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About Cacao Cellars
Cacao Cellars is a 1,450 sq ft wine and chocolate bar opening in downtown Durham. We pair house-made chocolate with a thoughtfully curated wine, fortified, and spirits program in a warm, modern organic space. Our menu is chocolate-first: every house-made chocolate is presented with curated pairings, and the wine list is built to make those pairings sing.
Alongside the wine and chocolate program, we serve a tight, intentional food menu — composed boards, charcuterie, cured fish, warm pastries, and a Sunday brunch service. The food is a supporting cast for the chocolate-and-wine experience, but it is held to a high standard. Our food program is built around sourcing, batch-prep, and cold-station composition rather than à-la-minute cooking.
This is a founding-team role. We are looking for someone who wants to build the food program from the ground up — develop the recipes, establish supplier relationships, run the prep room, and own the brunch service.
The Opportunity
This is not a chef role and we are not hiring a chef. We are hiring a food program lead with deep cold-station and composed-plate experience — the kind of professional who knows that great hummus, perfectly portioned charcuterie boards, and a beautiful smoked salmon tartine are real craft, not consolation prizes.
In this role you will:
- Own the food side of the operation — daily hors d’oeuvres menu, Sunday brunch service, and any seasonal additions or specials we develop together.
- Run production days — Tuesday and Wednesday batch prep for hummus, pickled vegetables, cured items, candied nuts, whipped ricotta, and the Whipped Brie en Croûte assembly. You set the production rhythm.
- Source and manage relationships with cheese, charcuterie, smoked salmon, bakery, and produce suppliers in the Triangle. You will have authority over what we buy, within COGS targets we set together.
- Run Sunday brunch service from prep through breakdown, supported by a part-time brunch helper.
- Train front-of-house staff to plate menu items during evening service when you are not in the building.
- Maintain ServSafe-level food safety standards, NC Food Code compliance, and HACCP documentation for the food program.
- Work alongside the GM/Beverage Director and Chocolate Production Lead as one of the three operational pillars of the business.
The kitchen, intentionally
You will not be cooking on a hot line. There is no fryer, no range, no grill. Your equipment is a conveyor toaster, a panini press, an induction burner, a countertop convection oven, a Robot Coupe, and a beautifully outfitted 8′ × 10′ cold-station prep room. The constraint is the point — we have built the operation to support a particular kind of food, and we want a professional who is excited by that constraint rather than working against it.
Compensation
This role is structured to start part-time (30–35 hours/week) with a clear pathway to full-time (38–40 hours) by month 6, contingent on volume.
- Hourly rate: $22–26/hour, set based on experience. Strong candidates with 5+ years of cold-station leadership or established Triangle distributor relationships will be at the top of the band.
- Annual base (part-time): Approximately $34K–47K at 30–35 hours/week.
- Annual base (full-time, by month 6): Approximately $46K–54K at 40 hours/week.
- Performance bonus: Quarterly bonus tied to brunch revenue, food cost percentage, and inventory variance. Specifics finalized in offer.
- Benefits: Paid time off, ServSafe certification reimbursement, professional development budget for cheese and charcuterie certifications (ACS Certified Cheese Professional, ACF credentials), and shift meals.
- Path to growth: If the business grows into a second location, private events program, or expanded brunch, this role grows with it. Equity conversation is open for the right person who proves out the food program in year one.
Who We Are Looking For
Required
- 3+ years of professional cold-station, garde manger, charcuterie program, or wine bar food lead experience. We care about depth in this specific discipline more than breadth across hot-line cooking.
- ServSafe Manager certification, or willing to obtain pre-opening (we cover the cost).
- Strong knife skills, plating sensibility, and an eye for visual composition on boards and plates. Cheese boards and charcuterie are a real craft and we will know on sight whether you have it.
- Food cost discipline — you can build a $24 charcuterie board to a 30% food cost target and explain why the salami you chose hits the mark.
- Reliability and self-direction — you will work alone or with one helper for most of your hours. We need someone who runs their station without supervision.
- Builder temperament — you are comfortable with ambiguity, willing to wear multiple hats in year one, and excited by the chance to set up a program from scratch.
Strongly preferred
- Existing relationships with Triangle suppliers — Reliable Cheese Company, Chapel Hill Creamery, Heritage Foods, Locals Seafood, Loaf, Guglhupf, Ninth Street Bakery, Boxcarr Handmade Cheese, Hickory Nut Gap, or similar.
- ACS Certified Cheese Professional (CCP) credential, or pursuing one. We will support the certification path.
- Experience with house-cured items — gravlax, pickled vegetables, fresh ricotta, herb butters, infused oils. The more you make from scratch, the better.
- Wake Tech, Durham Tech, or Art Institute Baking & Pastry / Culinary Arts background — particularly graduates with garde manger or charcuterie focus rather than pure pastry.
