Domenico Di Sarno

• Preparation, cooking, and plating of dishes to ensure consistency, taste, and presentation meet high standards.
• Create, plan, and update menus in line with culinary trends, seasonal availability, and customer preferences while ensuring high-quality food standards.
• Oversee daily kitchen operations, including food preparation, cooking, and presentation, ensuring efficiency and consistency.
• Manage food costs, inventory, and suppliers to maintain budgetary constraints while minimizing waste and optimizing ingredient usage.
• Ensure kitchen operations comply with health, safety, and sanitation regulations, implementing best practices for hygiene and cleanliness.
• Work closely with restaurant management, front-of-house staff, and suppliers to enhance overall guest experience and operational efficiency.

• Create and update menus based on seasonal ingredients, customer preferences, and culinary trends while maintaining cost efficiency.
• Oversee day-to-day kitchen operations, ensuring a smooth and efficient workflow. Manage kitchen staff, schedules, and tasks to maintain high-quality food production.
• Maintain high standards of food quality, presentation, and consistency. Conduct regular inspections of all kitchen areas to ensure adherence to health and safety guidelines.
• Responsible for ordering supplies, monitoring inventory levels, and minimizing waste. Develop and maintain relationships with vendors to ensure timely and cost-effective procurement.
• Train, mentor, and develop kitchen staff. Foster a positive and collaborative work environment, encouraging creativity and skill development.
• Work closely with management to establish and manage the kitchen budget. Control costs by monitoring expenses related to food and kitchen supplies.
• Ensure compliance with all relevant health and safety regulations. Stay updated on industry trends, new ingredients, and cooking techniques.
• Collaborate with other departments, such as front-of-house staff and management, to ensure a seamless dining experience for customers.

• Maintain all levels in kitchen management during the absence of the Head Chef
• Develop new menu options based on seasonal changes and customer demand
• Ordering supplies and negotiating with suppliers
• Managing inventory and keeping control of stock
• Completing food hygiene documents to comply with the law and writing environmental health reports when necessary
• Managing the kitchen staff, including setting the rota
• Good organization and multitasking skills, being able to remain calm and composed in intense, high-stress situations
• Enforcing strict health and hygiene standards and maintaining impeccable quality standards within the kitchen and service areas at all times, including overseeing a weekly deep cleaning schedule
• Being part of a climate of smooth and friendly cooperation, communication, training & mentoring within the kitchen and service areas and with the store team as a whole
• Arranging for repairs when necessary
• Dealing with customers' complaints when arising

• Lead kitchen team in Head Chef's absence
• Order supplies to stock inventory appropriately
• Comply with and enforce sanitation regulations and safety standards
• Maintain a positive and professional approach with coworkers and customers
• Training junior chefs
• Onboarding new employees
• Helping the head chef to create food menus
• Working within specified budgets
• Ensuring the kitchen meets high standards of quality
• Completing food hygiene documents to comply with the law and writing environmental health reports when necessary

• Develop new menu options based on seasonal changes and customer demand
• Ordering supplies and negotiating with suppliers
• Oversees and organizes kitchen stock and ingredients
• Ensuring the kitchen meets high standards of quality
• Completing food hygiene documents to comply with the law and writing environmental health reports when necessary
• Establishing strong relationships with staff in other areas of the business, including managers and front of house teams
• Supervises all food preparation and presentation to ensure quality and restaurant standards
• Following the guidance of the Head Chef in the preparation and presentation of all menu dishes and other products made within the kitchen
• Enforcing strict health and hygiene standards and maintaining impeccable quality standards within the kitchen and service areas at all times, including overseeing a weekly deep cleaning schedule
• Being part of a climate of smooth and friendly cooperation, communication, training & mentoring within the kitchen and service areas and with the store team as a whole

• Always putting our guests & fellow team members first by ensuring the kitchen is always safe
• Responsible for the majority of duties and responsibilities of the chef, such as inventory, kitchen staff management, and food preparation
• Ensure that required standards are adhered to in the production and preparation of food – in quality, quantity and safety
• Ensure all dishes are prepared according to specification and served at the correct quality, portion size, and temperature
• Making sure the kitchen runs smoothly in the absence of the Sous Chef and the Head Chef
• Helping to train more junior members of staff
• Meeting with suppliers

• Assisted Head Chef with setup, execution, and break down of banquets/catered event
• Ensured guests' expectations were exceeded through exceptional customer service
• Always practicing and implementing Food, Health and Safety controls
• Being able to multi-task; being organised and understand how to prioritise tasks efficiently
• Ensuring wastage is recorded correctly & identifying & implement ways to minimise wastage
• Ensure food is cooked correctly and leaves the pass on time
• Making sure the kitchen runs smoothly in the absence of the Sous Chef and the Head Chef

• Ensure food is cooked correctly and leaves the pass on time
• Making sure the kitchen runs smoothly in the absence of the Sous Chef and the Head Chef
• Verifies that food storage units all meet standards and are consistently well- managed
• Assists head chef with menu creation
• Provides guidance to junior kitchen staff members, including, but not limited, to line cooking, food preparation, and dish plating

During this period, I owned and operated an Italian restaurant in London specialising in Southern Italian cuisine.