Culinary Director

Culinary Strategy and Brand Development

Define and lead the culinary vision for F1® Arcade across the US, ensuring the food proposition aligns with the brand, guest expectations, and commercial goals.

Create innovative, high-quality, and operationally efficient menus that complement the overall guest experience and support daypart, event, and group sales occasions.

Create a food strategy that can scale effectively across both corporate and franchise locations while maintaining consistency and flexibility for local markets.

Partner with senior leadership to evolve the culinary proposition in line with business growth, consumer trends, and brand.

Menu Development and Innovation

Lead menu creation, testing, costing, rollout, and seasonal refreshes across all venues.

Balance creativity with practicality by designing dishes that are visually compelling, high quality, profitable, and executable in a high-volume environment.

Adapt menus for the US, considering local tastes, ingredient availability, pricing structures, regulatory requirements, and operational needs.

Build and maintain menu engineering processes that optimize mix, margin, labor efficiency, and guest satisfaction.

Oversee recipe development, portion standards, plating guides, allergen information, and specification.

Multi-Site Operational Excellence

Establish and uphold culinary standards across all venues, ensuring consistency in food quality, presentation, preparation, and kitchen operations.

Conduct regular site visits, kitchen audits, and performance reviews to identify opportunities for improvement and ensure compliance with brand standards.

Work closely with operations teams to ensure kitchen systems, prep models, service workflows, and labor deployment support efficient operations.

Identify and solve operational challenges related to equipment, production flow, staffing capability, and quality.

Franchise Partner Support

Serve as the lead culinary contact for franchise partners, supporting successful openings, menu implementation, and ongoing operational support.

Support franchise partners with culinary innovation and menu development, developing franchise-ready culinary systems, playbooks, and training tools.

Provide guidance on kitchen design, equipment selection, supplier standards, product specifications, and new venue opening readiness.

Support franchisees with troubleshooting, performance improvement plans, and menu adaptation within approved brand guidelines.

Collaborate with franchise and international teams to ensure partners understand and deliver the F1® Arcade food experience to their guests.

Training and Capability Building

Partner with the Learning and Development team to build and deliver culinary training programs for chefs, kitchen managers, and operations teams across both corporate and franchised venues.

Create clear SOPs, recipe manuals, training materials, and onboarding tools to support consistent execution.

Coach venue leaders to improve quality, team capability, and operational efficiency.

Supplier and Commercial Management

Partner with procurement and supply chain to source products that meet quality, availability, and cost requirements across both US venues.

Support supplier selection, product testing, and specification.

Monitor food cost performance and identify opportunities for margin improvement without compromising quality or guest satisfaction.

Ensure menus and recipes are built with supply continuity, scalability, and operational simplicity in mind.

Compliance and Food Safety

Ensure all culinary standards, recipes, and operating procedures align with applicable food safety, allergen, and regulatory requirements in the US.

Partner with operations and compliance teams to maintain best-in-class food safety practices across all venues.

Support audit readiness and ensure franchise partners understand and comply with required regulations.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

Work closely with Operations, Beverage, Training, Procurement, Finance, Marketing, and Franchise teams to deliver an integrated guest experience.

Partner with marketing on menu launches, promotional activity, and brand storytelling around the food.

Contribute to new venue openings, feasibility reviews, and strategic planning for future growth in domestic and international markets.

Experience

Significant senior culinary leadership experience in a multi-site hospitality, restaurant, or entertainment-led venue business.

Proven experience overseeing culinary operations across multiple regions or international markets.

Experience supporting franchise, licensed, or partner-operated businesses.

Strong background in menu development, recipe standardization, kitchen operations, and cost management.

Demonstrated success in building food concepts that are both brand-led and operationally efficient.

Strong knowledge of food safety, allergen management, and regulatory compliance in complex operating environments.

Experience opening new venues and supporting new venue opening culinary execution is highly desirable.

Financial acumen, including menu costing, margin management, and labor efficiency awareness.

Skills and Competencies

Strategic and commercially minded, with the ability to connect culinary vision to business objectives.

Hands-on and detail-oriented, with strong standards around food quality and operational excellence.

Strong leadership presence with the ability to influence cross-functional teams and franchise partners.

Excellent coaching, training, and communication skills.

Highly organized, adaptable, and comfortable working in a fast-paced growth environment.

Strong problem-solving abilities with a practical, solutions-focused approach.

Able to balance brand consistency with local market demands.

Success Measures

Consistent food quality and presentation across US and franchise venues.

Successful rollout of menu updates and new culinary concepts.

Strong food cost performance and improved menu profitability.

High operational compliance with culinary and food safety standards.

Effective franchise partner execution and support.

Positive guest feedback and improved food-related performance.

Smooth culinary support for new venue openings and market expansion.