Menu Development Chef Jobs in Illinois (NOW HIRING)

Farmer's Fridge makes fruits and vegetables accessible and approachable for everyone. We offer a variety of fresh, healthy, ready-to-eat meals and snacks through our fresh food vending machines, wholesale partners, and our office pantry solution - providing chef-curated meals to customers within seconds. Today, we operate a network of Fridges and partner with clients nationwide in high-foot-traffic areas, such as airports, hospitals, universities, and large office buildings - where there is limited accessibility to fresh, healthy, grab-n-go options.
We care deeply about what we're creating and aspire to make sure our customers feel that through every touchpoint. This shows up in many ways across the business. We are committed to prioritizing food safety, we are passionate about product quality, we value our employees, we champion the best idea no matter where it comes from, and we're committed to making an overall positive impact as we scale.
About This Role: As the R&D Chef at Farmer's Fridge, you will be the creative engine behind our ever-evolving menu. You'll create delicious and scalable recipes to fill our core menu as well as building velocity and variety to keep our customers engaged. You'll develop a vault of recipes that meet cost, brand, operations, and strategy goals.
You are creative, detail oriented, dependable, and enjoy rolling up your sleeves to do whatever it takes to get things done. You see guardrails as a creative challenge instead of something in your way. You understand that a dish that can't be made consistently at 2,000 units is just a concept, and you design accordingly.
Reporting to the Director of Product Development, you will work collaboratively with R&D Engineering, Merchandising, Marketing, and Procurement teams to develop recipes that meet the constraints and capabilities of our business.
This is an on-site role. Our office is located at 2000 W Fulton St. Chicago, IL 60612. You will occasionally visit our manufacturing facility to support Pilot Runs, Troubleshooting, and First Production Runs which is located at 5370 S. Cicero Ave, Chicago, IL 60638
What You'll Do:
New Product Development

• Develop a continuous, high volume of bench-top recipes to populate our recipe vault to influence our Core and Rotating assortments
• Design recipes for both taste and large-scale consistency. You'll need to meet cost, nutrition, shelf life, and culinary guardrails and balance creative ambition with production realities and capability constraints.
• Execute internal and external sensory panels to ensure recipes meet scoring benchmarks and brief requirements.
• Stay ahead of food trends, emerging ingredients, and flavor innovation and translate them into concepts that are both craveable and manufacturable.
• Partner with the Procurement team to identify new ingredients and suppliers to expand what's possible within current production and new opportunities

Operational Fluency & Capability Advocate

• Develop a deep, working knowledge of our production environment and design recipes within real constraints to reduce commercialization complexities
• Support building business cases to bring on new capabilities or ingredients
• Be a constructive bridge between culinary expectations and operational reality. Work with the production teams to understand constraints and come up with creative solutions

Scale-Up and Continuous Improvement

• Provide feedback and assistance through scale-up testing and pilot runs ensuring achievable adherence to the gold standard recipe.
• Iterate quickly based on production feedback, sensory data and customer feedback
• Assist in diagnosing and resolving recipe issues that surface at scale

Culinary & Test Kitchen Management

• Champion a culture of passion for the food we produce.
• Maintain a well-stocked, organized test kitchen
• Support culinary-related marketing & menu events (e.g. our annual "Chopped" competition, supplier cuttings, PR events, etc.).

Who You Are...

• 5+ years of experience in food R&D or culinary product development ideally in a RTE/fresh food manufacturing environment.
• A Culinary Degree, Culinology Degree, Food Science or equivalent background and experience.
• A proven track record of successful recipe development. You generate options, not just favorites, and can work cross-functionally with marketing/insights to develop purposeful, high quality recipes
• Comfort working within cost, operating, and nutritional guardrails.
• Experience in high-volume food production. You understand what scalable actually means - not just in theory
• A deep understanding of mass market trends and flavors. You have a pulse on food industry trends and a demonstrated track record of leveraging insights to inform new products.
• Strong project management skills and ability to manage multiple work streams and priorities.
• Experience in a high-growth, rapid-change environment. You can operate in ambiguous situations and be flexible as the organization changes and grows - we are a new place every quarter!
• An insane passion for the Farmer's Fridge's mission to improve people's lives through 24/7 access to fresh food.

The base salary range for this role is $95,000 to $105,000. The base pay offered will be determined by factors such as experience, skills, training, certifications, education, and any applicable minimum wage requirements.
In addition to base salary, this position is eligible for company performance-based/performance (sales) bonuses and equity.
Benefits At Farmer's Fridge
In This Together - We stay connected, whether in person or virtually. We encourage business transparency through monthly town hall meetings and weekly financial updates. We set out to make the best product on the market, and we believe we've done it. We value your input in the new menu creation process. From regular tasting panels, where employees provide new menu feedback.
Happier Workdays - Each day at work should fill you with joy. We're a fun and passionate group, and we don't take ourselves too seriously. Bring your unique self to work, dress comfortably, and always feel free to share your thoughts and opinions. We encourage curiosity; there's no hierarchy here when we're all swapping ideas.
Never run on empty - Daily Farmer's Fridge meal, draft cold brew and beer, and office snacks are just some of the offerings to make sure you aren't distracted by a growling stomach. Recharge with our paid sabbatical program after four years of service.
Innovate & Elevate - We're all teachers and learners. You'll grow, and help grow the company through cross-functional collaboration, open access to leadership, and regular business updates. You have a direct impact on the company's bottom line. You can also impact your personal bottom line by participating in our 401(k) plan that includes a company match with immediate vesting.
Farmer's Fridge Diversity Statement:
"Don't meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and people of color are less likely to apply for jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At Farmer's Fridge, we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace, so if you're excited about this role but your past experience doesn't align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyways. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles."
Farmer's Fridge is an equal-opportunity employer. We are committed to providing equal employment opportunity in all employment practices, including hiring, without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law. View our disclosures related to External Agencies and Applicants below: https://www.farmersfridge.com/careerdisclosures