Culinary Development Specialist

Do you love developing new food and beverage ideas, getting hands-on in the kitchen, and turning great concepts into menu items customers will love?

At Minor DKL (The Coffee Club), food and beverage is at the heart of what we do. We’re always looking for ways to evolve our menus, respond to changing customer tastes and create products that work across our current and future brands and store networks.

We’re looking for a hands-on Culinary Development Specialist to join our Product team and help bring new food and beverage concepts to life. Working closely with the Head of Product and wider NPD team, you’ll take ideas from recipe development and testing through to successful store execution.

About the Role

You’ll spend your time experimenting, tasting, testing and refining products, balancing creativity and great taste with commercial, brand and operational requirements across a multi-brand hospitality environment

As our Culinary Development Specialist, you will:

• Bring new food and beverage concepts to life through hands-on recipe development and testing.
• Experiment with ingredients, flavours and preparation methods to create and refine great products.
• Run kitchen trials and sensory evaluations, assessing taste, texture, presentation, yield and consistency.
• Develop recipes and menu builds across Minor DKL’s current and future brands that excite customers and are practical for store teams to execute.
• Develop recipes with a commercial lens, balancing product quality, portioning and ingredient selection while keeping COGS targets in mind.
• Work with suppliers to explore new ingredients, products and menu development opportunities.
• Take concepts from the test kitchen into stores, using feedback to refine products along the way.
• Prepare products for tastings, Gatekeeper reviews, photoshoots and training.
• Partner with Product, Operations, Supply, Marketing and Training to bring new products and menus to launch.
• Keep across food and beverage trends and bring fresh ideas to future menu development.

About You

You’re a hands-on food and beverage person who loves creating, experimenting and making a good idea even better. You’re equally comfortable testing a recipe in the kitchen or working with suppliers and teams across the business to bring it to life.

You’ll ideally bring:

• Practical experience developing and testing food and beverage products in a commercial kitchen, café, restaurant, test kitchen or product development environment.
• A genuine passion for food, flavour and creating products customers will love.
• Confidence experimenting with ingredients, recipes and preparation methods.
• Experience with menu development, product trials or new product launches.
• A practical understanding of what makes a product work in a busy hospitality environment, balancing creativity, quality, consistency, portioning, ingredient selection and commercial considerations, including COGS targets.
• Good knowledge of food safety, allergens and quality standards.
• Curiosity about emerging food and beverage trends.
• Strong attention to detail, organisation and a collaborative approach.

A qualification in Culinary Arts, Commercial Cookery, Food Science, Food Technology, Hospitality Management or a related area would be great, but relevant hands-on industry experience is equally valued.

Experience in a franchised, multi-site hospitality or food retail environment will be highly regarded.

Why Join Us?

• Work across Minor DKL’s portfolio, including one of Australia’s most recognised café brands, The Coffee Club.
• Help develop products and menus that will be enjoyed by customers across our current and future brand networks.
• Be involved from initial concept and kitchen trials through to menu launch.
• Work across a diverse range of food and beverage projects.
• Join a supportive, collaborative team where you’ll have the opportunity to contribute ideas and grow your capability.
• Flexible working arrangements and a modern Southbank office.
• Benefits including employer-funded paid parental leave, purchased annual leave and subsidised training and development.
• Barista-quality coffee every day.

Ready to Apply?

If you’re passionate about food and beverage, love getting hands-on with product and menu development and want to help shape what’s next across Minor DKL’s current and future brands, we’d love to hear from you.

Apply now and help bring what’s next for The Coffee Club menu to life.