Pastry Chef

Job Summary

As a Pastry Chef, you will lead the day-to-day baking and pastry operations for Pepperdine University, delivering exceptional desserts, artisan breads, pastries, and specialty baked goods across residential dining, retail café operations, catering events, and executive hospitality functions. This role oversees the university's comprehensive baking and pastry program, including support for high-profile catered events and VIP executive dining experiences.

The Pastry Chef will provide leadership to a team that includes a Sous Chef Baker, driving menu innovation, production excellence, training initiatives, and operational execution. This is an exciting opportunity for a creative, entrepreneurial culinary professional with a passion for baking, hospitality, and developing elevated guest experiences within a collegiate dining environment.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Manage the day-to-day baking and pastry operations across campus dining venues.
• Provide leadership, coaching, scheduling, and oversight for the Sous Chef Baker and pastry production team.
• Plan, prepare, and execute a wide variety of desserts, pastries, artisan breads, cookies, cakes, and specialty baked goods.
• Develop and execute innovative dessert, pastry, and bakery menus that align with seasonal trends, customer preferences, and university initiatives.
• Oversee the university's baking and pastry program, including retail café operations, catered events, and VIP executive hospitality spaces.
• Lead pastry production and execution for catered functions, special events, commencement activities, donor events, and executive-level gatherings.
• Assist with menu planning, recipe development, and implementation of new pastry concepts and offerings.
• Manage purchasing, inventory, ordering, and receiving of pastry ingredients, smallwares, and related supplies.
• Develop and maintain standardized recipes and production procedures to ensure quality, consistency, and operational efficiency.
• Monitor food costs, labor costs, and overall departmental expenses while maintaining exceptional quality standards.
• Ensure compliance with all food safety, sanitation, HACCP, and company guidelines.
• Train, mentor, and develop culinary team members on pastry techniques, presentation standards, production methods, and food safety practices.
• Collaborate with culinary leadership and marketing teams to roll out new culinary programs, promotions, and seasonal offerings.
• Maintain the highest standards of food quality, presentation, customer service, and guest satisfaction.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

QUALIFICATIONS

• 3+ years of pastry, baking, or culinary leadership experience preferred.
• Hands-on pastry chef, baker, or dessert production experience required.
• Experience overseeing bakery, pastry, café, catering, or large-scale foodservice operations.
• Experience in higher education dining, restaurants, hotels, resorts, bakeries, corporate dining, or related hospitality environments preferred.
• Extensive catering and banquet dessert production experience preferred.
• High-volume batch production and complex foodservice operations experience preferred.
• Strong knowledge of baking techniques, pastry arts, artisan breads, desserts, cakes, confections, and current industry trends.
• Demonstrated experience with menu development, recipe creation, ordering, inventory management, and production planning.
• Comprehensive knowledge of food quality, sanitation, food safety systems, and cost controls.
• Ability to lead, train, coach, and develop culinary team members.
• ServSafe Certification preferred.
• Proficiency