Company description

Camps Kenwood & Evergreen are brother-sister overnight camps in Wilmot, New Hampshire. Founded 1930. 130 kids per camp, 230 acres, a private lake.

The kitchen sits at the center of camp life. We feed 280 people three meals a day, seven days a week, for nine weeks. The whole camp eats together. The food matters.

We cook from scratch. We are not a heat-and-serve operation. Our kitchen team is 15 people. Our Executive Chef Mike Prete has been named People's Choice Caterer of the Year in New Hampshire eight years running. US Foods delivers three times a week, and we source what we can locally through the New Hampshire summer.

Meals are part of the program. They teach kids how to sit at a table, pass a dish, eat with people they didn't know yesterday. The dining hall is where camp becomes a community.

This is the kitchen for someone who wants real autonomy, real volume, and a summer where the work counts.

Job description

This is the operating role that holds the dining hall together. You report to Executive Chef Mike Prete and own the day-to-day floor: scheduling, service flow, vendor relationships, special diets, and the team. Mike sets the menu with your input. You make it happen, three times a day, for nine weeks straight.

You will lead a 14-person kitchen on a 230-acre property with a private lake, in a place that has been doing this since 1930. The whole camp sits down together. The dining hall is the loudest, happiest room at camp. You run that room.

A typical day starts with coffee at 5:30 a.m. and ends with a quick debrief with Mike on tomorrow. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, six days a week. One day off. The job is intense and finite. Nine weeks of summer and you are done, with a tan, a story, and a team that respects you.

Responsibilities

Run all three daily services for 400 people in one dining hall
Manage and schedule a 14-person kitchen team
Coordinate special diets: gluten free, dairy free, nut allergies, vegan, religious accommodations
Own vendor relationships with US Foods (three deliveries a week) and Sysco
Plan kitchen logistics around camp programming, cookouts, day trips, and overnight trips
Lead the team to the standards Mike sets, with full autonomy on floor execution
Keep food safety, sanitation, and dining hall standards at NH health code and ACA accreditation level
Requirements

Five-plus years in food service operations. Restaurant, institutional, school dining, retreat center, or camp.
Experience managing a team of 8 or more in a high-volume kitchen.
Comfort with from-scratch cooking and from-scratch logistics.
Calm under pressure. The dining hall is loud and the timing is tight.
Available June 10 through August 8.
Willingness to live on-site. Housing and all meals provided.
Logistics

$15,000 for the nine-week season. Housing, all meals, and round-trip travel included. Wilmot, New Hampshire is two hours north of Boston and ninety minutes from Manchester.

This is not a punch-clock job. The food you make feeds 400 people for the most important nine weeks of their year. The parents who send them here trust you with that. If that fits, we want to talk.

Compensation

this position is: hourly, $20/hr +

Work visa

This employer is willing to sponsor a work visa for international applicants

Application instructions

If you are not registered, you'll be prompted to do so. Don't worry, it's free!

Deadline

no deadline