team, collaborating with various stakeholders, including our CEO and Marketing Director to bring new and exciting concepts to life. You will work with the Operations, Regional Head Chefs and Training teams to inspire our teams to launch and deliver exceptional menu execution.

The role requires excellent organisational skills and an ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously along with attention to detail and a meticulous approach to recipe development, product testing, and documentation, including recipe and stock management software. Familiarity with food safety and regulatory standards, including allergen labelling and nutritional analysis. Creative mindset with a knack for developing unique and exciting dishes. Excellent leadership, communication, and interpersonal skills to work closely with cross-functional teams.

This role reports directly into the Marketing Director.

Your Key Responsibilities:

Menu innovation and delivery

· Researching and maintaining awareness of up-to-date food trends.

· Analysing current menu performance (financial and guest feedback) to identify opportunities for improvement.

· Developing briefs for forthcoming menu changes and gaining sign off from stakeholders.

· Developing and managing a workplan for dish development, sign off, training, implementation, and launch.

· Designing dish specifications that deliver both on value for our guests and food GP targets.

· Arranging food shows with key stakeholders to gain feedback and develop final menu specification

· Working with the Training Team to design, and implement dish specification, training documentation and support materials.

· Championing Procure Wizard: using your strong knowledge of the system to highlight and support any issues and areas of improvement required within it.

· Working closely with Operations to implement quality control measures to maintain consistency in product quality across all Turtle Bay Restaurants locations

· Working across all our tech platforms to cost up dishes to ensure they achieve the agreed margins.

Supply Chain

· Establish and maintain relationships with suppliers and producers, to source high-quality, authentic ingredients and products for menu items.

· Maximise the supplier network for menu development, using their chef teams, food safaris and wider network.

· Understanding of sustainable practices and the impact of our food sourcing on the environment.

Engagement

· Having good presentation and communication skills to ensure briefs and dishes are executed well.

· Being the ‘face’ of food development at Turtle Bay, to our internal teams and on our marketing channels.

· Provide leadership and mentorship to the chef teams across all Turtle Bay locations, fostering a culture of creativity, passion, and excellence.

· Carrying out regular site visits to our kitchens, coaching senior chefs on how to engage their teams in their roles and to delivery high quality dishes consistently.

· Working closely with the People Team to engage and inspire our chef teams, supporting apprenticeship programmes, and training modules.

How will we measure you?

· Ability to deliver inspiring Caribbean dishes and smooth menu launches.

· Providing innovative edits and updates to improve cost and taste of current dishes.

· Quality of training documentation created.

· Food Sentiment scores in line with company target.

· Achievement of Turtle Bay food sales budget.

· Engagement survey responses around menu design and implementation.

· Budgeted gross profit % within the context of theoretical GPs driven by sales mix.