Chef de Cuisine – Indian Kitchen, Head, Innovation & New Product Development Chef

Job Summary

The Chef de Cuisine – Indian Kitchen, Head, Innovation & New Product Development Chef is responsible for leading the Company's Indian Culinary division while driving innovation, new product development, and continuous product improvement. The role combines culinary leadership with research and development to create commercially viable products that meet customer expectations, market trends, and operational requirements.

The incumbent will oversee the development of authentic and innovative Indian cuisine for the HORECA, retail, and institutional sectors, ensuring all products are scalable for commercial production while maintaining the highest standards of quality, consistency, food safety, and cost efficiency.

Key Responsibilities

Culinary Leadership

• Lead and manage the Indian Kitchen, ensuring smooth daily operations and demonstrating strong expertise in both North and South Indian cuisine.
• Develop and standardise authentic Indian recipes suitable for large-scale production.
• Maintain consistency in flavour, presentation, and product quality across all production batches.
• Train, mentor, and develop culinary staff in Indian cooking techniques and best practices.
• Ensure compliance with all food safety, hygiene, HACCP, ISO 22000, GMP, and Halal requirements.

Innovation & New Product Development

• Lead the Company's innovation strategy for Indian cuisine and related product categories.
• Research local and international food trends to identify new product opportunities.
• Develop innovative Ready-to-Eat (RTE), Ready-to-Cook (RTC), frozen meals, sauces, marinades, gravies, spice blends, and meal solutions.
• Collaborate with Sales and Marketing to develop customer-specific products.
• Drive continuous improvement of existing products through recipe refinement and ingredient optimisation.

Research & Development

• Develop products from concept through commercialisation.
• Conduct kitchen trials, pilot production runs, and production validations.
• Work closely with Production to ensure products can be manufactured consistently at scale.
• Conduct sensory evaluations, shelf-life studies, and product performance assessments.
• Troubleshoot formulation and production challenges and implement corrective actions.

Product Costing & Commercialisation

• Develop products that meet target food cost and gross margin objectives.
• Identify alternative ingredients and manufacturing methods to improve profitability while maintaining product quality.
• Prepare recipe costings, yield analysis, and Bills of Materials (BOMs).
• Support customer presentations, product demonstrations, and tasting sessions.

Documentation & Compliance

• Maintain complete product development documentation, including recipes, specifications, cooking methods, processing instructions, allergen declarations, and product specifications.
• Ensure all products comply with applicable Singapore Food Agency (SFA) regulations and customer requirements.
• Support Halal certification, customer audits, and regulatory inspections.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work closely with Procurement to source and evaluate new ingredients.
• Collaborate with Quality Assurance on product validation and food safety requirements.
• Partner with Production to improve manufacturing efficiency and reduce waste.
• Support Sales and Business Development in developing customised solutions for customers.

Continuous Improvement

• Monitor market trends, customer feedback, and competitor products.
• Recommend product enhancements and process improvements.
• Drive innovation projects that strengthen the Company's product portfolio and competitive advantage.

Requirements

Education

• Degree in Culinary Arts, Food Science, Food Technology, or a related discipline.
• Professional culinary qualifications are advantageous.

Experience

• Minimum 12 years of experience in Indian Culinary and product development across all cuisines.
• Research & Development within the food manufacturing, central kitchen, or food service industry.
• Experience and knowledge in developing products for commercial-scale production.
• Experience with Ready-to-Eat or frozen food manufacturing is preferred.

Knowledge

• Food processing techniques.
• Recipe formulation and standardisation.
• Food safety regulations.
• HACCP, ISO 22000, GMP, and Halal requirements.
• Shelf-life testing and product validation.
• Costing and yield analysis.