Development Chef

Found Recruitment Solutions Ltd; South Nutfield; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job summary

Found Food & Drink is seeking an experienced Development Chef to lead from concept to commercial launch. The role blends culinary creativity with development, scale-up and close collaboration with customers and co-manufacturers.

Candidates should have strong kitchen foundations, knowledge of flavour balance and experience in high-quality environments such as Michelin-starred or luxury settings. This role offers ownership of diverse projects in a dynamic food innovation business.

Qualifications

• Strong culinary foundations with deep knowledge of flavour, texture, balance and ingredient functionality.
• Experience in developing concepts for scale up from ideation to production.
• Ability to work independently and manage multiple development projects.

Responsibilities

• Develop creative and commercially viable food concepts.
• Create, test, refine and document recipes.
• Prepare high quality samples for customer presentations and product reviews.
• Collaborate with customers, internal teams and co-manufacturing partners.
• Support factory trials and resolve product or process challenges during scale up.
• Adapt recipes for different manufacturing capabilities without compromising concepts.
• Research ingredients, cuisines, formats and trends.
• Maintain development records and deadlines.
• Uphold high standards within the development kitchen.

Skills

Culinary expertise

Job description

Development Chef

Location: Surrey

Salary: £40,000 to £45,000

Hours: Monday to Friday

Found Food & Drink is partnering with a highly creative food innovation business to appoint an experienced Development Chef.

This is an opportunity for someone with a strong culinary background to move into a role combining food creativity, commercial development and product scale up.

We are particularly interested in chefs who have trained or worked within Michelin starred restaurants, AA Rosette kitchens, luxury hotels, premium contract catering or other high quality culinary environments.

Reporting to the Culinary Lead, you will take ownership of development projects from initial brief through to commercial launch.

The business works with a network of specialist co-manufacturing partners, so a key part of the role will be ensuring products can move successfully from the development kitchen into commercial production.

The role will include:

• Developing creative and commercially viable food concepts.
• Creating, testing, refining and documenting recipes.
• Preparing high quality samples for customer presentations and product reviews.
• Working closely with customers, internal teams and co-manufacturing partners.
• Supporting factory trials and resolving product or process challenges during scale up.
• Adapting recipes to suit different manufacturing capabilities without compromising the original concept.
• Researching ingredients, cuisines, formats and food trends.
• Managing multiple projects, development records and deadlines.
• Maintaining high standards within the development kitchen.

We are looking for someone with excellent culinary foundations, strong food knowledge and the confidence to develop recipes independently.

You should understand flavour, texture, balance, presentation, ingredient functionality and how products may need to change when moving into larger scale production.

Previous experience as a Development Chef, NPD Chef, Innovation Chef or Product Development Chef would be highly relevant. Experience working with external manufacturers or co-manufacturing partners would be particularly valuable.

You will be creative, commercially aware, organised and comfortable taking ownership of projects. You will also need to communicate confidently with customers, colleagues and manufacturing partners.

This is a varied role within an ambitious food innovation business, offering genuine ownership and the opportunity to see your ideas progress from early concept through to successful commercial production.