Group Head Chef- up to £45k per annum DOE

The Group Head Chef is passionate about their craft and all aspects of Kitchen Management and Food experiences. They will work with the head chefs and their team in delivering high quality, innovative and safe food across the restaurants, functions and other food outlets whilst maintaining a high level of profitability. They are financially astute and have built key relationships with suppliers ensuring the very best produce and service is achieved.

Leading from the front, guiding and developing their teams they deliver consistent standards of cleanliness, tidiness and food service as well as an engaged and motivated team. Our head chefs can be found guiding a young Chef de Partie through a new dish, designing menus with our food team, running their pass in a wedding or working with the front of house teams to provide excellent service.

Food and Service

• A group head chef is responsible for supporting our head chefs and general managers in all aspects of the running of our kitchens. This includes team development, ordering and stock management, rotas and wage cost control, food safety, cleaning schedules, food quality and managing our allergen policy. You will play a significant part in the induction of any new head chefs in the business.
• As a senior chef you are expected to drive food quality and standards at all times. The work of the team should be checked throughout each shift, food should be tasted and guidance for improvement given. Every part of each dish should be of a high standard, as should the products we purchase. We will expect you to give honest feedback to the head chefs and general managers on both quality and service.
• The team should be instructed at all times to follow our recipes and dish specs, these should be available for reference and must be kept up to date. If the content or presentation of a dish is changed this should be communicated to the team, front of house and food team accordingly. As new dishes are introduced, or current dishes updated you will support the team in following the new specs. You will be required to audit these specs on a regular basis and realign as required.
• Ordering and stock management should be reviewed daily ensuring that we have the correct amount of produce to suit the levels of business. Venue specific order templates should be used, and par stock levels agreed for high end items. You will be required to support the venues in implementing these.
• As the group head chef you are expected to drive the development and innovation of our food and dishes, and to follow the timeline and requirements of our menu change process. Following the guidance from the Executive chef along with the menu brief you should present proposed new dishes to the food team, along with accurate costings, specs and recipes.
• In addition to your daily and weekly tasks you will be allocated specific projects by the Executive Chef. Once you have been briefed in the aim and goals of a project you will be expected to progress with these projects in an agreed timeline and communicate your progress on a regular basis.
• Inspire new trends, styles, products etc. to the head chef team.

Teamwork

• As group head chef you are responsible for supporting the head chefs in their own development and welfare as well as that of their kitchen teams. You should be providing tools and guidance, coaching techniques, and assisting with PDPs.
• As a leader you should have a complete awareness of the abilities of the head chefs and what support they require to carry out their job. This will include support in the management of their team or kitchen as well as guidance on how best to achieve their workload.
• The development of the teams should follow a structured and timely process, meaningful reviews and appraisals carried out, personal development plans agreed and reviewed on a regular basis, and welfare check-ins diarised.
• Communication is key to the smooth running of a kitchen; the venue kitchens should have a clear understanding of what is required of them, have all the relevant information to hand as well as the products, tools and equipment to do their job. Meetings should be held on a regular basis and actions from these communicated to the senior management. Emails should be acknowledged and answered in a timely manner.
• As part of the senior management team, you should work alongside other departments to ensure we provide an excellent customer experience. Venue and management meetings should be attended, and actions carried out in a timely manner.
• The rota and staffing levels of the kitchen should be reviewed on a weekly basis to ensure that we have the right people at the right time to meet the demands of the kitchen, while ensuring that we are not overstaffed. You will oversee the allocation of the support chef team and will monitor any use of agency chefs.

Safety and Standards

• Chefs should be proud of their uniforms and must ensure that they are clean, unstained and tidy at the start of every shift; as group head chef you should ensure these standards are followed by the rest of the team.
• Food safety is of great importance in our kitchens and our head chefs are expected to manage and drive this. Cooking, cooling, storage and stock rotation requirements must be followed by the whole team as per our HACCP policy. Any issues within a venue must be highlighted, corrected and reported to the GM and Exec chef.
• Health and safety, risk assessments and the training in the use of equipment must be followed to protect our teams from injury within the kitchen; a head chef is responsible for safe practices being followed at all times.
• Flow modules and online training should be completed as instructed within an agreed timescale.
• A group head chef should have a full understanding in the use of our kitchen management systems (Logit, Monday Board, Procure Wizard etc). If unsure on the use of these, they should refer to the manager of each system for training/guidance and offer assistance to HC.

Essential Requirements

As an experienced chef, you will have a level 2 in food hygiene and experience of all current legislation.

Our head chefs have a passion for high quality food and food service as well as being a confident leader and mentor for your team. You can clearly demonstrate strong organisational and management skills and have experience of working in both restaurant service as well as running a function kitchen for a variety of functions and events.

Your attention to detail is first class, allowing you to recognise potential problems, identify and action effective solutions, and with your effective communication skills.