Executive Chef

Overview

Live. Work. Explore. as a part of our team at Custer State Park Resort!

Custer State Park Resort is located in one of South Dakota's most iconic destinations in the heart of the Black Hills. Spanning nearly 71,000 acres, the park is home to nearly 1,400 bison, breathtaking granite formations, scenic drives, abundant wildlife and endless opportunities for outdoor adventure. 

We’re hiring an Executive Chef to Live. Work. Explore. in Custer State Park Resort!

Job Summary:

The Executive Chef provides creative and operational culinary leadership for Custer State Park’s distinctive collection of lodge restaurants and food experiences. Located in the Black Hills of western South Dakota, Custer State Park is an exceptional destination known for its remarkable natural beauty, rich history, and iconic attractions. The park offers an authentic outdoor experience while remaining conveniently close to Rapid City and the many amenities, communities, and attractions of the greater Black Hills. The culinary portfolio includes unique locations and menus at State Game Lodge, Sylvan Lake Lodge, Blue Bell Lodge, and Legion Lake Lodge, with service styles ranging from quick-service and casual dining to elevated, full-service dining, as well as catering, special events, the Chuck Wagon Cookout, mobile food service, and the employee dining room.

Reporting to the Director of Food and Beverage, the Executive Chef leads the culinary management team and is accountable for menu creation and execution, food quality, production systems, food cost, culinary labor productivity, sanitation, food safety, and consistent kitchen performance across geographically dispersed and highly seasonal operations. The Executive Chef translates the division’s business and guest experience objectives into creative, location-specific menus and practical culinary standards, recipes, training, staffing, and daily operating routines. The Executive Chef will develop and evolve menus for multiple operating seasons, including summer, fall, and holiday service, while also building compelling quick-service menu options for year-round operations. This position leads culinary planning and execution for Custer State Park’s substantial wedding and banquet business, a major component of the role, as well as signature events including the Buffalo Roundup and Arts Festival. The Executive Chef partners closely with location chefs, outlet leaders, catering, purchasing, and support departments to deliver Xanterra’s Legendary Hospitality throughout Custer State Park. 

The Details:
Position Type: Full-Time

Life in Custer State Park

• Employee housing provided
• Retail, Lodging and Travel Discounts
• Planned employee trips and activities
• $350 Referral Bonus Program

Responsibilities

Culinary Leadership and Team Development 

• Recruit, hire, train, mentor, and develop location chefs, sous chefs, kitchen managers, and culinary employees, building a culture of accountability, teamwork, safety, continuous improvement, and culinary excellence. 
• Establish clear expectations for food quality, production, sanitation, labor productivity, cost control, leadership, and daily kitchen execution, and hold culinary leaders accountable for measurable results. 
• Build culinary bench strength and succession plans, support the return and development of seasonal employees, and create practical training and onboarding programs for each kitchen and position. 
• Partner with the Director of Food and Beverage and Human Resources to deliver leadership, technical, food safety, and supervisory training and ensure employees maintain required certifications. 
• Maintain a visible leadership presence in all kitchens, coach leaders in real time, and ensure standards are sustained across shifts, locations, and changing business levels. 
• Partner with outlet managers and catering leadership to coordinate front- and back-of-house priorities, service pacing, staffing, menu execution, and recovery from operating issues. 

Menu Strategy, Quality, and Production Systems 

• Partner with the Director of Food and Beverage to establish culinary standards, menu strategy, product specifications, pricing inputs, and kitchen operating priorities consistent with financial and guest experience objectives. 
• Develop and maintain standardized recipes, yields, portion standards, plating guides, production pars, prep lists, and specifications for all outlets and events, with disciplined change control and training. 
• Support a distinct dining identity for each lodge while standardizing core recipes, ingredients, production methods, and systems where doing so improves quality, cost, training, procurement, and execution. Maintain approximately 60% unique menu offerings by location. 
• Develop menus featuring regional South Dakota ingredients, including bison and regional game, while providing varied price points, portion sizes, children’s options, and dietary and allergen-friendly choices. 
• Ensure menus achieve targeted food-cost and contribution margins while delivering strong guest value, quality, consistency, and operational feasibility. 
• Lead menu testing, tastings, recipe costing, implementation, and post-launch evaluation, and make timely adjustments based on guest feedback, cost, availability, throughput, and execution. 
• Establish effective food production, receiving, storage, thawing, preparation, cooling, reheating, holding, and service systems that protect quality and safety while minimizing waste. 
• Oversee culinary quality and production standards for the employee dining room and ensure employees receive nutritious, timely, consistent, and high-quality meals. 

Events, Catering, and the Buffalo Roundup

• Lead culinary planning and production for the Buffalo Roundup and Arts Festival, including breakfast at the North and South viewing sites, Corrals lunch service, festival food stations, pre-ordering, production schedules, transport, holding, and supplemental staffing. 
• Provide direct culinary leadership for Custer State Park’s high volume of weddings, banquets, group and corporate functions, the Governor’s banquet, and other catered or special events. Weddings and banquets are a major component of this role and require disciplined menu development, banquet event order review, production planning, staffing, execution, and service coordination. 
• Plan and oversee culinary use of mobile kitchen trucks for events and peak operating periods, as approved by SDGFP. 
• Create detailed culinary operating plans for major events, including staffing, production quantities, equipment, food safety controls, transportation, contingency plans, and financial targets. 
• Participate in formal after-action reviews following major events and implement lessons learned in future culinary and Buffalo Roundup operating plans. 

