Company Overview:
We are passionate about making simply the best cakes! Our roots go back to 1960s Naples, Italy where our family's passion for the art of baking and enjoying great food inspired us to create the bakery we have today. In 1986, La Rocca Bakery opened its doors in a suburb of Toronto, Canada. Today, the tradition of offering classic, memorable recipes lives on as we continue to innovate with new and exciting flavors. Our cakes are now available in thousands of grocery, food service, and fine food distributors across North America.
Role Purpose:
The Pastry Chef participates in defining the innovation plan and is ultimately responsible for executing the approved Innovation Strategy for La Rocca Creative Cakes (LCC). The Pastry Chef demonstrates strong leadership qualities with attention to detail in elevating and sustaining a competitive edge.
Reports to: Vice President R&D / Continuous Improvement
Key Responsibilities:
Leadership and Strategy:
- Support the development and execution of the LCC Innovation Strategy.
- Define priorities and integrate scientific principles into the art of pastry making.
- Participate in quarterly innovation sessions, staying current with trends, flavours, concepts, processes, and bakery equipment.
Product Development and Commercialization:
- Support all customer development initiatives and product costing processes.
- Manage LCC recipe commercialization and line trials.
- Support vendor relations and purchasing for the innovation process.
- Provide R&D regulatory support for the QA team.
- Manage product sample requirements for the commercialization team.
- Support the ERP R&D sandbox to enhance the product and technical data database.
Compliance and Safety:
- Ensure compliance with all company, customer, and legislative food safety, health & safety, and environmental policies and procedures.
Support and Accountability:
- Support the LCC Innovation Strategy and monitor process adoption.
- Handle ad hoc LCC developments and costing efforts.
- Consult on hosting LCC customers, training opportunities, event execution, social media development, and the annual budget process for the innovation team.
Information and Communication:
- Stay informed about R&D continuous improvement (CI) initiatives and support Operations-related CI.
- Stay informed about all LCC customer interactions.
Core Competencies:
- Ethical Behaviour: Adhere to ethical standards and business practices.
- Relationship Building: Establish and maintain positive working relationships internally and externally.
- Effective Communication: Communicate clearly, thoroughly, and in a timely manner.
- Customer Focus: Understand and respond to the needs of internal and external customers.
- Teamwork: Collaborate effectively with others to achieve goals and resolve problems.
- Decision Making: Make timely and well-considered decisions.
- Organization: Prioritize tasks, develop work schedules, and monitor progress.
- Planning: Create and implement action plans to move the organization forward.
- Problem Solving: Identify causes of problems and generate viable solutions.
Performance Indicators:
- Support the LCC innovation plan.
- Support and sustain all innovation at La Rocca.
- Build deep connectivity with partner departments (Production, QA, Regulatory, Purchasing, Marketing).
- Structure the production commercialization process.
- Conduct ongoing team performance evaluations.
Required Education, Skills, and Qualifications:
- 7 - 10+ years’ experience in product development in a food manufacturing environment (bakery industry preferred).
- Culinary institute graduate, Pastry Chef, Red Seal or foreign equivalency required.
- Ability to skillfully prepare desserts/cakes/cheesecake/squares and beyond.
- Experience in supporting the commercializing of new products in a large manufacturer setting an asset.
- Strong knowledge of formulation design and food costing.
- Versed in GMP, food safety, HACCP and other regulatory requirements preferred.
- Strong verbal and written communication skills.
- Food service and retail market knowledge is an asset.
- Experience with recipe management software is an asset.
Job Types: Full-time, Permanent
Pay: From $55,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Dental care
- Disability insurance
- Extended health care
- Life insurance
- Vision care
Schedule:
- 8 hour shift
- Monday to Friday
Work Location: In person
