Richard Leal
San Antonio,TX
Summary
Culinary leader with 22 years of experience, strong experience in roles within high-pressure kitchen environments. Skilled in menu development, food safety, and inventory management, ensuring exceptional dining experiences. Known for fostering teamwork and adapting to changing needs, consistently achieving high standards and results. My restaurant groups have featured me doing live cooking demos for local television 7 times, and I have featured for Alamo Drafthouse, Zedric's, and several times with Snooze to highlight new seasonal menus or upcoming celebrations within our restaurants. I've opened two locations with Postino and assisted with staff management and kitchen performance in another 3 locations across the country. Currently operating a $7.8 Million per year single unit pizzeria in Golden, CO with the restaurant receiving several accolades including Pizzeria of the Year: Mountain West Region in 2024 by Pizza Today.
Overview
12
12
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Head Chef
Woody's Wood-Fired Pizza
11.2023 - Current
- Company Overview: Single unit pizzeria generating $7.3M to $7.8M annually in sales
- In charge of managing a staff of 25-30 Heart of House staff members, and an additional 3 Chefs as their direct report
- The kitchen operations consisted of a guest-facing pizza buffet, wood fired oven, front pizza line (servicing the buffet and a la carte), a back line (grill/fry), dish pit, prep area, a shipping container operating a to-go kitchen for peak volume and weekends, and a 35 ft
- Food truck also with a wood fired oven used for off-site events and catering events
- Our GM books and helps to organize the events, and I'm then responsible for ordering, stocking, staffing a cook to assist me, and also driving/operating the truck to any booked events
- Peak volume consists of around $185-200k sales per week in the Summer (mainly June-August), servicing upwards of 1000 guests per day on the weekends
- Typical Fridays and Saturdays will range from $28-32k sales days with a guest count around 1200
- Dough pars for each day are around 400 Monday-Thursdays, Thursdays sometimes 480, Fridays-Sundays 600-640, Weekend pars are 700+ in the Summer and closer to 900 Dough if we need 200 for a food truck event
- Food cost hovers around 28%
- Single unit pizzeria generating $7.3M to $7.8M annually in sales
- Reason for leaving: relocate back to San Antonio to be with family
- Yelp Hot 100 2024 - Best Pizzerias
- Pizza Today - Best Pizzeria: Mountain West Region 2024
Executive Chef
Postino WineCafe
04.2022 - 11.2023
- In charge of hitting below 25% food cost goal and managing a 10.5% culinary labor, in charge of managing 15 staff members ranging from line cook, dish, and food prep plus two salaried sous chefs
- All dressings, sauces (hot and cold), daily soup, seasonal bruschetta and vegetable preparation from scratch
- Lots of portion control involved, managing meats and cheeses $12-30/lb and still maintaining profitable food cost
- Restaurant is 160 seats with about 3% annual sales in catering, currently tracking $4.5M in sales for the first year
- I assisted in opening the Highlands Ranch location as a Culinary Trainer, and opened as the Culinary Lead for Boulder Postino on 15th and Pearl
- I traveled to Atlanta, GA for 8 weeks to assist in training a replacement chef for the North Buckhead location, and trained the staff on company best practices, prep regimen, par stabilization, and assisted with hiring during the transition process
- Finished my stint with Postino as the Executive Chef of the Highlands Ranch location
- Reason for leaving: offered a better opportunity with Woody's Wood Fired Pizza
Head Chef
Snooze an A.M. Eatery
06.2018 - 04.2022
- Company Overview: High volume brunch restaurant on a wait 7 days a week
- Monday through Thursday business: 350-550 covers, Fridays 650-800 covers, Saturdays and Sundays could see 850-950+ guests
- Holidays could generate traffic above 1000 covers for an 8 hour service
- Food cost goals were 22% with an allowed variance of -1.2%, but I would consistently run a -0.3 to -0.8% variance with proper inventory rotation and product management
- A large volume of fresh prep was required daily, large batches of scratch pancake batter, fresh hollandaise several times a day with 6lb batches of butter on average
- Labor goals were managed around 10% for culinary with one salary sous chef, three prep cooks rotating throughout the week with 10 line cooks on roster, and 2 dish washers
- Grand opening chef for second San Antonio location
- Assisted the original San Antonio location some months later during management turn over and assisted in running this locations kitchen operations whilst training their Head Chef for their new role
