Chef

Chef / Kitchen Lead – Tiny Tiffins
Location: East Bay / Bay Area, California Company: Tiny Tiffins Job Type: Full-Time / Part-Time Industry: School Meals / Childcare Food Service
About Tiny Tiffins
Tiny Tiffins provides fresh, nutritious, and kid-friendly meals to preschools, childcare centers, and schools across the Bay Area.
We focus on meals children enjoy while maintaining high standards for nutrition, food safety, portion control, dietary requirements, and consistency.
We are looking for an experienced and dependable Chef / Kitchen Lead who can take ownership of daily meal preparation and help us build a safe, efficient, and scalable school-meal kitchen operation.
Key Responsibilities

• Prepare fresh, kid-friendly meals according to Tiny Tiffins’ weekly and monthly menus.
• Prepare food in bulk while maintaining consistent taste, quality, and portion sizes.
• Follow standardized recipes and preparation procedures.
• Prepare vegetarian and non-vegetarian meals, including approved dietary alternatives.
• Follow age-appropriate portion requirements and CACFP meal patterns when applicable.
• Carefully manage food allergies and special dietary requirements and prevent cross-contact.
• Maintain proper cooking, cooling, reheating, storage, and hot-holding temperatures.
• Maintain required food temperature and production records.
• Portion and pack individual meals accurately according to school and child meal counts.
• Clearly identify vegetarian, allergy-sensitive, and other special meals.
• Organize completed meals by school and prepare them for delivery.
• Verify production quantities against daily school orders before dispatch.
• Monitor ingredient inventory and assist with purchasing and production planning.
• Follow FIFO inventory practices and proper food labeling and date marking.
• Minimize food waste through accurate production planning and portion control.
• Maintain a clean, organized, and sanitary commercial kitchen.
• Coordinate with kitchen assistants, packing staff, delivery drivers, and management.
• Help develop and improve standardized recipes and kid-friendly menu items.
• Support Tiny Tiffins as production volume and the number of partner schools grow.
  Required Qualifications & Certifications
  Candidates should have professional cooking, catering, institutional kitchen, meal-prep, or other commercial food-production experience.
  Food-safety certification is important for this position. Candidates should have, or be able to obtain before starting:
• ServSafe Food Protection Manager Certification or equivalent accredited Food Protection Manager certification
• California Food Handler Card, where applicable
• Knowledge of safe food handling, sanitation, temperature control, cross-contamination prevention, and allergen management
• Understanding of commercial kitchen food-safety requirements
  Experience with CACFP (Child and Adult Care Food Program) meal requirements is highly preferred. Candidates without CACFP experience should be willing to learn Tiny Tiffins’ portioning and meal-component requirements.
  Additional food-safety, allergen-awareness, nutrition, culinary, or commercial-kitchen certifications are a plus.
  Ideal Candidate
  Our ideal chef is not simply someone who can cook great food. Because Tiny Tiffins serves young children, we need someone who takes food safety, cleanliness, allergies, accurate portions, consistency, and documentation very seriously.
  You should be comfortable preparing dozens or hundreds of meals while ensuring that every batch follows the same recipe and quality standards.
  We are especially interested in someone who can eventually take greater ownership of kitchen operations, including production planning, inventory management, kitchen staff coordination, food-safety compliance, and quality control.
  Schedule
  Primarily Monday through Friday, morning/daytime hours, based on school meal preparation and delivery schedules.
  Early morning availability may be required depending on production volume and delivery schedules.
  Compensation
  $20 – $30 per hour, depending on experience, certifications, and level of responsibility.
  Why Join Tiny Tiffins?
  Tiny Tiffins is building a specialized school-meal service for preschools, childcare centers, and schools. This is an opportunity to join a growing operation and help establish the kitchen systems and standards we will use as we expand throughout the Bay Area.
  For the right candidate, this position can grow into a Kitchen Manager / Head Chef role as Tiny Tiffins expands.
  To Apply
  Please provide:
• Name and contact information
• Summary of professional cooking experience
• Experience with catering, bulk food production, school meals, or childcare food service
• Current ServSafe or other Food Protection Manager certification
• Other food-safety certifications held
• Availability
• Expected hourly rate