Event Production Chef

Responsibilities

• Lead kitchen production for large-scale corporate events and conventions at Guadalajara's Expo center or major event venues
• Manage food production for 500–3,000 person events
• Execute multiple menu formats simultaneously — cocktail receptions, sit-down dinners, buffet lunches, themed food stations
• Scale recipes to event volume — production cooking for thousands requires different skills than restaurant cooking
• Manage 15–40 temporary and permanent kitchen staff during events
• Ensure food safety compliance across large-scale event food service

Requirements

• 5+ years kitchen experience with large-scale event or catering production background
• Organizational and logistical mastery — event production is 80% planning and 20% execution
• Leadership of large, often temporary kitchen teams
• Calm under the specific pressure of live event cooking — mistakes cannot be corrected after service begins
• Guadalajara MICE market knowledge preferred

Benefits

• IMSS, Aguinaldo, vacation + premium
• Staff meals, uniform
• Event bonuses — major GDL conventions can involve multiple large events per week

Work environment

Catering production kitchen and multiple event venues. Guadalajara's Expo Guadalajara is one of Mexico's most active convention centers — the event catering market is substantial and year-round.

About the role

Industrial-scale precision. Feeding 2,000 convention delegates a three-course sit-down dinner with all courses arriving simultaneously, hot, and correctly plated — this is the most logistically complex cooking in the industry. When it works, the achievement is invisible. That invisibility is the standard.