Development Chef

Zest; Greater London; On-site; GBP 38,000 - 54,000; Full time

Job summary

Zest is recruiting a Development Chef to join its food development team in Greater London, taking recipes from idea through to launch and working closely with production and other teams to bring dishes to life.

You should have culinary training or hands-on kitchen experience and FMCG development know-how, with strong cooking skills and a collaborative, detail‑oriented mindset. The role involves storytelling through food, cost tracking, and scaling recipes for production.

Qualifications

• Culinary training or hands-on kitchen experience required.
• Experience developing food for FMCG is preferred.
• Excellent cooking skills and strong culinary knowledge.
• Confident communication and presentation, able to pitch ideas to all levels from floor to leadership.
• Strong organisation and the ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously.
• Sharp attention to detail and a can-do, team‑oriented attitude.

Responsibilities

• Lead recipe innovation and continuous improvement on live projects from concept to launch.
• Record every recipe and method precisely on the development system.
• Work with production to refine cooking and preparation methods.
• Present new and existing recipes at internal tastings and explain the story behind each dish.
• Scope new development projects and present findings to kick off ideas.
• Set quality benchmarks and run tastings to ensure best-in-class dishes.
• Create inspiring food presentations communicating ingredients and thinking behind recipes.
• Source new ingredients with procurement and technical colleagues, meeting brand standards.
• Ensure recipes are accurately costed and tracked through development.
• Support trials and scale-up into production, coaching site teams as needed.
• Benchmark kitchen-made samples against production output and perform quality checks.

Skills

Culinary training

Kitchen experience

FMCG food development

Cooking skills

Presentation skills

Project management

Attention to detail

Teamwork

Job description

Behind every recipe that makes it onto a shelf, there's a chef who's tested it a dozen ways, argued its case in a tasting room and made sure it still tastes just as good the twelfth time it's made in a factory as it did the first time in a kitchen. That's the craft this role is built around - part chef, part storyteller, part problem-solver.

Zest is recruiting a Development Chef to join the food development team at a quality-led food manufacturer. You'll take recipes from first idea through to launch, working closely with the wider development team and cross functionally and you'll be the one in the room bringing the food to life.

WHAT YOU'LL BE DOING

• Leading recipe innovation and continuous improvement on live projects, from early concept through to launch and beyond
• Recording every recipe and method precisely and consistently on the development system
• Working hand in hand with production to refine cooking and preparation methods
• Presenting new and existing recipes at internal tastings, bringing the story behind each dish to life for everyone from the wider food team to senior leadership
• Scoping out new development projects, building the plan for what to explore and presenting findings to kick off each new idea
• Setting quality benchmarks and running tastings to keep every dish competitive and best in class
• Building inspiring food presentations that communicate the story, the ingredients and the thinking behind each recipe, for colleagues and customers alike
• Sourcing new, high-quality ingredients with procurement and technical colleagues, agreeing specifications that meet the brand's standards
• Making sure every recipe is accurately costed and tracked through development
• Supporting trials and the scale-up into production, upholding dish quality and coaching site teams where needed
• Benchmarking kitchen-made samples against production output before and after launch, including regular quality checks in the weeks that follow
• Picking up ad-hoc ingredient projects, from quality tweaks to supply issues

Alongside the development work, you'll play an active part in building food culture across the business, from trend reviews to tasting sessions and training days.

WHAT YOU'LL BRING

• A genuine love of food
• Culinary training or hands-on kitchen experience
• Food development experience within FMCG is preferred
• Excellent cooking skills and strong culinary knowledge
• Confident communication and presentation skills and be comfortable pitching ideas to anyone from the production floor to senior leadership
• Strong organisation, with the ability to manage multiple projects at once
• Sharp attention to detail
• Great interpersonal skills, with a creative, can-do, driven attitude and a genuine enjoyment of working as part of a team

Please note: Candidates must have full UK right to work, Sponsorship is not available for this role.

As you know over here at Zest we like to do things properly and always want to keep you, the candidate in the loop. Applying to this 'one of a kind' role you give Zest permission to hold your information. If you want to know more about how Zest look after your personal information please visit our privacy policy on the website (url removed)