Branch Cook, Supermarket Assistant

John Lewis; Dorchester; On-site; GBP 16,000 - 23,000; Part time

Job summary

John Lewis in Dorchester is hiring a Supermarket Assistant Branch Cook to support the back-of-house kitchen and part-time shifts. You’ll prepare hot and cold foods for Partners during breaks and assist on the shop floor as needed.

Roles include handling online orders, maintaining hygiene standards, and stock replenishment. A night premium of £3.75 per hour applies from 22:00–06:00. Flexible, customer-focused, with a passion for quality food.

Qualifications

• Experience of working as a cook in a catering or hospitality environment.
• Passionate about food and serving a varied, nutritious menu.
• Customer focussed with the ability to engage partners with the food on offer.
• Demonstrate commercial awareness, driving sales within the partner dining room, whilst also controlling costs and wastage.

Responsibilities

• The smooth running of the overall kitchen with support and direction from the management team.
• Maintaining a clean, tidy, and safe kitchen environment.
• Ensuring portion control, preparation, storage methods and due diligence to avoid food wastage. Helping to protect our profits.
• Adhering to high food hygiene standards.
• Stock replenishment - ensuring our shelves remain as full as possible and products are in the right place at the right time for our customers.
• Fulfilling online customer orders ready for our drivers to deliver their shopping direct to their doors.
• Reducing wastage by following product due diligence and markdowns to those reaching their sell by dates.
• Working with the wider shop team to support when needed including checkout support, managing Click & Collect orders, fulfilling on-demand customer orders and more.
• Maintain a safe and tidy working environment with general shopkeeping tasks.

Skills

Cook experience

Food service

Customer focus

Commercial awareness

Flexibility

Education

City & Guilds 706 1 and 2 or NVQ equivalent

Food Hygiene Certificate Level 2

Job description

ABOUT THE ROLE

As a Supermarket Assistant Branch Cook, you'll be working in our back‑of‑house of one of our shops in the Partner Dining Room, providing hot and cold food for Partners to enjoy during their break times.

When not working in the kitchen, you'll support the wider shop floor team as a Supermarket Assistant, providing the distinct service and passion for food that our competitors can't compete with.

In addition to your contractual pay, any time worked between 22:00 - 06:00 will attract Night Premium at a rate of £3.75 per hour. This will also apply to existing Partners who have enrolled onto Enhanced Hours Premium arrangements.

Key Responsibilities

• The smooth running of the overall kitchen with support and direction from the management team.
• Maintaining a clean, tidy, and safe kitchen environment.
• Ensuring portion control, preparation, storage methods and due diligence to avoid food wastage. Helping to protect our profits.
• Adhering to high food hygiene standards.
• Stock replenishment - ensuring our shelves remain as full as possible and products are in the right place at the right time for our customers.
• Fulfilling online customer orders ready for our drivers to deliver their shopping direct to their doors.
• Reducing wastage by following product due diligence and markdowns to those reaching their sell by dates.
• Working with the wider shop team to support when needed including checkout support, managing Click & Collect orders, fulfilling on-demand customer orders and more.
• Maintain a safe and tidy working environment with general shopkeeping tasks.

Essential skills/experience you'll need

• Experience of working as a cook in a catering or hospitality environment.
• Passionate about food and serving a varied and nutritious menu.
• Customer Focussed with the ability to engage partners with the food on offer.
• Demonstrate commercial awareness, driving sales within the partner dining room, whilst also controlling costs and wastage.
• Flexible and adaptable to be able to work between kitchen and shop floor as required.

Desirable skills/experience you may have

• City & Guilds 706 1 and 2 or NVQ equivalent.
• Food Hygiene Certificate Level 2.

Closing Date: November 9, 2026

Pay: £14.31 Hourly

Contract Type: Permanent

Hours of Work: Varied hours of part time work (20hrs per week ) Working Sunday to Saturday (contracted days can be discussed at the time of interview), to include early starts and late finishes.

Job Level: Partnership Level 10

Where You'll Be Working: Dorchester (Waitrose & Partners), Tudor Arcade, Dorchester, Dorset, DT1 1BN

ABOUT THE PARTNERSHIP

We're the largest employee owned business in the UK and home of our cherished brands, John Lewis and Waitrose. We're not just employees, we're Partners, driven by our purpose to build a happier world. As we look to our future, there's never been a more exciting time to join us.

We're ruthlessly focused on being brilliant at retail. We continue to innovate, adapt and diversify. Never Knowingly Undersold on price, quality and service in John Lewis and passionately serving food-lovers in Waitrose.

As Partners we all share the responsibility of ownership and in its rewards. We use our voices to contribute to our success, working together through the good and challenging times, holding true to our behaviours and treating everyone with kindness and respect.

We all own making the Partnership somewhere we belong. Embracing our differences and creating an environment where we're free to be ourselves and can THRIVE. Growing ourselves individually, and as a collective.

As Partners, we make all the difference. And, we all own it.

Important points to note:

It's important to note that some of our roles are subject to pre-employment vetting (which may include DBS checks for successful candidates). If required, you'll be informed and provided with information about vetting during the recruitment process and we encourage you to complete any vetting documents quickly to avoid delays. Any DBS checks required will be carried out by a third-party registered body and financial probity checks may also be required for some of our roles.

We want all of our Partners to have a good work-life balance and we support flexible working. This might mean flexible or compressed hours, job sharing or short-hour contracts, where possible. Please discuss this further with the hiring manager during your interview.