Executive Pastry Chef

About the role

The Executive Pastry Chef will lead product development across the Leaves chocolate factory, retail business, and Leaves Café. You will create and standardise a premium range of sweet and savoury items, ensuring they are creative, consistent, commercially viable and suitable for regular production.

Key responsibilities

• Develop and test new pastry, bakery, sandwich and café products.
• Create recipes, portion sizes, preparation methods and production procedures.
• Lead pastry and bakery production, maintaining consistent quality.
• Design seasonal collections and new product ranges.
• Train and supervise pastry and kitchen staff.
• Plan production schedules and organise kitchen workflows.
• Monitor ingredients, inventory, waste and production efficiency.
• Maintain high food safety and hygiene standards.
• Ensure consistency in taste, texture, appearance and presentation.
• Collaborate with management on product development and continuous improvement.

Required profile

• Strong professional background in pastry, bakery and baking.
• Experience producing high‑quality cakes, mini‑cakes, biscuits, pastries, desserts and savoury items.
• Knowledge of chocolate‑based desserts and pastry applications.
• Proven ability to develop, test, document and standardise recipes.
• Previous experience leading or supervising a pastry kitchen or bakery.
• Experience in a premium patisserie, luxury hotel, high‑end bakery or café preferred.
• Understanding of food safety, production planning, portion control and consistency.
• Culinary or pastry degree, diploma or professional certification preferred.

Required skills

• Pastry and bakery production techniques.
• Chocolate‑based dessert preparation.
• Recipe development and standardisation.
• Food safety compliance.
• Production planning and workflow optimisation.
• Portion control and waste management.