Chef

Avoca Sands Cafe; Gosford; On-site; AUD 65,000 - 78,000; Full time

Job summary

Avoca Sands Cafe on the NSW coast seeks a hands-on chef to lead our daytime kitchen and drive delicious, well-presented plates for a busy beachside crowd.

You’ll manage prep, ordering and menu evolution while keeping food costs in check and maintaining calm, focused service throughout the day.

Qualifications

• Proven experience as a chef in a busy cafe/restaurant.
• Ability to run a kitchen and manage prep, ordering, and quality control.
• Strong understanding of food costs, menu planning, and portion control.

Responsibilities

• Run day-to-day kitchen operations and ensure smooth service.
• Maintain high food standards and consistency across dishes.
• Manage prep, ordering and stock levels to meet demand.
• Collaborate with the team to shape and improve the menu.

Skills

Kitchen leadership

Food cost control

Cafe/restaurant cooking

Team supervision

Independent work

Hospitality mindset

Job description

We're a busy beachfront café in Avoca Beach. We do good food, good coffee and a lot of it especially when the sun is out and the beach is busy.

We're not looking for someone to come in and simply follow a recipe book.

We want a chef who cares about the food has ideas knows how to run a kitchen properly and wants to have a genuine say in what comes out of it.

No nights!

You'll be working in a busy daytime café environment so there are still early starts and plenty of pressure when we're pumping but when the kitchen closes your day is done.

The role will involve running the kitchen day to day, maintaining our food standards, managing prep and ordering, working with the team and helping shape our menu as we move forward.

We're a seasonal business so there's plenty of opportunity to put your own stamp on things rather than cooking the exact same menu forever.

We're looking for a chef to join us

We're a busy beachfront café in Avoca Beach. We do good food, good coffee and a lot of it especially when the sun is out and the beach is busy.

We're not looking for someone to come in and simply follow a recipe book.

We want a chef who cares about the food has ideas knows how to run a kitchen properly and wants to have a genuine say in what comes out of it.

No nights!

You'll be working in a busy daytime café environment so there are still early starts and plenty of pressure when we're pumping but when the kitchen closes your day is done.

The role will involve running the kitchen day to day, maintaining our food standards, managing prep and ordering, working with the team and helping shape our menu as we move forward.

We're a seasonal business so there's plenty of opportunity to put your own stamp on things rather than cooking the exact same menu forever.

Who we're looking for

We're not particularly interested in how many fancy words are on your résumé.

We're interested in whether you canactually run a kitchen.

You’ll probably be a good fit if you:

• Have solid experience as a chef ideally in a busy café, restaurant or similar environment

• Can handle a busy service without losing your head

• Care about consistency and presentation

• Can lead a small kitchen team without needing to shout

• Understand food costs ordering and kitchen organisation

• Like creating food that people genuinely want to eat

• Have enough experience to work independently

• Actually enjoy hospitality

And just as importantlywe want someone we can trust.

Someone who sees something that needs fixing and fixes it.

Someone who can look at the menu and say, "We could do this better."

Someone who takes pride in the kitchen even when nobody is watching.

Why this job?

Because hospitality doesn't have to mean working every night with split shifts and living at work.

You'll be working in one of the Central Coast's busiest beach locations with a team that takes the business seriously but doesn't take itself too seriously.

We're constantly trying to improve the café the food, the coffee, the systems and the experience for our customers.

If you're the right chef, we want you to be part of that rather than just another person on the roster.

If you're looking for a kitchen where you can do good work, have some ownership over what you're doing, and still have a life outside hospitality, we'd like to hear from you.