WE ARE HIRING | EXECUTIVE CHEF

Kickstart Football Club & Academy | Residential Academy Kitchen | Bengaluru

About Kickstart FC

Founded in Bengaluru in 2016, Kickstart Football Club is one of Karnataka’s leading football clubs and academies, with men’s, women's, and youth teams. Our women’s team competes in the Indian Women’s League (IWL), where it finished runners-up in 2022–23, and has won the Karnataka Women’s League (KWL) seven times in a row. Our men’s and youth teams compete in national and state competitions, and our players regularly represent Karnataka.

At our residential academy, young boys and girls from across India live, train and study together, and we support their growth as athletes and as people.

Our residential academy in Kalyan Nagar is home to around 150 young players and has an excellent gym. Our Kickstart Football Arena in Kannuru, off Hennur Road, has an 11-a-side pitch and a floodlit 9-a-side pitch.

The Role

We are looking for an experienced Executive Chef to lead the kitchen at our residential academy. This is a senior, hands-on role with full ownership of the academy’s food: what is served, how safely it is prepared, what it costs, and how the team delivers it every day.

For our players, the dining hall is part of the training program. The meals you plan will fuel training sessions, speed up recovery, support healthy growth through the teenage years, and give students living away from home a sense of comfort and routine. You will work closely with our nutritionist and coaching staff to turn performance nutrition goals into food that young athletes enjoy eating.

Success in this role means nutritious meals served on time every time; a kitchen that is always ready for an audit; food costs and wastage kept under control; and a kitchen that players, parents, and coaches trust.

Role at a Glance

- Reports to: Head of Operations / Academy Director
- Works closely with: Academy nutritionist, coaching and medical staff, hostel wardens
- Kitchen scale: Five meals a day for around 150 resident student-athletes, plus coaches, staff and guests
- Team: Cooks, helpers and stewards
- Employment type: Full-time, on-site

Key Responsibilities

- Menus & nutrition:



Plan rotating weekly menus with the nutritionist that are high in protein and balanced for each meal. Time them around training and match days with pre-training fuel, recovery snacks and match-day meals. Cater for allergies and medical, vegetarian or Jain diets, and pack meals for away matches.
- Food safety & hygiene: Make sure the kitchen complies with FSSAI and HACCP requirements: safe receiving and storage, temperature logs, allergen labelling, staff health checks, pest control, and fire and gas safety.
- Kitchen operations: Serve five meals a day on time and to a consistent standard for residents, coaches and staff, and offer regional variety so that students from across India feel at home.
- Cost & inventory control: Own the food budget and track cost per meal. Manage procurement, vendor negotiations and stock rotation, and reduce wastage through standard portions and daily waste tracking.
- Systems & reporting: Set up SOPs, daily checklists, and digital records, and share monthly reports on cost, wastage, hygiene and feedback with management.
- Team leadership: Recruit, roster, train and appraise the kitchen team, and build a culture of hygiene, discipline and accountability.
- Feedback & safeguarding: Collect regular feedback from students, parents, and coaches and act on it. Support nutrition education for players, and make sure the kitchen team follows the academy’s child safeguarding policy.

Candidate Profile

Essential

- Minimum 4+ years of professional kitchen experience, including at least 2 years leading a kitchen as Sous Chef, Executive Chef or Head Chef.
- Experience in a 3-star or higher hotel, or in a large institutional kitchen (sports academy, residential school, university, hospital or corporate catering).
- Strong skills in Indian (including South Indian), Continental and Chinese / Pan-Asian cooking.
- Good working knowledge of high-protein cooking,



sports nutrition and planning meals at scale.
- A proven record in food costing, inventory control, vendor management and reducing wastage.
- Sound knowledge of FSSAI rules and HACCP principles.
- Diploma or degree in Hotel Management or Culinary Arts.
- Good communication in English; Kannada or Hindi is an advantage.
- Willingness to complete background and police verification, as the role involves working with minors.

Preferred

- FSSAI FoSTaC Food Safety Supervisor certification (or willingness to obtain it).
- Experience in sports, athlete or residential student catering.
- Comfort with digital inventory, costing or kitchen management tools.

What We Expect

- Player-first mindset: You see every meal as part of a young athlete’s performance, recovery and wellbeing.
- Hands-on leadership: You lead from the kitchen floor, set the standard yourself and hold your team to it.
- No compromise on safety: Hygiene and allergen rules are followed every day, not only before audits.
- Ownership of numbers: You treat the food budget as your own and track cost and wastage.
- Collaboration: You work well with nutritionists, coaches, wardens and parents.
- Flexibility: You can work around early starts, weekends, match days and travel.

What We Offer

- Purpose: Directly shape the health and performance of the next generation of Indian footballers.
- Ownership: Lead the academy kitchen, build its menus, strengthen the systems, and team your way.
- High-performance setting: Work closely with nutrition, coaching and sports-science professionals.
- Growth: Gain specialist experience in sports nutrition and performance catering, a growing field in India.
- Rewards: Salary as per market standards, based on experience.

How to Apply

- Apply: Use LinkedIn Easy Apply, or email your CV to [email protected] with the subject line “Executive Chef – Your Name”.
- Please include Current CTC, expected CTC, notice period, and a sample weekly menu you have designed (optional but encouraged).

Kickstart Football Club & Academy is an equal prospect employer.

Join us in building a high-performance food and nutrition ecosystem for the next generation of footballers!

📌 Executive Chef (Bengaluru)
🏢 Kickstart FC
📍 Bengaluru