ABOUT GATHER’D MARKET
Gather’d is a specialty prepared food and gourmet retail store in Buckhead. A large percentage of what we sell comes out of our kitchen — prepared sides, dressings, sauces, dips, and proteins that customers take home and eat over the next few days. We opened in October 2025 and have grown entirely on word-of-mouth. Over the next 18 months we expect to double kitchen production, launch delivery, and expand our kitchen footprint.
THE ROLE
This is a builder’s role. The kitchen we have today is not the kitchen we’ll have in 18 months, and we want an Executive Chef who’s excited to help shape what comes next.
Day to day, you’ll run the kitchen: the food, the team, the prep and production, the numbers. Alongside that, you’ll work with the founder on what comes next — scaling production, building out delivery, evolving the systems and the kitchen itself as we grow.
The right person has run a serious kitchen before and wants a place where they’re building something, not just maintaining it.
Required years of experience: 5+
LEADERSHIP & TEAM DEVELOPMENT
- Hire, train, and develop the kitchen team
- Run scheduling, payroll, PTO, and onboarding
- Handle disciplinary conversations directly and fairly
- Set the standard in the kitchen through how you work, not just what you say
- Stay tight with the store team so what we’re making and what we’re selling stay in sync
- Keep ownership in the loop on what’s working, what’s not, and where you need backup
KITCHEN OPERATIONS
- Build and run the weekly production schedule
- Manage prep lists, par levels, batch execution, and daily output
- Walk the line and the walk-in every day, taste everything before it hits the shelf, and send back anything that’s not right
- Schedule to budget
- Keep the kitchen clean, organized, and ready
MENU DEVELOPMENT & PRODUCT DECISIONS
You’ll build seasonal menus and new products with the founder. This is where our kitchen looks different from a restaurant — we’re not cooking to order or running specials for two weeks. We’re building products that get packed, shelved, taken home, sit in a fridge for a few days, and reheated. That changes what works.
Every new product has to clear a real set of questions before it earns a slot on the shelf:
- Is it versatile? Can the customer use it across several meals — as a side, a sauce, a base for something else — or is it a one-shot?
- Are we actually saving them something? Is this a real shortcut on time or technique, or something they could throw together at home in ten minutes?
- Does it read seasonal? Does it tell the customer it’s spring or fall the moment they see it on the shelf?
- Does it hold? Will it freeze and reheat without breaking, separating, drying out, or losing what made it good in the first place?
- Can we execute it at batch? Can the kitchen make this every week, at scale, at the same quality?
- Does it have shelf life? Three days isn’t enough. We need real time on the shelf and in the customer’s fridge.
- Does the price work? Given what it costs us in ingredients and labor, can we sell it at a price that makes sense?
A lot of food that’s great on a plate doesn’t pass these tests. Part of this job is developing the instinct for what does, before we invest in testing, labeling, photographing, and training the team to make it.
You’ll also pull products that aren’t earning their slot.
COST CONTROL & SOURCING
- Own food cost — keep recipes costed, look at the numbers weekly, and adjust when a protein or produce price moves
- Run ordering, inventory, and waste to budget
- Source and manage vendor relationships, from broadline to specialty to local
SYSTEMS & INFRASTRUCTURE
- Work inside the systems we’ve built
- Notice where the systems are straining and partner on what to build, change, or replace as we grow
- Document recipes, prep steps, and SOPs so the kitchen can be replicated, not just remembered
COMPLIANCE, FACILITIES & EQUIPMENT
- Department of Agriculture compliance across BOH
- Train the team in compliant practices
- Stay on top of equipment — flag repairs, coordinate service, replace what’s past its life
WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR
- 5+ years of senior kitchen leadership: executive chef, chef de cuisine, kitchen manager, or comparable
- Background in fine dining, serious catering, commissary, or prepared foods at $1M+ in annual kitchen output
- You’ve owned your numbers
- You’ve built a kitchen team and can show it — people you hired, trained, and developed
- Clear communicator — you can lay out a trade-off cleanly and drive a decision
- Comfortable in built systems and willing to work inside ours before changing them
- You notice inefficiencies, build a case for changing them, run a test, and measure the result
- ServSafe certified, or willing to certify
COMPENSATION
- Salary: $70,000–$90,000 depending on experience
- Opportunity for bonuses or equity
- Health, dental, and vision insurance
- Paid time off
TO APPLY Send a note and your resume to [email protected].
Pay: $70,000.00 - $90,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Dental insurance
- Health insurance
- Paid time off
- Vision insurance
Work Location: In person
