About
Methodology is a mission-first clinical nutrition company producing personalized meal programs from our production facility in the East Bay. Every meal is gluten-free, dairy-free, and refined-sugar-free. The protein program runs grass-fed beef, heritage pork, antibiotic-free poultry, high-grade wild seafood, and wild game including elk, venison, and bison. Produce arrives from a partner farm within two days of harvest. Meals ship nationally to busy professionals and families in reusable glass jars and proprietary bowls, and a live packaging recovery program in California retrieves all reusable packaging from the prior week’s delivery.
Close to 11 years in, Methodology holds the registered trademark on “Food is Medicine” and has the clinical research to back it up. A study published with Christopher Gardner at Stanford in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition proved these meals drive measurable changes in biomarkers. That research is not a marketing credential. It is the foundation the entire culinary program is built on, and it is what separates Methodology from every other prepared food company in the country.
The foundation is strong: the science, the customer base, the operational infrastructure. Now the ceiling is being raised and the food program is being elevated another order of magnitude. A precision nutrition engine is rolling out that matches every meal program to each client’s macro- and micro-nutrient biomarkers. The menu, the team, the facility, and the guest experience are all being upgraded simultaneously. The goal is to widen the gap as the most thoughtful meal delivery service in America. That is not a positioning statement. It is the standard every hire, every menu decision, and every production call gets held to.
With less than two thousand active clients, we are not a mass manufactured service. We are closer to a Blackberry Farm with 68 rooms, an Aman, or a Michelin-starred restaurant but for healthy meal delivery. 52 box deliveries a year per client. 52 hospitality moments on a kitchen counter. No restaurant on earth gets that kind of access to someone's life. We are one of the rare companies in food positioned to optimize so intimately and often in someone’s kitchen.
This is a down-to-earth, hardworking kitchen with a serious mission. No pretense. The people joining now are part of the team that builds what comes next, alongside founders who have operated at the highest levels of finance, fine dining, and consumer technology, and chose to build this instead.
We are looking for a Sous Chef who is a world-class operator, cares deeply about food quality and nutrition, and is energized by what this team is building.
Who You Would Be Working With
Michael Phan, Executive Chef
Michael comes from the ownership group of The Slanted Door, the James Beard Award-winning restaurant that redefined modern Vietnamese cuisine in America. A twenty-year career at the highest levels of the restaurant world, and the decision to walk away from it for something harder. The creative and culinary direction of this program is his domain. What the kitchen needs alongside him is someone who owns the floor, holds the systems, and keeps production running to standard without needing to be managed. You will work alongside Michael as a peer.
Julie Nguyen, Co-Founder & CEO
Julie co-founded Methodology and built the product, brand, and precision nutrition platform from the ground up. A career that ran from J.P. Morgan through Lumos Labs, where Julie served as VP of Marketing, before leaving to solve a problem no existing service was built to address. Today, Methodology’s reach spans some of the most notable households in Silicon Valley and major metropolitan areas across the country, with coverage in Rolling Stone, goop, Forbes, Men’s Health, Well+Good, Epicurious, Fortune, and the Chalkboard. The clinical trial work with Stanford was led under Julie’s direction. On the R&D call every week, and the person who will push the food hardest.
Stephen Liu, Co-Founder & COO
Stephen came up through San Francisco and Napa’s top fine dining kitchens, was a partner at one of America’s most recognized restaurant groups, and simultaneously ran a career as a commodities and equities trader on Wall Street. After that, he built and ran a hospitality consultancy working with acclaimed restaurants across three continents before co-founding Methodology. Stephen oversees all culinary and warehouse operations, finance, sourcing, menu design, packaging, and the full end-to-end product experience. Having been the first into every function this company has built, the answers to most operational questions live with him.
The Role
The Sous Chef is the aircraft controller of day-to-day culinary production at Methodology. The role develops, directs, improves, and manages all production processes and the metrics that accompany them: quality, throughput, productivity, and food cost. Highly hands-on by design. Cooking, leading the team, and building the systems that make consistency possible at volume. In it, not above it.
The kitchen runs with Rational combi-ovens, tilt-skillets, and the full range of high-volume production equipment. Monday through Friday with some weekend production as needed.
What You Own
Production
- Run daily production from prep through portioning, packaging, and handoff to fulfillment. On schedule, on spec, every shift.
- Manage the cook team with clear expectations, real-time coaching, and direct accountability. Soft-pedaling performance problems is not a cultural fit here.
- Enforce portioning protocols to the gram. Every ingredient weighed and documented. The nutritional data on a customer’s app has to match what is in their container. That accuracy lives at this level.
- Manage scheduling, timekeeping, and support recruiting for the culinary team.
- Maintain food safety, sanitation, and cleanliness to the highest clinical standard. This kitchen produces meals for health-compromised individuals and GLP-1 patients.
