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Description
CLARK’S OYSTER BAR, MENLO PARK
Executive Chef
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The Room. Clark’s Oyster Bar opened in Menlo Park in spring 2025. Our second Clark’s in California, with sister units in Montecito and Malibu. Just under 100 seats with a raw bar at the visual center. Oysters from both coasts, a tight seafood-forward menu, martinis and champagne. The kitchen is open to the dining room. Every plate is visible.
Why This Role. We’re hiring the chef who will run this kitchen as a true peer to the GM. Together you run the restaurant. You own BOH labor and food cost; they own FOH labor and revenue. You report culinarily to our Culinary Director; operationally to the GM. Standing CD visits are scheduled with both of you.
What You’ll Own
- The kitchen. Food cost at concept target, weekly inventories, vendor relationships from oyster farms (both coasts) to produce.
- The team. Sous Chef, line cooks, prep, dish. Schedule, pre-shift, joint hiring with the GM at the Sous level.
- The menu. Execute the Clark’s standard with two seasonal changeovers per year, costed and approved by the Culinary Director.
- The pass. Expedite every weekend service. Taste every sauce.
- The partnership. Standing Culinary Director time with both you and the GM.
Who You Are
- 10+ years in professional kitchens with at least five as Executive Chef or strong CDC at an upscale seafood-forward or neighborhood fine-dining concept. You can speak to your last food cost, labor cost, and menu changeover with specifics.
- Raw bar program experience, or credible standing one up. You can speak to oyster sourcing across multiple farms and seasons.
- Peer model: you’ve run a kitchen as a true peer to the GM.
- Credentials verifiable directly with the issuing institution (CIA, JBF, kitchen-of-record). Recipe written the same way every time. English fluency required, working Spanish strongly preferred.
- Long-term: you’re choosing the Peninsula for the long run.
Compensation
- Base salary: $125,000 to $130,000
- Milestone Bonuses offered
- Two-week structured Austin HQ onboarding immersion before you take the seat
- Knife and uniform stipend
- Medical, dental, vision, life, short- and long-term disability, and 401(k)
- MML property discounts; education reimbursement
Schedule
Five days a week with at least four services on the line. Evenings, weekends, holidays.
How to Apply
Send a résumé and a short note about a dish you’re most proud of in the last year. Ingredients, technique, why it worked. Photos welcome. Our process: a screen, a behavioral interview with the Culinary Director, a paid working tasting at Clark’s Austin (travel covered), conversations with our SVPs of Restaurants and HR, and reference triangulation. Three to four weeks end to end.
Equal-opportunity employer. Background check conducted per CA Fair Chance Act and ICRAA.
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