Bank Head Chef

Athena Care Homes; United Kingdom; Hybrid; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Part time

Job summary

A family-run care home organization in the United Kingdom seeks a Bank Head Chef to lead kitchen teams across multiple locations. You'll enhance menus, uphold food safety, and ensure an exceptional dining service for residents. The ideal candidate has multi-site chef experience, a valid UK driving license, and the ability to travel between homes. The role offers a competitive salary, extensive training, and opportunities for professional growth within a supportive environment.

Benefits

Fully comprehensive induction

Competitive salary

28 days of holiday per year

Free Blue Light Card & access to discount platform

Professional growth opportunities

Refer a friend scheme

Qualifications

• Experience as a multi‑sited Head Chef is essential.
• Experience in a care environment is advantageous.
• Proven track record for leading, empowering, supporting and motivating a team.
• Full UK driving licence and ability to travel between locations is essential.
• Valid right to work in the UK is required; sponsorship is not offered.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop the kitchen teams to deliver an outstanding catering service.
• Review and develop good catering practices, including food safety and hygiene standards.
• Support kitchen teams to promote choice and dignity for residents.
• Travel to all locations to provide support during periods of absence.

Skills

Leadership

Catering service delivery

Food safety and hygiene standards

Team motivation

Job description

As a Bank Head Chef at Athena Care Homes, you will be responsible for supporting the kitchen teams across our 7 care homes to provide an outstanding hospitality service to our residents.

Athena’s values of empathy, respect, and individualized care are at the heart of our dining experience. As Bank Group Chef, you’ll guide our chefs to engage with residents in the dining areas, ensuring top‑quality service from kitchen to table.

About Athena Care Homes

Athena Care Homes is an award‑winning, family‑owned business operating seven residential nursing homes in East Anglia where care and compassion run through to our core. There is a shared vision across all of our specialist care homes: we strive to provide happy, safe and comfortable care to every resident.

At Athena we celebrate everyone as an individual, whether that’s delivering authentic care, supporting our team to make moments for our residents and their loved ones, or learning and growing together.

About the role

Reporting to the Head of Culinary & Hospitality, the Bank Head Chef will work closely with the Head Chefs and wider kitchen teams to support the delivery of an exceptional dining service to our residents. This will include enhancing menus, exceeding food safety and hygiene standards, and inspiring the teams to make an impact in the lives of our residents.

Salary

Competitive.

Shift Pattern

This is a bank contract, 0‑hours per week, but you could be offered up to full‑time hours depending on the needs of the business.

Location

This is a regional role and you will be working from any one of our 7 locations, and will be expected to travel to all locations in accordance with your role.

Key Duties & Responsibilities

• Lead and develop the kitchen teams to deliver an outstanding catering service.
• Review and develop good catering practices, including food safety and hygiene standards. Lead dining checks across homes to support quality and regulatory compliance.
• Support the kitchen teams to promote choice and dignity for the residents, and ensure the nutritional content of the meals meets all dietary needs.
• Travel to all locations to provide support during periods of absence and annual leave.

Training, Skills & Experience Required

• Experience as a multi‑sited Head Chef is essential.
• Experience in a care environment is advantageous.
• Proven track record for leading, empowering, supporting and motivating a team.
• Full UK driving licence, access to a vehicle and the ability to travel between the listed locations is essential.
• Valid right to work in the UK is required; we are unable to offer sponsorship.

What we can offer

• Fully comprehensive induction.
• Competitive salary.
• 28 days of holiday per year.
• Free Blue Light Card & access to the Blue Light discount platform.
• Professional growth through mentoring, sharing best practices and contributing to exceptional resident care and dining experiences.
• Refer a friend scheme.

About Athena

Athena Care Homes are a family‑run business with seven homes across East Anglia, located in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, Kings Lynn (West Norfolk) and Ipswich (Suffolk). We aim to be the first choice for high‑quality residential, nursing and dementia care, leaving a positive legacy within our communities.

Our homes are managed by passionate people, with strong leadership by home managers and dedicated care, clinical, hospitality and activities teams, providing exceptional care and achieving brilliant outcomes for people in our care.

We hold our values close to our hearts and ensure that team members throughout each of our homes understand them and the importance they hold. We approach everything we do with thought, and we deliver with passion.