The Role
The Culinary R&D Associate guides new products from idea to production-ready launch.
Working out of our kitchen alongside the culinary, procurement, marketing, and data teams, this
role develops and standardizes recipes, crunches the numbers behind them, and helps build the
systems that keep our R&D pipeline organized and on schedule. The position blends real
cooking with the business of food: costing, product analytics, and go-to-market execution. It
suits a strong, consistent cook with an interest in how food products get made, priced, and sold.
Responsibilities
Recipe & Product Development
● Take recipes from first draft (your own or others') to production-ready, including scaling
math, waste and yield validation, batch sizing, and nutritional information, with guidance
from our chef on first iterations.
● Support new SKU ideation alongside procurement and marketing, contributing
competitive research and SKU performance data.
● Commission, execute, and interpret food science analyses, including shelf-life testing
and nutrition fact generation.
● Select and test packaging for new SKUs, balancing regulatory requirements, durability,
presentation, and cost.
● Lead tastings of developed products with senior management.
Launches, Costing & Systems
● Coordinate product launches from start to finish: generate labels and pricing, upload
SKUs into our ERP and Sanity CMS, coordinate product photography, order first-run
ingredients, and schedule initial production runs.
● Help build and maintain COGS and cost analyses that inform pricing and margin
decisions.
● Maintain the recipe management system and kitchen software database: onboard new
products, recipes, and ingredients, and offboard discontinued products from systems
and production schedules.
● Help improve the R&D workflow and kitchen technology (e.g., Parsley, Combi Oven
automated programs) to keep the pipeline organized, on schedule, and efficient.
Kitchen & Team Support
● Help train kitchen team members on new recipes, ensuring consistency and quality.
● Periodically verify and audit recipes in production, and revise them or re-train based on
how cooks are executing them.
● Help keep work and storage spaces clean and organized.
Ideal Candidate
● 2+ years of experience in a culinary environment: restaurant, catering, test kitchen, or
production kitchen.
● A real love of food and the ability to cook it exceptionally well and consistently.
● Experience with recipe development, testing, or documentation. You can scale a recipe
mathematically and understand yield calculations.
● Proficient in Google Sheets and Excel; you're comfortable working with data, building
formulas, and picking up new software systems quickly.
● A careful documenter who takes pride in writing clear processes, procedures, and
specifications.
● A strong communicator who can collaborate across teams, from the kitchen to
marketing, and manage multiple projects on deadline.
● Familiarity with nutrition labeling, food safety protocols, or shelf-life considerations is
preferred.
● Bilingual English/Spanish is preferred.
Compensation & Benefits
This position starts as hourly, paid $22 - $25+ / hour depending on experience.
Benefits include:
● Health Benefits + Paid Time Off
● Employee discount on Farm to People groceries and meals
● Working for a mission driven company that makes a difference!
To apply please email jobs@farmtopeople.com and evan@farmtopeople.com with your
cover letter and resume.
More detail about Farm To People, please visit
https://culinaryagents.com/entities/307230-Farm-To-People