Sous Chef / Senior Sous Chef

118 Rokeby Pty Ltd; Melbourne; On-site; AUD 80,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

The Freehouse on Rokeby Street invites applications for a Sous Chef or Senior Sous Chef to join our expanding kitchen. You’ll work beside the Head Chef, guiding a tight team, managing shifts, and ensuring top‑notch service in a busy open kitchen.

We value gluten‑free expertise, collaboration, and ideas that elevate our menu and systems. This role offers a clear growth path into 2027 with real experiences and a strong team culture.

Qualifications

• 2+ years' experience as a Sous or Senior Sous Chef.
• Open kitchen environment with high energy on busy nights.
• Ability to coach juniors and maintain quality and pace.
• Gluten-free cooking experience is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Support Head Chef and growth planning for 2027.
• Run sections or a full shift with consistency.
• Operate the pass and manage a well‑oiled service.
• Coach juniors, oversee prep lists and ordering.
• Roster support and labour decisions on shift.
• Create recipes, analyze costs, and ensure gluten-free compliance.

Skills

Leadership

Coaching

Food safety

Education

Trade qualification in commercial cookery

Tools

Tanda

Restoke

Lightspeed

Job description

Picture your best mate's place. The one with great taste in food, drinks and decor, where something good is always coming out of the kitchen... That's The Freehouse.

We opened on Rokeby Street in August, and there's a seat at our table for anyone. Our menu is naturally gluten-free, so nobody at the table is ordering off a "special" list. It's built on Victorian produce with South American flavour running all through it. We're backed by TWØBAYS Brewing Co, and we've got big plans for 2027.

We're adding a Sous Chef or Senior Sous Chef to the team

This is a new role in our growing kitchen. You'll work alongside our current senior kitchen team, reporting into our Head Chef, to run a tight kitchen now and help build what comes next.

Our kitchen is open, so the room sees everything. You're the one who keeps it calm on a packed Saturday, shares a moment with the guests at the counter, and leaves the juniors on your shift a little sharper than when they started. You'll have eyes over the whole operation, not just your section.

At The Freehouse we're genuinely a team, and we want people who bring personality and passion to it.

What you get

$80-90k + super, full-time (depending on level and experience)

No late nights! We have BUSY services but wrap our kitchen by 10pm

An open kitchen where you can shine with our guests and help build our brand through your cooking

Real input into the systems and menu: trialling, refining, and getting your ideas on the plate

A gluten-free skill set most chefs never get to build properly

Days out and in with the local producers behind our food and drink

Perks built around real experiences, not just discounts

A real pathway as we grow into 2027 and beyond

What you'll own

Supporting our Head Chef alongside our current Sous Chef, including our growth planning for 2027

Running sections or a full shift on your own, keeping pace, quality and consistency

Stepping onto the pass and running it like a well oiled machine

Coaching and supervising the junior chefs and kitchen hands on your shift

Prep lists and daily task allocation, prep for ordering

Rostering support and making balanced decisions about labour on shift

Recipe creation, cost analysis of those recipes, portion control and gluten-free compliance across every part of your work

Food safety, cleaning and compliance, documented and followed through

Stock counts, ordering and waste tracking

You'll fit right in if

You've got 2+ years' experience as a Sous or Senior Sous Chef

An open kitchen and a full room give you energy, not nerves

You coach in the moment, and your juniors are better for it

You care about food safety and allergens as much as flavour, you see gluten-free as a craft, not a compromise

You love being part of a passionate hungry team (in all senses of the word)

Bonus points if you have worked with Tanda, Restoke, Lightspeed, have a completed trade qualification and/or menu development and costing experience.

The roster

We trade Wednesday to Sunday, moving to seven days in the future. Our crew work on a rotating roster and we value having lives outside of work!

Pull up a chair and chat