Head Chef | New Venue. Big BBQ. Your Kitchen

Optura; Brisbane; On-site; AUD 110,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Third Wave BBQ Brisbane is opening a new Fortitude Valley kitchen. You’ll run the line and the pit, forecast accurately, control food costs and wastage, and ensure every plate meets our standards.

You’ll train in Melbourne and the Gold Coast before opening, have input into the menu, and work directly with owners. Visa sponsorship is available for the right Brisbane-based chef.

Salary $110,000 – $120,000 plus super; start December, doors open mid-January.

Qualifications

• Experience leading a high-volume, complex casual-dining kitchen.
• Ability to track food cost and labour weekly.
• Ability to train and motivate a brigade, and stay calm under pressure.
• Trade qualification: Certificate III or IV in Commercial Cookery, or equivalent.
• Current Food Safety Supervisor certificate, or one in hand before opening.
• Smoker or low-and-slow experience is advantageous.

Responsibilities

• Commission the kitchen and build the brigade to open it.
• Own the smoke program and set the cook schedule.
• Run the pass and ensure every plate meets Third Wave spec.
• Manage ordering, stock, wastage and rosters; keep food cost and labour on target.
• Maintain food safety and WHS compliance.
• Collaborate with the Venue Manager to run the venue as one.

Skills

High-volume kitchen leadership

Food cost

Team training & motivation

Menu input & development

Calm under pressure

Education

Certificate III or IV in Commercial Cookery

Job description

Head Chef | New Venue. Big BBQ. Your Kitchen.

Third Wave BBQ Brisbane | www.thirdwavebbq.com.au | Fortitude Valley

$110,000 – $120,000 + super | Full-time | Start December, doors open mid-January

Open a new kitchen. Run it your way, to our standard.

Most head chefs run a line. In Fortitude Valley, you’ll run a line and a pit. The restaurant seats 130–140, including a courtyard, and the kitchen smokes all its own meat on site, so tomorrow’s brisket goes on today. Understanding how to forecast correctly and own food costs and wastage is a non-negotiable.

Third Wave BBQ does American BBQ and burgers: slow-smoked meats, loaded burgers and outrageous specials. We’ve been at it in Melbourne since 2010. Today we have nearly 5 million followers on social media and up to 200 million views a month, and that’s what fills the room. This is our first Brisbane venue, following Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast in October.

Why join Third Wave?

• $110,000 – $120,000 + super. That’s well above the going rate for head chefs in Brisbane.
• Grow with us. Third Wave was one restaurant at the start of 2024. Today it’s seven across three states, and the owners plan 30 to 50 venues over the next three years. That growth needs executive chefs, multi-venue kitchen leaders, trainers and menu developers, and we’d rather promote our own. The Head Chef who gets Brisbane firing is the first person we’ll look to as Queensland grows.
• Real input into the menu. You’ll have a say in new dishes and in the two specials that go on every month, alongside showpieces like the BBQ Thor’s Hammer, a slow-smoked beef shank that’s been on since 2022.
• Not on your own. Before opening, you’ll train in our Melbourne and Gold Coast kitchens, with an experienced operations team behind you. You get the group’s recipes and systems, plus live food-cost and labour numbers. We audit the kitchen every week.
• Work directly with owners and management. The venue is company-owned, not a franchise. Decisions actually get made.
• Visa sponsorship is available. It’s a real option for the right chef who’s already based in Brisbane.
• Discuss a roster that works. Nights and weekends are part of the job, and we’re open to talking about shift flexibility.

What you’ll do

• Commission the kitchen and build the brigade that opens it. We’ll expect you to draw on your own network of chefs to do it.
• Own the smoke program, low and slow over ironbark: Black Angus brisket for 16 hours. You set the cook schedule, working back from service.
• Run the pass and hold every plate to Third Wave spec, however big the night.
• Manage ordering, stock, wastage and rosters, and keep food cost and labour on target.
• Keep food safety and WHS compliance tight.
• Work with the Venue Manager so the whole venue runs as one.

Who we’re looking for

This isn’t a job for someone running a kitchen for the first time. You bring:

• Experience leading a high-volume, complex casual-dining kitchen, as Head Chef or as the senior sous chef who ran it day to day.
• A head for numbers: you track food cost and labour every week and know what moves them.
• The ability to train and motivate a brigade, and to stay calm and organised when the rail is full.
• A trade qualification: Certificate III or IV in Commercial Cookery, or equivalent.
• A current Food Safety Supervisor certificate, or one in hand before opening.
• Smoker or low-and-slow experience is a big advantage, and so is a network of good chefs you can call on. Opening experience is a bonus. We can teach the pit. We can’t teach someone to lead a big kitchen.

The details

• Salary: $110,000 – $120,000 + super, depending on experience.
• Location: Fortitude Valley, Brisbane.
• Reporting to: Area Manager, then COO.
• Employment: Full-time, permanent.
• Start: December, for pre-opening training. Doors open mid-January.
• Sponsorship: available for the right chef already based in Brisbane, subject to eligibility.