Sous Chef

Hot Bread Retail Group PL and Big Loaf PL; Perth; On-site; AUD 75,000 - 85,000; Full time

Job summary

Big Loaf in O’Connor, WA, seeks a Sous Chef to lead prep and production in a high-standard bakery kitchen. This role covers covering the Head Chef, mentoring staff, and maintaining quality across the menu.

You will drive daily operations, coordinate ordering, and uphold food safety and cleanliness. Applicants should bring leadership, creativity and a passion for craft cooking.

Qualifications

• Must have passion for food and cooking.
• Strong leadership and cooking skills across multiple styles.
• Good communication, reliability, and team collaboration.

Responsibilities

• Cook on the bench and oversee day-to-day kitchen prep.
• Manage stock, ordering, and supplier communications.
• Lead, train and motivate the kitchen team to maintain high standards.
• Maintain checklists, systems and wastage records.

Tools

Excel

AI tools

Job description

7 Zeta Crescent, O'Connor, WA, 6163, AUSTRALIA

At Big Loaf we have an opening for a Sous Chef. Please read on to hear about us, about the job, and what kind of person we are looking for.

About Us

We are obsessed with bread, food, and coffee. Our business is built around making the best possible products, by hand, with fresh local ingredients.

If you’re not familiar with our business, please have a look at our Instagram pages so see what we’re about:

Although Big Loaf is a bakery, we do a lot of cooking that is not baking. We make hundreds of specialty sandwiches, large volumes of pie mixes and lots of other bulk food prep. At our retail shop, we do catering, daily salads, creative weekly specials and other delicious things that we feel passionate about. Even though we do it everyday, we still find cooking fun and joyous, and most importantly we do it with love.

Unlike a normal café or restaurant kitchen, there is nearly no service cooking here. It’s mostly prep and production work, done at a very high level. We believe in doing everything ourselves, from scratch, the old-fashioned way.

We make sauerkraut, kimchi and fermented chilli sauce by hand. We make pickles from cucumbers and dill and soak Ord River chickpeas to make hommus. Nearly all our ingredients are from WA and much of it is sourced directly from the farmer or producer.

The Sous Chef is the co-pilot of the kitchen. They have all the same skills in the cooking and day to day management of the kitchen as the Head Chef. You will cover the Head Chef when they’re off, lead, motivate and develop the team, maintain the standards, and make sure everything gets done.

About the job:

Where: Big Loaf, O’Connor

Roster: 5 x 8.5 hour days, including one weekend day, plusreasonable overtime as required

Salary: 75000 - 85000, depending on experience

The key parts of the job:

Cooking

- Working on the bench with the other chefs day-to-day

- Making gourmet sandwiches, rolls, salads and more for the shop

- Pie mixes, which are basically giant casseroles, made in our brand new 140 litre bratt pan – very fun

- Bulk prep of sauces, dips, ferments, stocks and veggies

- Coming up with creative and fun weekly specials

Ordering

- Making sure we have the right ingredients in stock on the right day

- Ordering stock according to got/gets and par lists

- Creatively using up anything that needs processed

- Talking with suppliers about quality and our objectives, as well as finding deals and specials

- Receiving, checking and putting away stock

- Cleaning and maintenance

- Organisation and layout

- Completion, improvement and maintenance of checklists and systems

- General admin – recording wastage, made/sold numbers,

- Teaching, training, leading and learning from the other chefs in the team and group

The kind of chef we are looking for:

1. First and most importantly, you need to LOVE food and cooking – true passion is essential. It’s infectious and crucial that our leaders have the passion we want to share with our teams.

2. High level cooking and leadership skills, with proven experience across a variety of food styles and ideally, proven leadership skills. You need to be good at cooking AND good at teaching. We are looking for creative and fun chefs who bring their own specialities to the table as well as maintaining the standard offering to spec.

3. A positive attitude, solutions and systems focussed mindset, and a willingness to commit to doing what’s needed. As a very busy but still small family business, we are all in it together for mutual success and the win-win. This means that we all get in and do what’s needed – it’s not unusual for the shop manager to help making sandwiches, or a baker to jump in the van and deliver a catering.

Before you apply, please read the usual stuff for all senior-level job with us and make sure you can tick most if not all of these:

- You are a good communicator and like talking to people

- You are confident and have a resilient nature

- You’re well presented and arrive fresh and ready for work everyday

- You’re reliable and have a good car/transport

- You enjoy a challenge and overcoming obstacles

- You have a drivers licence [truck licence is good too but not necessary]

- You have working rights and residency in Australia

- You’re physically strong and capable to work on your feet, loading and unloading bread crates and the like

- You can use a computer, including Excel and AI tools

Screening Questions

• VISA holders please list VISA type, expiration date and any relevant details.
• References from the last 12 months - Contact details, workplace and duration of employment
• Are you currently in Perth, Western Australia?
• Do you hold a current licence and have your own transport?
• Do you have any medical conditions e.g. allergies that you feel may affect your ability to work?
• What has interested you in working with us?
• What is your availability? (Days and hours?)
• What locations are you interested in working at?