Culinary Leader – Operational Chef Leader

Location: Pittsburgh, PA

Status: Full-Time

Compensation: $95,000 – $115,000 (Depending on experience)

Benefits: 401k with 3% match  |  Wellness Pay  |  PTO  |  50% Meal Discount  |  Free Lunch 

Why You’ll Love Working Here

Bistro To Go isn’t just a catering company — it’s a hospitality organization that has spent more than twenty years building something rare in Pittsburgh that inspires relationships. The team executes drop-off catering, full-service weddings, corporate events, and community gatherings with a level of speed and quality that has earned them the 2025 Pittsburgh’s Caterer of the Year award from Pittsburgh Magazine. Founder Nikki Heckman has built the company around a simple belief: when people feel invested in and supported, they do their best work.

This role is designed for a leader who enjoys bringing structure and clarity to a fast-moving operation while preserving the culture that made it successful in the first place. You’ll work directly with the Executive Culinary Director to oversee day-to-day kitchen operations, ensure consistent food quality, and lead a seasoned culinary team through high-volume production and complex events. This role has real influence; you'll help shape how the kitchen runs, how the team operates, and the standards that define the Bistro brand.

The environment is fast-moving and hands-on. A single weekend may include multiple weddings, last-minute catering requests, and hundreds of meals moving through the kitchen at once. Plans don’t always go exactly as expected, so the ability to adapt calmly and keep operations moving is critical. The team relies on leaders who can communicate clearly, stay composed under pressure, and bring stability when things get busy.

Success in this role also means thinking beyond just cooking. Bistro places a strong emphasis on presentation, execution, logistics, and the full guest experience. Leaders who are only focused on food production, without interest in how everything comes together, may find this environment challenging.

As Bistro continues to grow and expand into new locations, this role is being created to strengthen kitchen leadership, build structure, and support the next phase of scale.
 

What We Value

Hospitality First

Hospitality isn’t a department at Bistro, it’s the standard that drives everything we do. Whether interacting with a client, a coworker, or a vendor, we protect the brand’s experience and reputation through excellence and service at every level.

Team-First Leadership

The team is everything. Great leaders build people up, create confidence, and earn trust. The way a leader communicates in this kitchen can define the entire culture.

Humility Before Authority

The leaders who have earned the most trust here are those who came in with confidence in their skills but humility about the system. They asked questions before offering answers, learned how Bistro operates before proposing changes, and, over time, built the credibility to reshape things for the better. 

Ownership & Reliability

When something needs to get done, we step in and make it happen. Our team is dependable and willing to carry weight, especially during high-volume seasons when the stakes are high and the margins for error are thin.

Grace Under Pressure

This is a high-energy, high-stakes environment. On your hardest days,  you’ll have last-minute order changes, staffing gaps, and a kitchen full of people watching how you handle it. We need someone who leads with calm authority, someone whose presence stabilizes the room rather than adding to the tension.

What You’ll Do

• Start each day walking the kitchens — hot kitchen, cold kitchen, café, and specialty areas — checking in with team leads, assessing staff, identifying any issues from the night before, and adjusting priorities before production kicks into full gear.
• Oversee food quality, recipe consistency, and production standards across all culinary departments, ensuring every order going out the door meets Bistro’s standard of freshness and excellence.
• Lead and mentor the culinary team through daily operations, seasonal surges, and the organized chaos that comes with executing drop-off catering, full-service events, and large-volume orders simultaneously.
• Manage scheduling, inventory awareness, and vendor coordination in partnership with the administrative team, while maintaining awareness of food costs, labor percentages, and operational efficiency.
• Serve as the leadership presence the team turns to by running daily check-ins, coaching individuals, managing conflict, and building trust across the kitchen.
• Work alongside the Executive Culinary Director to learn Bistro’s systems, eventually owning boots-on-the-ground operations at the main location while leadership expands oversight to the hotel and future sites.
• Establish clear production systems and operational rhythms that allow the kitchen to consistently execute high-volume events while maintaining Bistro’s standards for quality and hospitality.

Compensation & Benefits

• Base Salary: $95,000 – $115,000, depending on experience
• Performance-based bonus program
• 401(k) retirement plan with up to 3% company match
• Wellness pay
• 50% discount on employee meals and complimentary daily lunch.
• 2 weeks of PTO
• Leadership development through established systems, including Dale Carnegie training and Normative Leadership programs focused on communication, conflict management, and team development. 

Why This Job Stands Out

A Team Built on Loyalty and Longevity
Bistro To Go has operated for more than twenty years with a team built primarily through referrals and internal growth. Many employees have stayed for years because they feel respected, supported, and proud of the work they produce together. That kind of stability creates a rare environment where leaders inherit a team that already trusts the culture they are stepping into.

A Role at the Operational Heart of the Company
The Culinary Leader sits at the center of daily kitchen operations and plays a critical role in protecting the company’s reputation for quality and execution. This is not a distant leadership role — it is a hands-on position where your leadership directly shapes the team’s performance and morale. The impact you have here will be visible every day.

Real Growth with an Expanding Organization
Bistro is preparing for expansion into additional locations, including a hotel partnership and new operational concepts. The person who steps into this role will help build the systems that support that growth. Over time, this position is expected to expand into multi-location leadership oversight.

Direct Access to Founder Leadership
Founder Nikki Heckman remains deeply involved in the company’s culture and leadership development. She believes that great organizations invest in the growth of their people as much as their operations. Working closely with that philosophy provides mentorship and leadership exposure that is rare in hospitality organizations.

A Culture That Invests in People
The company runs internal leadership development programs and actively encourages team members to grow beyond their current roles. Employees are supported in developing their confidence, leadership skills, and long-term career paths. Even when people eventually move on, they often leave Bistro stronger than when they arrived.

Who We’re Looking For

Someone who is…

• A culinary leader with 10+ years of serious catering or high-volume food service experience, with a background that shows depth, longevity, and a clear love for the craft and the people in it
• A hands-on operator who is just as comfortable making sandwiches and filling prep sheets as they are running a team through a ten-wedding weekend
• A relationship-builder whose first move in any new kitchen is to listen, ask questions, and earn trust before exercising authority
• A calm, stabilizing presence under pressure who is comfortable operating in a fast-moving, constantly changing environment where plans shift and adaptability matters
• A team-first leader who measures their own success by how capable and confident the people around them become
• Someone with multicultural culinary fluency who embraces diverse menus, diverse teams, and the wide variety of events and clients Bistro serves
• A future-minded operator who understands food cost, labor percentage, and operational accountability, and is ready to help build the KPI structure that will carry Bistro to its next phase of growth

Sound Like a Fit? Let’s Talk.

Apply today and tell us about the kitchens you've led, the teams you've built, and the environments where you’ve done your best work. We’re excited to meet leaders who care deeply about food, people, and building something that lasts.