R&D and Menu Execution
- Attend the weekly R&D call with both co-founders and the full culinary team. Dishes are built, killed, and reformulated in real time. Ideas are expected from everyone in the room.
- When a dish is approved, own the production buildout: yield testing, batch sizing, portioning documentation, plating standards, and team training.
- Taste everything. If a recipe is inconsistent at scale, find the root cause and fix it. The kitchen does not stall waiting for someone else to act.
- Develop recipes within the constraints: no gluten, dairy, refined sugar, or canola oil, while delivering food that competes with the best restaurants in the country.
Cost and Systems
- Analyze culinary operating budgets. Control costs of food, labor, and related purchases in line with the overall operating budget.
- Own food purchasing, inventory management, and production scheduling. Connect the sourcing workflow to kitchen execution so nothing falls through the cracks.
- Build and maintain SOPs, portioning guides, and prep protocols. The kitchen runs on documentation and process, not memory and instinct.
- Develop the team. As Methodology upgrades its offerings and extends its lead, people ready to step into larger roles become essential. Building that talent is part of this job.
The Facility
A 12,000-square-foot production facility in Concord, CA: 4,000 square feet of kitchen and prep space, 8,000 square feet of warehouse and order fulfillment. Methodology has been producing here since the beginning and knows it well. Active investment is ongoing: improved workflow between prep, cook, and portioning stations, added cold storage, and an optimized layout for how the team actually cooks, chills, and packages.
A search for new space is also underway. Over the next few years, the goal is a purpose-built production kitchen double our current size in Northern California, designed from the ground up for component-based cooking, precision portioning, cold chain management, and automation integration.
Non-Negotiable
- 3+ years as CDC, Sous Chef, or higher in a high-volume batch cooking environment. Direct reports would rave about the experience of working for you.
- Strong proficiency with large-batch production equipment: combi-ovens, tilt-skillets, and similar.
- Proven experience with gluten-free, paleo, vegan/vegetarian, and specialty diet recipe development at volume.
- Precision mindset. Ingredients weighed, specs followed, nothing winged.
- Experience with food purchasing, inventory management, and production scheduling.
- Proficient in Google Suite (Docs and Sheets). Experience with payroll and timekeeping systems.
- Strong floor leadership. Clear communication, real accountability, no drama.
- Working understanding of food cost: yields, waste, and how every kitchen decision affects the P&L.
- On-site in Concord, CA.
Strong Signals
- Fine dining background combined with high-volume execution. Someone who cares about how food tastes as much as how fast it comes out.
- Allergen-free, medically tailored, or clinical nutrition production experience.
- Cold-chain production, shelf-life testing, or CPG food development.
- Comfort with food production equipment: enrobing machines, dough rounders, conveyor systems.
- ServSafe Manager certification (required within 90 days if not currently held).
- Genuine curiosity about nutrition and health outcomes. No degree required. Just care about why this food matters to the people eating it.
First 30 Days
- Run every shift type from prep through portioning. Learn the operation before changing anything.
- Learn every program and its nutritional constraints. Understand why the differences exist.
- Build trust with the cook team. Know names, strengths, and where each person needs development.
- Audit scheduling, timekeeping, and purchasing workflows. Come back with observations and a plan.
First 90 Days
- Run daily production independently. The Executive Chef focused on R&D, knowing the floor is handled.
- Measurably reduce production errors: wrong weights, missing components, mislabeled items.
- Execute at least 2 new menu launches from trial run through full production.
- Present at least 1 original dish concept on the weekly R&D call that gets approved.
- Training plan in place for every cook with clear milestones and accountability.
Compensation & Benefits
- $75,000 to $95,000
- Health insurance: Medical, Vision, Dental
- Methodology meals at HQ.
- Direct access to founders who are operational and embedded in the product at every level.
- Proprietary Methodology Chef and AI tools that eliminate administrative busywork, so focus stays on cooking, leading, and building.
- A documentary currently in production capturing the building of this company. Part of the team means part of the story.
- Operator-run, profitable, and built to move fast. No board approval required for product decisions.
About Methodology
Methodology was co-founded close to 11 years ago by Stephen Liu and Julie Nguyen. The company holds the trademark on “Food is Medicine” and produces meals for some of the most notable families in Silicon Valley and major metropolitan areas across the country.
The kitchen is led by Michael Phan, who spent over two decades at the highest levels of the restaurant world before choosing this challenge over continuing to run his own.
Not a meal kit. Not a diet plan. Clinical nutrition infrastructure, grounded in real hospitality, built around craveable yet deeply healthy food, and backed by peer-reviewed science. The team is building the operation that will extend its lead as the most thoughtful at-home meal delivery service in the country.
Pay: $75,000.00 - $95,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Dental insurance
- Health insurance
- Vision insurance
Work Location: In person
