Food Service Culinary Director
Resume:
Barbara A. Tessier
Food Service Director – Culinary Director
Virginia Beach, VA 23464
***************@*****.***
Currently employed with ARAMARK Senior Living as Culinary Director serving number of 180 senior residents with 15 hourly associates. Seeking a position as General Manager with advancement potential and growth to continue my culinary expertise.
Qualifications
• Thirty years of customer and food service industry experience, consistently
increasing catering production, staff training, marketing and front and back of the house.
• Associates of Culinary Arts
• Proven ability to effectively analyze needs of the customer, targets areas of highest visibility and
develop strategies to ensure company success.
• Proven success in ratings in all areas of dining experience to include a 50% increase rate in
customer participation and quantifiable reductions in food costs.
• Leadership with employee training, coaching and mentoring resulting in an average of 85%
retention.
• Thirty years of marketing responsibilities for both ARAMARK and Eurest.
• Maintained and Refreshed 12 Top Performing business accounts for ARAMARK and EUREST.
Work Experience
Culinary Director
ARAMARK-Chesapeake, VA
2024 to Present
Maintaining 180-bed senior living facility 360 days a year 3 meals a day.
Transitioned 14 associates from Level One to ARAMARK which included all new policies and standards, training, safety and dietary needs. As well as training with Meal Tracker, POC and senior diets.
Redesigned the resident dining room for a more enjoyable dining experience as well as helping to better equip the Activities Director. With increases of dinning room participation up 75%.
On the board of resident dining committee, meeting weekly to ensure better meals, special events and activities.
Meeting with residents daily to update meals preferences and special diets.
Working with the resident dietitian weekly.
Managing the ARAMARK budget with a 30% decrease in food cost and labor while still providing the utmost service to each resident.
Food Service Director
Eurest - Virginia Beach, VA
2017 to 2024
Oversees and manages food-related operations in various settings of our marketplace. Duties include:
Hiring and training of staff, ordering ingredients, preparing and serving food, ensuring compliance with all company and health policies and regulations, developing menus and dining solutions to meet customer needs and tastes. Leading the P&L marketplace with a strict budget, achieving or surpassing top and bottom line annually.
Food Service Director
ARAMARK DINING SERVICES - Virginia Beach, VA
2006 to 2017
Responsible for operation and direction of the café. Plans, directs and controls all unit food service and resources to meet operating and financial goals, client objectives and customer needs.
Safety coordinator for our region as well maintaining a 5 star score with our third party auditors.
Opened two branded outlets (Starbucks and Subway) within our unit while increasing our topline 92% as a P&L unit, making our units over 3.5 million in yearly sales.
Executive Chef
EUREST DINING SERVICES - Norfolk, VA
2002 to 2006
Responsible for the daily production of all foods for the café to include but not limited to: Event planning and coordination, menu content and design, staff training and management of temporarily employed personnel, inventory and forecasting, sanitation and customer service.
Management of production of dessert, bakery and cake decorating in the café.
Responsible for all Administration of financial, product ordering and payroll.
Accomplishments include: Initiated weekend services during Hurricane Isabel in 2003 serving over 300 customers needed at USAA to accommodate emergent customer and USAA disaster relief client support.
Surpassed budgeted profit by over 47k in 2002 by driving sales to almost $1,000,000 for Eurest Dining Services.
Supervised, Managed and Championed the development of creative ideas and menu items for Eurest' newest innovations Balance Choice, a healthy new plan for employees.
Executive Chef
ARAMARK 5900 Northampton Blvd - Norfolk, VA
1997 to 2002
Responsible for the daily production of all foods for the café; event planning and coordination, menu content and design, staff training and management of temporarily employed personnel, inventory and forecasting, sanitation and customer service.
Responsible for all production of dessert, bakery and cake decorating.
Spearheaded 5 Holiday Galas serving over 1000 guests. Received accolades from Senior Executive USAA Leadership.
Initiated and authored a comprehensive cake decoration and catering program reducing outside costs while increasing interior sales.
Increased company sales through scheduled events, catering, monthly calendars, and aggressive marketing strategies.
Instrumental in raising customer satisfaction ratings one full point from fall 2000 to fall 2001.
Notable History
Chef
LUCKY STAR Restaurant - Virginia Beach, VA (1997)
Assistant Chef
BREWERS EAST INN - Virginia Beach, VA (1996-1997)
1997 to 1997
Education
A.A.S Culinary Arts
Johnson & Wales University-Providence - Norfolk, VA
June 1995 to June 1997
Soft Skills / Non-Certificate
Meal Tracker
Microsoft Office 365 Professional (Word/Powerpoint/Excel/Project/Access/Teams/Suite)
Coupa Supplier Portal
Nextstep 365 Retail Management applications
Freedom Pay applications
Mentorship Program Lead
Technically Proficient in the programming, operation and training of various POS Systems
Professional References available upon request
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