We are looking for a dynamic, creative and passionate Teaching Kitchen Chef interested in helping to share our farm-to-institution model to create a healthier, more equitable and more sustainable food system and to redefine institutional food in the 21st Century.

The Teaching Kitchen Chef will join our expanding team as we work to scale our award-winning farm-to-institution training and technical assistance program, The Teaching Kitchen® at Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, across New York State and the nation, to train schools and nonprofit organizations serving tens of millions of meals annually to provide more fresh, healthy, local and delicious food.  The Teaching Kitchen Chef will help us to engage and build relationships with diverse stakeholders (from nonprofit clients and community members to chefs, nonprofit program staff, farmers, food writers, policymakers and advocates) and to grow The Teaching Kitchen’s national role as leaders in the farm-to-institution movement.

Position Description

The ideal Teaching Kitchen Chef will have restaurant or institutional cooking experience and will also be a generalist with diverse skills and a passion to advance food and health equity. The Teaching Kitchen Chef will function as one of the public faces of our five-person team and must be a skilled public speaker and communicator; experience as an educator, trainer or public speaker is preferred; strong interpersonal and writing skills are a must. The position will involve occasional overnight travel outside New York City for trainings, conferences meetings and more.

The Teaching Kitchen Chef will report to the Director of Philanthropy and Healthy Food Initiatives and will assume diverse responsibilities not limited to:

• Work in our state-of-the-art kitchen with two other Teaching Kitchen Chefs and our Executive and Sous Chef on menu creation, recipe and cookbook development and more;
• Provide training and technical assistance to nonprofit and school cooks and program staff;
• Provide cooking demonstrations and nutrition workshops to clients from age 3 to 103+;
• Help to create and share video and social media content;
• Speak publicly about our work in a range of contexts, from conferences to meetings with anyone from farmers to funders;
• Write and develop communications and program materials;
• Outreach and build relationships with diverse stakeholders;
• Carry out program or outreach research;
• Conduct data collection and reporting;
• Travel for outreach, site visits, presentations, conferences or meetings.

Background

Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, widely recognized as one of New York’s premier human services providers, is a 128-year-old settlement house that provides an extensive array of effective and integrated services—social, educational, legal, health, housing, mental health, nutritional and fitness—which significantly improve the lives of nearly 16,000 people in need each year, ages 3 to 103, on the East Side of Manhattan. Our clients include older adults, homeless and formerly homeless adults, children and families, recent immigrants, disabled persons, adult learners and more. For more information on Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, please visit lenoxhill.org and check us out on Facebook or Instagram.

Lenox Hill Neighborhood House is the leader in New York’s nonprofit farm-to-institution movement, serving 400,000 healthy, delicious and culturally appropriate meals annually through our diverse human services programs. Through The Teaching Kitchen at Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, we train other nonprofits to transform their programs to a farm-to-institution model.

To date, The Teaching Kitchen has trained 400+ nonprofit staff from nearly 200 program sites serving 17 million meals annually. The program was featured in The New York Times and received an Emerging Innovator Award from the New York State Health Foundation, describing the program as “poised to make radical improvements to the state of New York’s health over the next 10 years.” Through implementation of a new eLearning version of the program, The Teaching Kitchen Online, we are now working to expand our impact—to work with school districts and nonprofit organizations serving communities across New York State and the nation. More info: lenoxhill.org/teachingkitchen

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or culinary degree;
• Minimum of 1-3 years’ experience cooking in restaurant or institutional kitchens;
• Experience in teaching, providing cooking demonstrations or public speaking;
• Strong writing and communications skills;
• Skilled at Microsoft Office suite programs;
• Bilingual English/Spanish preferred.

Starting salary range is $58,500 - $65,000 based on qualifications and experience.

To Apply

Applicants should send a cover letter outlining their qualifications and interest in the program as well as a resume to TeachingKitchenChef@lenoxhill.org. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until the position is filled. No telephone calls please.

At Lenox Hill Neighborhood House we value respect, diversity and integrity. We are an equal opportunity employer.  Lenox Hill Neighborhood House prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type and affords equal employment opportunities to employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, age, national origin, disability status, genetic information, protected veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.  Lenox Hill Neighborhood House conforms to the spirit as well as to the letter of all applicable laws and regulations.  The policy of equal employment opportunity (EEO) and anti-discrimination applies to all aspects of the relationship between Lenox Hill Neighborhood House and its colleagues.

Lenox Hill Neighborhood House is a client-facing and essential community-serving organization. To keep our clients and our colleagues safe, and to comply with various governmental contractual requirements, all new employees must be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 (except where valid medical exemptions apply) and will be required to submit proof prior to the time of onboarding.