Financial Performance, Purchasing, and Labor Management 

• Partner with the Director of Food and Beverage to develop culinary budgets, forecasts, operating targets, and capital priorities for all kitchens, outlets, and events. 
• Own culinary performance for food cost, waste, kitchen labor, overtime, productivity, inventory accuracy, and controllable kitchen expenses, and implement corrective action when results do not meet expectations. 
• Establish and monitor culinary key performance indicators, including food cost, yield, waste, inventory variance, production accuracy, labor hours, overtime, productivity, and quality results. 
• Develop seasonal culinary staffing plans and labor schedules aligned with forecasted business levels, menu complexity, service standards, operating hours, and established productivity targets. 
• Review staffing, hours, overtime, productivity, and deployment regularly and adjust culinary labor as business levels and operating conditions change. 
• Partner with Supply Chain on specifications, bids, vendor performance, negotiated pricing, substitutions, product availability, receiving standards, and purchasing strategies. 
• Oversee kitchen receiving, storage, requisition, transfer, inventory, and waste-control practices through Xanterra’s Inventory Management system, and ensure accurate period-end inventories, recipe and item setup, purchasing controls, and timely investigation of material variances. 
• Maintain disciplined use of approved products and purchasing channels and prevent unauthorized substitutions, overproduction, excessive waste, and avoidable spoilage. 

Operational Excellence, Food Safety, and Stewardship 

• Ensure compliance with the SDGFP concession contract, applicable South Dakota food requirements, OSHA requirements, Xanterra policies, and other applicable regulations and operating standards. 
• Maintain active managerial controls and rigorous food safety standards in every kitchen, including sanitation, employee health, temperature controls, allergen management, cross-contamination prevention, labeling, storage, and temporary food service requirements. 
• Conduct regular physical and operational reviews of kitchens, storage areas, mobile units, and event production sites, and maintain satisfactory results on required inspections. 
• Ensure preventive care, appropriate use, and timely reporting of repair needs for culinary equipment, smallwares, vehicles, and facilities, partnering with Facilities on maintenance priorities. 
• Establish consistent culinary SOPs, opening and closing routines, cleaning schedules, checklists, and communication practices while allowing appropriate flexibility for each location’s business needs. 
• Support Xanterra’s sustainability goals through local and sustainable purchasing, food waste reduction, responsible seafood and protein sourcing, recycling, composting where available, and food donation. 
• Build productive working relationships with SDGFP, local health officials, vendors, community partners, and internal support departments. 
• Perform other duties and projects as assigned. 

Qualifications

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS & ABILITIES

• Proven ability to lead and develop culinary leaders within complex, multi-unit, high-volume, or geographically dispersed operations. 
• Strong culinary and business acumen, including menu engineering, recipe costing, food cost, labor management, inventory control, purchasing, production planning, and margin improvement. 
• Demonstrated ability to establish standards, communicate expectations clearly, hold leaders accountable, and drive consistent execution across multiple kitchens. 
• Strong knowledge of food safety, sanitation, allergens, active managerial controls, and high-volume production and holding practices. 
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to translate financial, operational, quality, and guest feedback into practical action. 
• Ability to balance culinary creativity with guest value, operational feasibility, product availability, staffing capability, and financial targets. 
• Strong organization, communication, and relationship-building skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities and operating challenges simultaneously. 
• Ability to lead effectively in a highly seasonal environment with multiple locations, major outdoor events, variable weather, and fluctuating business levels. 

EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE

• Minimum of seven years of progressive culinary leadership experience, including at least three years as an Executive Chef, Executive Sous Chef, or equivalent leader in a complex, multi-unit, resort, park, destination, club, convention, or high-volume hospitality operation. 
• Demonstrated experience leading large and/or seasonal culinary teams and developing sous chefs and kitchen managers. 
• Significant experience leading high-volume wedding and banquet culinary operations is strongly preferred. Experience with outdoor events, mobile food production, and other large-scale special events is also preferred. 
• Culinary degree or formal apprenticeship preferred. Equivalent relevant culinary leadership experience will be considered. 
• Strong working knowledge of recipe costing, menu engineering, purchasing, inventory, food and labor cost controls, production systems, food safety, and kitchen equipment. 
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office and experience with scheduling, payroll/timekeeping, POS, recipe, and hospitality operating systems. Strong working knowledge of inventory-management technology is required, including disciplined use of Xanterra’s Inventory Management system for purchasing, recipes, product specifications, transfers, counts, waste, and cost reporting. Xanterra systems may include Infor CloudSuite and Dayforce. 
• ServSafe Manager certification required, or ability to obtain within 30 days of hire. Additional allergen-awareness and responsible alcohol service certification may be required based on assigned duties. 
• Valid driver’s license and ability to meet Xanterra’s applicable driver safety requirements. 

WORK ENVIRONMENT & SCHEDULE

• Position operates across multiple Food & Beverage locations throughout Custer State Park and requires regular presence in kitchens, restaurants, storage areas, employee dining facilities, catering locations, mobile units, and outdoor event sites. 
• Ability to stand and walk for extended periods and work around heat, steam, cold storage, noise, sharp tools, commercial equipment, uneven terrain, and variable weather conditions. 
• Ability to lift and carry up to 50 pounds. 
• Schedule varies based on business levels and operational needs and will include evenings, weekends, holidays, early mornings, and extended hours during peak periods and major events. Some travel will be required for meetings, training, recruiting, vendor engagement, and other business needs. 

OTHER DUTIES: 

Please note that job descriptions are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties and responsibilities associated with the job.  Other job-related duties and responsibilities may be assigned from time to time.

BENEFITS: Medical, Dental Vision; HSA & FSA; Life & Disability; Accident, Hospital & Critical Illness; Paid Time Off, 401(k) with Company Match, Employee Assistance Plan, Education Assistance.

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We are an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.