- Flew to Charlotte, NC for 8 weeks to assist our first restaurant in Plaza Midwood, a new market, and train their Head Chef after their first hire didn't pan out
- Opened the Orange County Snooze as the Culinary Lead, duties included presenting food shows, all menu knowledge including builds and allergens, sourcing for products and history about some of our purveyors
- Wrote their culinary sheet to shelf inventory and helped to establish first inventory, train chefs, and organize their storage
- Was asked by the COO to transfer to Denver, CO in January of 2020 to be the Head Chef at their second ever built location and top 3 performing restaurants in the company ($3.8M annual)
- Out of 25 locations temporarily open in 2020 due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, my restaurant was the only one in the company to turn a profit
- Appeared on live local television 4 times promoting the brand and new seasonal features, demonstrating with a live cooking demo with the hosts
- High volume brunch restaurant on a wait 7 days a week
Executive Sous Chef
Zedrics LLC
08.2017 - 07.2018
- Company Overview: Meal preparation service with gourmet scratch cooking in large batches
- Properly cooled and rotated through the blast chiller and then the walk in
- All meals were then portioned after cooling providing 8,000-12,000 meals per week in an 850 sq ft kitchen
- Meal preparation service with gourmet scratch cooking in large batches
Kitchen Manager
Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas
09.2014 - 05.2017
- Company Overview: High volume largely scratch kitchen
- Fresh vegetable prep, pizza dough, sauces, dressings and spreads (hot and cold), queso, and salsas
- High volume hours would see traffic upwards of 700 covers in 2 and a half hours with full theater seatings on weekends
- Kitchen was double barrel with mirrored equipment on both sides including slat grills, double decker conveyor belt pizza ovens, 6 basket fryers and two expo windows
- Shifts could run with 15 line cooks, 3 expos, and 2 dish washers during peak volumes
- Responsible for managing a 24% food cost and 12% culinary labor
- Full roster for peak season could have 35 staff members in total with annual venue sales over $5M
- Ran an Afternoon Tea service once a month on Sundays with various confections, special off menu meals and tea treats with pairings to local loose leaf teas
- Services would see 80-100 covers per event with 3 courses timed throughout special movie features
- Appeared on live local television three times to promote movies with special menu offerings, and would perform a live cooking demo with the hosts in an approximately 12 minute segment
- High volume largely scratch kitchen
Sous Chef
La Cantera Resort & Spa, managed by Destination Hotels
02.2013 - 08.2014
- Company Overview: Sous Chef in the properties three meal restaurant
- We provided breakfast, breakfast buffet with omelette station, lunch and dinner service
- 24 hour room service, pool side service in the summer time, produced meals for the Grab and Go concept in the hotel lobby for quick meals to go (salads, sandwiches, wraps)
- Assisted in catering events and action stations for gatherings up to 1200 persons in the banquet hall
- Provided tastings with the Executive Sous Chef for menu additions and seasonal offerings
- Would assist the fine dining restaurant upstairs called Francesca's a few nights a week to help the chef develop an amuse bouche, provide assistance with specials and cook for dinner service
- Sous Chef in the properties three meal restaurant
Education
Associate of Arts and Sciences - AAS - Culinary Arts/Chef Training
St Philip's College
01.2012
Skills
- Operations Management
- Sales
- Food Cost Analysis
- Menu development
- Team management
- Kitchen management
- Food safety
- Banquets and catering
- Cost reduction
- Cost management
- Seasonal menu planning
- Recipe creation
Accomplishments
- Re-designed kitchen stations and equipment placement which increased productivity and enhanced workflow processes.
- Supervised team of 30staff members.
- Create seasonal menu specials including writing SOP's, sourcing with purveyor's, conduct tastings with owner and managers, creating recipes and scaling for production, leading team meetings to teach new dishes.
Certification
- ServSafe Manager Certified exp 5/24/2027
Languages
English
Full Professional
Spanish
Limited Working
Timeline
Head Chef
Woody's Wood-Fired Pizza
11.2023 - Current
Executive Chef
Postino WineCafe
04.2022 - 11.2023
Head Chef
Snooze an A.M. Eatery
06.2018 - 04.2022
Executive Sous Chef
Zedrics LLC
08.2017 - 07.2018
Kitchen Manager
Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas
09.2014 - 05.2017
Sous Chef
La Cantera Resort & Spa, managed by Destination Hotels
02.2013 - 08.2014
Associate of Arts and Sciences - AAS - Culinary Arts/Chef Training
St Philip's College
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