About Maria Celeste

Maria Celeste is a modern Portuguese tasca rooted in convívio — the feeling of being invited into someone's home — and in the resourcefulness of Portuguese home cooking, where nothing is wasted and one preparation leads to the next. Our food is modern in execution and traditional in spirit: Portuguese cuisine expressed through BC's seasons and our own memories, not a recreation of the old country. The kitchen is led by Chef Cristian Isidro; the room and an all-Portuguese wine program are led by his brother Justin, formerly director of operations at Michelin-starred Kissa Tanto. As Cristian puts it: “Our cooking begins with necessity and ends in pleasure.”

About the Role

3 months in, you'll own a station completely — prep lists, mise, execution, and cleanliness — in a tight, focused kitchen where every cook touches the whole menu over time. You'll have helped open the restaurant, refined dishes alongside Chef as the menu evolves with the seasons, and become fluent in our no-waste approach, where trim, bones, and offcuts are the starting point for the next preparation, not the compost bin.

What You'll Do

•       Run a station during service: set up, execute to spec, and break down with consistency and pace.

•       Own your daily prep and mise en place, working from prep lists you help build and improve.

•       Practice whole-ingredient, no-waste cooking — butchery trim becomes rissóis, bread becomes açorda, nothing is thrown away without a reason.

•       Help open the restaurant: testing recipes, dialling in systems, and setting cleanliness and organization standards from scratch.

•       Cook with BC seasonal product through a Portuguese lens, and contribute ideas as the menu evolves.

•       Keep your station and shared spaces clean as you go — we hold ourselves to a high standard here.

What We're Looking For

Required:

•       2+ years of line experience in a quality-driven kitchen (restaurant, hotel, or catering at a high standard).

•       Solid fundamentals: knife skills, heat control, seasoning, timing, and a clean station.

•       FOODSAFE Level 1 (or willingness to obtain before opening).

•       Comfort with the realities of an opening: long days, shifting systems, and problems without playbooks.

•       Legal eligibility to work in Canada.

Nice to have:

•       Experience opening a restaurant.

•       Familiarity with Portuguese, Spanish, or other Iberian cooking — or genuine curiosity about it.

•       Pastry or lamination experience (our pastéis de nata program is serious).

•       Experience with whole-animal or whole-fish butchery and charcuterie.

What We Offer

•       Per hour, plus tip pool.

•       A ground-floor role on an opening team, with real input into systems and menu development.

•       A kitchen culture built on respect: we work hard, we don't yell, and we go home proud.

How to Apply

Apply now with your EightSix Profile (with your resume uploaded).