- Comfort with chocolate as an ingredient — our menu integrates chocolate into savory items (Aged Gouda & Chocolate, Cacao-Spiced Hummus) and we want a collaborator who finds that interesting rather than odd.
- Wine knowledge to a working level — you do not need to be a sommelier, but you should be able to taste a wine, identify why it does or does not pair with a particular cheese.
Not a fit if
- You want to be running a hot line and creating à-la-minute dishes. There is no hot line here and we are not building one.
- You expect chef-level salary or executive chef hours.
- You want full creative authorship of the menu.
- You need a 9-to-5. Sunday mornings starting at 6 AM and Tuesday production days are core to the role.
- You see cold-station work as a stepping stone rather than a craft. The right candidate is proud of what they do here.
Schedule
The bar operates Wednesday through Saturday from 5 PM to midnight, with Sunday brunch service from 8 AM to 2 PM. The Food Prep Lead schedule is built around production days and brunch, with a typical week looking like:
- Tuesday: 8 hours, 9 AM – 5 PM. Production day — batch prep, supplier orders, inventory.
- Wednesday: 4 hours, 11 AM – 3 PM. Production finish, Wednesday evening service plate-up.
- Friday or Saturday: 6 hours daytime. Mid-week refresh, deliveries, supplier drop-ins.
- Sunday: 8–9 hours, 6 AM – 2:30 PM. Brunch prep, service, breakdown.
- Optional Thursday: 4 hours daytime, scaling with volume.
Mondays are off. Wednesday and Thursday evenings, you are not on the floor — front-of-house plates the daily menu items you have prepped during the day. Friday and Saturday evenings during peak service may include an expedite shift if volume warrants, paid as part of the role’s growth into full-time hours.
Prep Room Conditions
8′ × 10′ dedicated food prep room with reach-in refrigerator, under-counter refrigerator, prep table, conveyor toaster, panini press, induction burner, countertop convection oven, Robot Coupe, hand sink, and dry storage shelving. Adjacent to the chocolate prep room and the wash room. Mechanical separation, FRP wall coverings, sealed flooring — built to NC Food Code and inspected pre-opening.
How to Apply
Send the following to [your email] with the subject line “Food Prep Lead — [Your Name]”:
- A resume or CV with cold-station, charcuterie, garde manger, or wine bar food experience highlighted.
- 3–5 photos of your work — composed plates, boards, terrines, cured items, or production setups.
- A short note (one paragraph is enough) on a food item or program element you are most proud of having built and why.
- Two professional references.
Working interview
Initial conversation by phone or video, then a paid 90-minute working interview in our prep space. The working interview includes:
- Make a small batch of cacao-spiced hummus from a recipe sheet. We are looking at technique, seasoning judgment, and texture.
- Compose one cheese board and one charcuterie board with provided ingredients. We are looking at visual sensibility, plating speed, and food cost intuition.
- Verbally walk through what you would order from a Triangle charcuterie distributor for opening week.
Pay $100 for the working session. Reference calls and offer follow.
We aim to hire 6–8 weeks before opening so you have time to develop the recipes, source and taste-test cheeses and charcuterie, establish the production schedule, and build the SOP binder for the prep room.
Where to Advertise (channel ranking)
Tier 1 — Culinary programs (highest yield)
- Wake Tech Baking & Pastry Arts and Culinary Arts — Raleigh. Email program chairs.
- Durham Tech Culinary Arts — Durham. Smaller program but local and overlooked.
- Art Institute of Raleigh-Durham — Durham. Culinary management graduates often have cold-station experience.
- Johnson & Wales (Charlotte) — broader regional pool.
- Asheville-Buncombe Tech — strong culinary program.
Tier 2 — Wine bar and cheese-focused restaurants
- Mateo Bar de Tapas, M Sushi/M Tempura/M Kokko, Pizzeria Toro, Counting House (Durham Hotel)
- The Wine Feed, Wine Authorities
- Boxcarr Handmade Cheese, Reliable Cheese Company, Pizzeria Mercato
Tier 3 — Industry-specific job boards
- Good Food Jobs — best for fit; mission-driven food candidates.
- Culinary Agents, Poached, Indeed, LinkedIn (direct outreach), iHireChefs
Tier 4 — Trade associations
- ACF North Carolina chapter, ACS (American Cheese Society), Slow Food Triangle, NC Specialty Foods Association, Tradesy Hospitality
A note on this role
Strong garde manger and cold-station professionals are often working in restaurants where they are treated as the warm-up act for the hot line. We are doing the opposite. The food program here is built around the discipline you actually practice — composing boards, sourcing well, batch-prep with intention, and brunch service that respects the craft. The pay is honest, the hours are reasonable, and the equipment is properly specified for the work.
Cacao Cellars is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to building a team that reflects the diversity of the community we serve.
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