Branch Cook, Supermarket Assistant

John Lewis plc; Dorchester; On-site; GBP 27,000 - 32,000; Full time

Job summary

John Lewis Partnership, Waitrose & Partners, in Dorchester, is seeking a Supermarket Assistant Branch Cook to prepare hot and cold meals for Partners in the dining room and support shop-floor tasks.

The role includes maintaining a clean kitchen, portion control and hygiene standards, with flexible hours Tue–Sat and a night premium for hours between 22:00–06:00. Permanent contract, 37.5 hours per week.

Qualifications

• Experience of working as a cook in a catering or hospitality environment.
• Passionate about food and serving a varied and nutritious menu.
• Customer focused 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.

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.
• Adhering to high food hygiene standards.
• Stock replenishment and shop-keeping tasks when not in kitchen.
• Fulfilling online orders and supporting Click & Collect / delivery operations.
• Maintain a safe and tidy working environment with general shopkeeping tasks.

Skills

Cook experience

Customer focus

Commercial awareness

Flexibility between kitchen and shop

Food passion

Education

City & Guilds 7061/7062

Food Hygiene 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

When taking on the role of Branch Cook, you'll be responsible for:

• 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.

When not working in the kitchen you'll be helping to provide great service to our customers and support with a variety of shop-keeping related tasks including:

• 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: October 19, 2026 Pay: £14.31 Hourly Contract Type: Permanent Hours of Work: Full time position (37.5 hours per week). Working Tuesday to Saturday, 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 also recommend that you apply as soon as possible as vacancies can close early if we see a high number of applicants. 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 shorter hour contracts, where possible. Please discuss this further with the hiring manager during your interview. At the John Lewis Partnership we’re not just employees; we’re co-owners, and that’s why we’re called Partners. Being a Partner means not only do we all collectively share the responsibilities of being the UK’s largest employee-owned business, but we also share in its rewards and successes. It’s this ownership model that makes the Partnership a very unique place to work.