Chef Manager

A2Dominion; Reading; On-site; GBP 11,000 - 13,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading housing association in Reading is seeking a Chef Manager to lead an end-to-end catering service for residents aged 55+. Responsibilities include preparing meals, maintaining compliance with health standards, and managing a dedicated team. The ideal candidate will possess a catering qualification, strong organizational skills, and a passion for team leadership. Benefits include 25 days holiday, up to 8% pension contribution, and professional development opportunities.

Benefits

25 days’ holiday (plus Bank Holidays)

Up to 8% contributory pension

Flexible working

Investment in learning and development

Up to £300 annual allowance for health benefits

Cycle to Work Scheme

Qualifications

• Experience in a care and support environment or cooking for large volumes.
• A passion for leading teams and enhancing residents' experiences.
• Ability to manage back-office administration using basic software.

Responsibilities

• Prepare, cook, and serve meals according to dietary needs.
• Ensure compliance with health and safety standards.
• Maintain kitchen administration and stock control.
• Lead and allocate duties to kitchen staff.

Skills

Catering/cooking qualification

Time management skills

Organizational skills

Team leadership

Basic Microsoft applications

Excellent communication skills

Education

Catering/cooking qualification

Job description

Job Details

Job title: Chef Manager

Contract: Permanent

Hours: 16.5 hours Friday, Saturday, Sunday 8.30am – 2pm

Salary: £11,309.44 – £12,441.00 per annum

Location: Onsite at Charles Clore Court, Reading, Berkshire

About A2Dominion

We are a UK housing association committed to a new vision – providing homes people love to live in.

With over 38,000 homes in management across London and southern England, we provide a wide range of homes for social, affordable, and private rent, specialist services, as well as homes for sale and shared ownership.

Our 70,000+ customers come from a diverse range of backgrounds with varying levels of income. We’re here to provide them all with homes that are safe, high quality and sustainable.

And with social housing roots going back eight decades, we continue to ensure that every penny of profit is reinvested into our charitable social purpose – delivering more homes and better services for customers.

About the role

As the Chef Manager at Charles Clore Court, you will be responsible for leading and delivering a first-class end-to-end catering service to the scheme, which accounts 47 self‑contained apartments for residents aged 55+.

Being both hands on with preparation and cooking to ownership of the ‘back office’ compliance, administration and audits, this rewarding opportunity will be working with a fun, dedicated team of 4 colleagues consisting of a Kitchen Assistant, Restaurant Service Assistant, Weekend Cook/Chef and Weekend Kitchen Assistant, to deliver excellence for our residents.

Key Responsibilities

• Preparation, cooking and serving of meals, meeting company and environmental health standards. Taking responsibility for particular dietary and cultural needs, cooking specific meals as per the resident food profile so that resident’s preferences are met.
• Complete all menu tick sheets, cleaning records and handover sheets daily, recording meals sold and reporting resident feedback to catering manager.
• Issuing of resident catering invoices, responding to resident and queries regarding payments and accrued arrears.
• Carry out health & safety & food hygiene standards checks as directed by A2Dominion catering standards and that all practices meet the statutory regulations, including the Registered Homes Act 1984, and A2Dominions health & safety policy.
• Take responsibility for preparing and responding to inspections and audits by external authorities and other bodies and fulfilling reporting requirements.
• Lead and support a small, fun dedicated team of colleagues, allocating duties and checking work is completed in timely manner. Taking responsibility for managing their recruitment, probation, development, absence, staff behaviours and employment lifecycle.
• Ownership of ordering, stock control, deliveries, agency workers time keeping and maintain the standards set by the catering manager.

More about you

We want you to bring your knowledge and experience to play your part in improving people’s lives:

• Ideally you will have a catering/cooking qualification and/or experience working in a care and support environment, or cooking experience for large volumes of people.
• Excellent time management and organisational skills in running a smooth, effective catering service for our residents.
• Have a passion for leading a team, whether you have prior experience or looking to take the next step in your career.
• Comfortable in taking ownership of the ‘back office’ administration and documentation using basic Microsoft applications (Excel, Word, Teams, Outlook).
• Excellent English verbal and written communication skills.
• Able to commute to the housing scheme in Tilehurst, Berkshire, RG30 3NT.

Application process

Please attach a tailored CV for this role, ensuring it highlights relevant experience and provides explanations for any employment gaps.

Choosing us is easy

As an employee of A2Dominion, we want you to feel rewarded and have a choice of flexible benefits, salary exchange benefits, and rewards and discounts that work for you, wherever you are in your life.

Benefits

• 25 days’ holiday (Plus Bank Holidays) increasing up to 28 days with 3 years of service.
• Up to 8% contributory pension.
• Flexible working.
• Investment in your learning and development.

In addition, all permanent and fixed-term employees receive a generous annual allowance of up to £300 to use towards health and lifestyle benefits for both you and your family.

We also operate a Cycle to Work Scheme whereby employees have access to cycling equipment throughout the year and can pay via monthly salary deductions.

Diversity & Inclusion

A2Dominion Group is a Disability Confident Employer which means that we are committed to employing disabled people and will: actively look to attract and recruit disabled people, provide a fully inclusive and accessible recruitment process, offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the job, be flexible with assessing people so disabled applicants have the best opportunity to demonstrate that they can do the job, make reasonable adjustments as required.

At A2Dominion Group, we recognise the positive value of diversity, promote equality and inclusivity in our hiring processes. We always aim to recruit the person who is most suited to the job and welcome applications from people of all backgrounds – men and women, people of all ages, sexual orientations, nationalities, religions, and beliefs.

If you require a reasonable adjustment during the recruitment process, please contact our resourcing team to request: [e-mail].