Chef/Cook

SeeMeHired; Leeds; On-site; GBP 22,000 - 30,000; Full time

Job summary

Westward Care in Leeds is seeking a dedicated Care Home Chef to oversee the preparation and delivery of nutritious, high-quality meals for residents. You will lead a kitchen team, ensure dietary needs are understood, and maintain high food safety and service standards within a welcoming dining environment.

Ideal candidates will have strong culinary skills, a passion for elder care, and the ability to motivate staff.

Qualifications

• Experience as chef in care home or hospitality settings.
• Ability to manage and mentor a kitchen team.
• Strong understanding of food safety and HACCP principles.

Responsibilities

• Lead and inspire catering staff to deliver nutritious meals.
• Ensure dietary requirements are understood and met for all residents.
• Maintain high standards of cleanliness, food presentation and portion control.
• Liaise with residents and care staff to tailor menus and service.

Skills

Culinary skills

Leadership

Food safety

Communication

Job description

We are seeking a dedicated and experienced Care Home Chef to oversee the preparation and delivery of nutritious, high-quality meals for residents. The ideal candidate will possess strong culinary skills, leadership qualities, and a commitment to food safety standards. This role offers an opportunity to contribute positively to residents' wellbeing through delicious and well-balanced meals, ensuring a warm and welcoming dining environment within our care home setting. If you have experience with dietary needs this would be a big advantage. You must be personable and a good communicator as a crucial part of the role will involve your liaison with the residents. You will need to show drive, ambition and an ability to motivate and nurture talent within the team. Ideally, you will come from a similar role, or a role working within a hotel or restaurant. As one of Leeds most respected providers of supported living and social care for older people, Westward Cares Residential Homes are built and run to a very high standard and will provide the opportunity for you to grow and develop.The ethos of Westward Care is to provide excellent individualised care and support from an experienced happy team. If you believe in older people being in control of their lives and maintaining their independence, then we would like to hear from you.This is an incredibly rewarding position with high levels of job satisfaction.

OVERALL OBJECTIVES

Quality Management

• To demonstrate a sense of pride for the job and the organisation.
• To ensure a professional appearance of all catering staff and self in accordance with uniform standards.
• To understand the dietary requirements of all customers and visitors and to have systems and procedures in place to ensure this information is up to date and correct.
• To proactively manage relationships with suppliers to ensure good value, reliability and consistent quality.
• To ensure compliance with all relevant organisational, legal and financial procedures and policies in order to protect customers and employees and minimise risk and financial loss.
• To ensure health and safety of self, team and customers through best practice in all aspects of work and in line with Westward Care Health and Safety guidelines.
• To ensure all documentation is completed accurately and to the required standard within agreed timeframes.

Setting Standards

• To contribute to a set of standards for the food and beverage provision in agreement with the Head Chef & General Manager.
• To contribute to the systems and procedures to ensure that the quality of food and beverage provision is consistent throughout the day and week and meets the high standards agreed.
• To ensure the standards for food and beverage are implemented and reinforced through the satisfactory training of teams and individuals at all stages of the employee lifecycle.

Managing the Team

• To lead in a way that inspires and empowers individuals to be the best they can.
• To contribute to the development of others through the sharing of knowledge, skills and information to enhance the experience of the customer.
• To participate in training and development to meet mandatory requirements and identified needs.

Communication

• To assist in providing relevant and timely information and feedback on food and beverage provision to the General Manager at agreed intervals and in an agreed format.
• To establish effective communication on all aspects of food and beverage provision with all Westward care employees by participating in departmental and team meetings.
• To contribute to an environment that encourages and values feedback on food and beverage provision from all employees, customers and visitors to Westward Care.
• To maintain confidentiality as appropriate.

Customer Service

• To delight the customer by exceeding their expectations in creative and fun ways. E.g. surprise treats, birthday meals, asking for favourite meals, seeking out someone's favourite brand etc.
• To ensure standards are reinforced through the satisfactory training of teams and individuals at all stages of the employee lifecycle.
• To ensure that employees are engaged and motivated to anticipate customers' needs and empowered to deliver them.
• To lead by example in all aspects of food and beverage provision and to be proactive in addressing issues identified by customers, employees and visitors to a satisfactory conclusion.
• To be proactive in getting customer feedback on food and beverage provision, identifying changes if required and to present a case for change to the Head Chef or General Manager.
• To create an ethos that anticipates customer needs and puts the customer first that is understood and adopted by all team members.
• To promote an understanding that internal customers are to be treated with the same respect and understanding as external customers.

Profitability and Growth

• To assist in communicating relevant targets and budgets to the team in a manner that empowers them to contribute to success.
• To minimise waste and loss through good management practice, training and planning.
• To manage stock levels and date rotation effectively to ensure availability without excessive stock.
• To manage portion size consistently and appropriate to the customer.
• To have excellent knowledge of Westward Care Ltd's services and facilities and to promote these at every opportunity., The post holder will be expected to work when required to cover for sickness and holidays.

You will be required to work unsocial hours, weekends and Bank Holidays as necessary to meet the needs of the service. This job description is not necessarily an exhaustive list of duties but is intended to reflect the range of duties that the post holder will perform. The job description will be regularly reviewed and may be changed in accordance with the needs of the home and organisation - in consultation with the post holder.