Evening Cook

Make lives meaningful through making.

Who We Are

Penland School of Craft is an international center for craft education offering residential workshops, residencies, community education programs, and exhibitions. Located on 420 acres in the NC Mountains, Penland has 16 teaching studios and 60 historic and contemporary buildings. We are an equal-opportunity employer with a staff of 50+. Penland operates with a $54 million endowment and an annual operating budget of $8.4 million. We are located about an hour northeast of Asheville, NC. 

Our Commitment to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

Penland School of Craft welcomes everyone and believes that equity, inclusion, diversity, and antiracism are essential to our mission. We want the Penland experience to benefit from varied ideas, world views, and personal experiences. We stand against all forms of discrimination and are committed to creating an environment grounded in our equity values.

Black, Indigenous, Latine, Asian, and other people who identify as people of color or BIPOC individuals are encouraged to apply, as are people holding other marginalized identities related to gender, sexual orientation, ability, and class background.

Reports to: Head Cook Department: Operations Supervision: Evening Prep Cook, Core Employment Status: Seasonal Full-time (Feb. - Nov.) 40-hours weekly

FLSA Status: Non-exempt Start date: February 17, 2024 Last Updated: December 18, 2024

Position Summary

The Penland Evening Cook reports to the head chef and is responsible for executing dinner menus, managing the evening Pines staff, and coordinating the serving and shutdown of dinner service.  They support approximately 230 meals daily in the summer, and 100 in the spring and fall, along with various special events throughout the year.  In addition, this position assists the head chef in the menu planning of dinner menus and supports prep for breakfast and lunch as needed. The evening cook helps manage a rotating group of student employees who often have minimal kitchen experience. Additionally, they support the food services team to ensure the delivery of delicious food in a friendly atmosphere to meet all requested food needs at Penland. This position is a full-time, seasonal, hourly position.

Primary Responsibilities

• Ensures a friendly cooperative atmosphere for staff and students while providing healthy and delicious food for Penland. 
• Oversees all evening meal preparation, service, and kitchen cleanup. 
• Oversees nightly shutdown of all Pines services, including kitchen, dining room, and coffee shop as needed.
• Manages the menu rotation for dinners, including recipe development and meal production.  Works with the head chef, food services manager, food services general manager, and baker on the coordination of menus and food ordering. 
• Oversees the training, management, and evaluations of all food services staff they supervise, including the evening food prep, weekend cooks, CORE cooks, and student employees on their shifts. Responsible for building a strong and flexible team.  Addresses conflict and personnel issues promptly and works to develop the team to its potential.
• Ensures proper training and the highest cleanliness standards are met in regard to health code standards. Keeps current on health code regulations. 
• Ensures storage, clean-up, and care of tools and equipment during shifts are complete. Support the kitchen on all equipment maintenance and creation and problem-solving of kitchen and inventory systems.
• Ensures consistency of efficient operations between day and evening shifts. Assists in tasks that support this consistency.
• Participates in all work weeks to clean and inventory during seasonal changes.
• Participates in the kitchen on-call system as needed. 
• Maintains Serve Safe, First Aid, CPR, Bloodborne Pathogen & AED training and certification. First aid trainings are offered annually at the school.

• Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• Be able to work from 12 noon to 8 pm and occasionally on weekends and holidays.
• Have at least 3 years of commercial/catering cooking experience and 1 year of supervisory experience. Culinary education is preferred but not required. 
• Have worked in a high-volume setting with diverse menu selections. 
• Be able to perform the responsibilities above satisfactorily. 
• Have clear communication and customer service skills and the ability to teach others.
• Be able to work well with others and help create a positive team environment with support staff and other departments.
• Demonstrate a commitment to uphold and implement Penland’s mission, educational philosophy, and diversity & inclusivity statement.

Physical Demands

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to stand for long periods of time and walk. The employee is required to use their hands to handle or touch objects, tools, or controls, talk fluently, and hear. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move objects weighing up to 75 pounds. The specific vision required by this job is close vision.

 

Benefits

We take care of our staff through a wide range of benefits. For your wellness, we offer multiple medical plans, vision, dental, long-term disability, life insurance, retirement, and an EAP program. Benefits include generous vacation, sick, extended sick, PTO leave programs, access to studios, free classes, meals during programming, and other discounts. We have other generous benefits that we can explore more during the interview process. 

 

Compensation

This is a seasonal, full-time, benefits-eligible position that works from mid-February through mid-November annually.  This position will work 40 hours per week, totaling 1560 hours annually. The starting wage for this non-exempt position is negotiable within the range of $17.70 - $19.66, based on the applicant’s skills and experience they bring to the position.   Employees at Penland enjoy competitive pay, attractive benefits, and a lively, creative work environment. 

To Apply
The position will remain open until filled; however, the initial review of applications will consist of applications received by January 3, 2025.