Colt Snody

As an Executive Chef at Fifth Group Restaurants, I am responsible for executing service, managing people, labor, and food costs, purchasing from multiple vendors, inventory, hiring, firing, training, scheduling, working any position in the kitchen, menu, and recipe creation, high-volume private dining, catering, operational maintenance, upholding the company's expectations, standards, purpose, and values, and ensuring a safe work environment.

My primary focus as a chef is to create a workspace where my crew can thrive both personally and professionally. I am a hands-on chef, leading by example and never asking anyone to do anything that I wouldn't do. My mantra is simple: plan, prep, and execute, and I practice this daily through active engagement and communication. I work closely with the Director of Operations and the Vice President of Culinary to ensure the restaurant's success and adjust as needed. I am highly adaptable and solution-oriented when change is required, but I also respect that the culinary craft is a collaborative process, so I always make sure the team and I are on the same page.

As pandemic restrictions were lifted, I received a call back to action from the Chapel Hill Restaurant Group. I was laid off in 2020 due to Covid-19, and I quickly took action to secure a safe job with Whole Foods that allowed me to still work within my passion. I returned to CHRG as Chef de Cuisine for Mez Contemporary Mexican in Durham, NC. My responsibilities at Mez were heavily geared towards menu development, weekly features (planning, costing, prepping, plating, demonstrating), off-site catering, in-house banquets as buffets or five-course plated, scheduling, inventory, building and utilizing Excel systems for kitchen efficiency, all purchasing from a large variety of vendors, maintaining food and labor percentage pars, recipe costing and development. In December 2022, the Head Owner of CHRG personally called me to "rescue" their newest Pan-Asian concept Lulu Lulu Bang Bang. I walked into an absolutely failing restaurant, missing the mark in every way imaginable. There was no schedule, order guides, recipes, processes, or anything. Everything was kept a secret from the previous chef, so I had a massive knot to untangle. In six short months, I learned every aspect of this restaurant intimately. I hired and trained my crew, learned every aspect of the line, forged relationships with vendors, melded a sushi program with my co-chef, and elevated this failed state into a functional professional kitchen that is reinvigorated, and sales are thriving.

Managing all team members during the shift for food production quality, task efficiency, ensuring staff adhere to work list guidelines, and, most importantly, customer service. I am responsible for food production for the hot bar, salad bar, fresh pack, chef case, and pizza station. I specialize in training staff on food preparations, situational awareness, and customer service. My "inspect what you expect" mentality is carried over to all staff regarding the day's tasks. Administrative tasks include: production writing, generating work lists, building recipe packets for team member production, scaling, and printing recipes, answering phone calls, monthly inventory counts, transferring products between departments, scanning and logging shrink, and weekly production planning meetings. At Whole Foods, I always find a way to say "YES." The delight of our customers is my top priority. Secondary to that is our staff's education, training, and development to perform their jobs at a higher level, thus benefiting that customer experience.

Responsibilities: ensuring food is up to specification daily, product taste and quality remain consistent, creating chef features, menu development, managing all hourly employees to ensure their duties are performed correctly and promptly, daily large scale prep, expedited service, responsible for all purchasing through several vendors, costing plates per features, cataloging inventory weekly, managing and maintaining food cost, scheduling based on sales projections, writing detailed prep lists, orchestrating in-house private dining, preparing and executing off-site catering, hiring/firing and training of employees, as well as covering any station on the line when an employee is absent.

Responsibilities: managing all kitchen staff, creating recipes, maintaining consistency in all food in bulk prep and per plate, training kitchen staff, managing inventory, and purchasing.