Twenty-four guests. Three services a day. A kitchen that's yours to run.

Twenty-four guests. Three services a day. A kitchen that's yours to run.

Sundance Trail Ranch is a small guest ranch in Red Feather Lakes, Colorado — 138 acres at 8,000 feet, backing onto roughly 800,000 acres of Roosevelt National Forest. Forty-five minutes from Fort Collins, far enough that the sky gets properly dark at night. We cap at 24 guests, which means the people you cook for aren't tickets on a rail. You'll learn their names, hear how the trail ride went, and watch them come back for a second helping. It also means there's nowhere to hide. The kitchen has to be right, every service.

We're looking for a cook who can run lunch and dinner daily, mostly on their own.

THE ROLE

This isn't a prep job and it isn't a training job. Head Chef Christopher sets the menus and the standard. You execute two services a day and get food out on time, at temperature, looking like someone cared.

Christopher came to us after a run as Executive Chef at Gateway Canyons Resort, managed a working ranch kitchen in West Texas, and spent years as road chef for Michael Martin Murphey. He knows what good looks like at altitude and on a schedule, and you'll learn from him — but you won't need him standing over you.

What the job actually is:

• Prepare, cook, and send lunch and dinner daily for up to 24 guests plus crew

• Family-style service in the dining room

• Simple ranch cooking done properly. Roasts, stews, sides, fresh bread, something warm at the end. The quality comes from care and timing, not complexity

• The kitchen is yours to own — cleanliness, order, efficiency, and the standard of what leaves the pass. Nobody comes in behind you to fix it

• Reports to Head Chef Christopher 

WHO WE'RE LOOKING FOR

You can run a service on your own. Prep, cook, send, reset. You know the rhythm and you hold it without being reminded. Nobody is going to plate up beside you at 5pm.

Simple food, done right. Right temperature, right portion, right time. The plate is the first thing a guest judges and the last thing they forget.

You own the kitchen. Clean as you go. Everything back where it belongs. Walk-in organized.

Pressure without drama. You handle the heat without making the rest of the crew feel it.

You like a small team. Close quarters, shared meals, real relationships. You'll know the people you're feeding and the people you're working beside.

THIS PROBABLY ISN'T FOR YOU IF

• You need someone checking your work

• You want a big brigade and a narrow station

• Remote living, weather, and altitude sound like problems rather than the point

WHAT WE PROVIDE

• $18–$24 per hour depending on experience, plus tips. The top of that range is for cooks who can run service unsupervised from week one

• On-site housing, provided

• Three meals a day, included

• Roosevelt National Forest out the back door on your days off. Trails, lakes, and the kind of quiet most people drive a long way for

Start date: ASAP

HOW TO APPLY

Email office@sundancetrail.com with a short note on why this place and why this role, plus a CV, LinkedIn, or a fair description of what you've cooked and where.

We don't hire the available person. We hire the right one.