Café Chef – Heritage Centre

UKundwork London; North East; On-site; GBP 25,000 - 30,000; Full time

Job summary

A community-focused café is seeking an enthusiastic chef to join their team. The ideal candidate will have a passion for fresh, seasonal food and excellent knife skills. Responsibilities include menu planning, food preparation, and maintaining hygiene standards. This role offers a great work-life balance with regular daytime hours and occasional evening events.

Benefits

Staff discounts in café and shop

Supportive team environment

Opportunities for creativity

Qualifications

• Hands-on experience with a range of kitchen equipment.
• Passion for preparing and cooking fresh, seasonal food.
• Confidence in managing a kitchen and leading by example.

Responsibilities

• Support the Lead Chef in planning and developing menus.
• Prepare and cook food to order, ensuring quality and consistency.
• Maintain high standards of hygiene and food safety.
• Cater for occasional evening events and contribute to seasonal offers.

Skills

Knife skills

Creativity in menu design

Communication skills

Ability to work under pressure

Job description

Hours: Minimum 35 per week, typically 8:30am–5:00pm including weekends (with occasional evening/event work)

Location: Land of Oak and Iron Heritage Centre, Winlaton Mill, Gateshead

About Us

Our café is a vibrant, welcoming space where we serve delicious food and drinks to our loyal customers. We pride ourselves on being a close-knit team of friendly and kind individuals who make every customer feel special. The café has become a local favourite, and we’re proud to see so many return customers who value our high-quality service. All the profits from our café go towards supporting the fantastic charity, Groundwork Northeast and Cumbria, which helps improve communities and the environment. The Land of Oak & Iron (landofoakandiron.org.uk)

We are looking for a creative, passionate, and enthusiastic chef to join our kitchen team at the Land of Oak & Iron Heritage Centre. As part of the team, you will be responsible for delivering freshly made to order dishes while ensuring the highest standards of food hygiene, presentation, and customer care.

We are looking for someone with a real passion for preparing and cooking fresh, seasonal food using locally sourced ingredients, someone keen to experiment and innovate with menus, has excellent knife skills, can work well under pressure, and has hands on experience with a range of kitchen equipment. Strong communication skills, a proactive attitude, and the ability to lead and work as part of a team are essential.

With regular daytime hours usually 8:30am–5:00pm (kitchen operating 9:00am–3:00pm), this role offers a rare work-life balance in catering, with no late-night shifts and only occasional evening catering for events.

What you’ll do:

• Support the Lead Chef to plan and develop fresh, seasonal menus (breakfasts, lunches, cakes, children’s meals and event specials)
• Prepare and cook food to order, ensuring quality, consistency, and speed of service
• Maintain high standards of hygiene, food safety, and allergen management
• Cater for occasional evening events and contribute to seasonal offers
• Work closely with the Lead Chef and centre team to deliver a great experience for all visitors

What We Offer:

• Excellent work-life balance – typically 8:30am–5:00pm shifts, with the kitchen operational 9:00am–3:00pm
• No regular evening work – only occasional event catering with advance notice
• Staff discounts in the café and shop
• Supportive, friendly team environment within a beautiful riverside heritage setting
• Opportunity to be creative and shape the kitchen offer
• A role that contributes to sustainability, local heritage and community engagement

About you:

You’ll be an organised, creative, and hands-on chef or cook, confident in managing a kitchen and leading by example. You’ll take pride in producing quality well presented food and enjoy the buzz of working in a busy café environment.

Want to apply?

If you’re passionate about food, motivated to lead, and want to make a real difference in a welcoming community setting, we’d love to hear from you.

All you need to do is send us your CV with a brief cover letter

We look forward to welcoming you to our team!

For an informal discussion about this role please contact Anya Tait on 01207 524898.

Make yourself at home

We want you to be yourself at Groundwork and we value everything that makes you unique. We recognise and celebrate your difference and together we make Groundwork a special and great place to work. As a Disability Confident employer we offer a guaranteed interview to applicants with a disability who meet the essential criteria for the role.

At Groundwork we ensure that we provide a safe environment for adults, children and young people to take part in any activity or service that we organise. We are committed to creating a culture that promotes safeguarding and the welfare of all children, young people and adults at risk.Our safer recruitment practices support this by ensuring that there is a consistent and comprehensive process of obtaining, collating, analysing and evaluating information from and about candidates to ensure that all the people we appoint are suitable to work with our children, young people and adults.

This role is not eligible for UK Visa Sponsorship – the successful applicant will need to have a pre-existing Right to Work in the UK in order to be offered an employment contract.

We reserve the right to close this advert at any time.