Head Chef

Aluminiosteverga; Bath; On-site; GBP 42,000 - 56,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Monthly tronc

Free parking

48 hours per week

Training & progression

Wellbeing support

Staff discounts

Refer-a-friend bonus

Diverse team

Purpose-driven work

Job summary

The Bird in Bath is seeking a Head Chef who is bold, imaginative and commercially minded to shape the kitchen and lead a growing team. You will develop the food identity, design menus celebrating local produce, and work closely with the Restaurant & Bar team to deliver a seamless guest experience from start to finish.

You will recruit, mentor and inspire your brigade, ensuring high standards of presentation, consistency and hospitality.

Qualifications

• Proven ability to shape a kitchen and food identity.
• Experience building and leading a brigade.
• Strong commercial understanding of margins, labour, and waste.

Responsibilities

• Shape the kitchen and food identity and build a brigade around you.
• Create menus that celebrate great ingredients and seasonality, while reflecting the Bird identity.
• Collaborate with Restaurant & Bar to ensure a seamless guest experience from arrival to departure.
• Be commercially switched on: manage margins, labour, waste and purchasing.
• Collaborate with senior team and Brand Marketing on pop-ups, collaborations and events.
• Build a kitchen culture that people want to be part of and recruit, develop and inspire the team.
• Lead from the pass, in the kitchen and at the front of house to set the tempo.
• Maintain high standards of cleanliness, presentation and consistency.

Skills

Leadership

Menu development

Team building

Commercial acumen

Food integrity

Job description

Be our Head Chef, but most importantly be you!

The Bird is getting ready for its next chapter — and we’re looking for a Head Chef who wants to help write it.

Right in the heart of Bath, The Bird is anything but ordinary. Bold, colourful, independent and full of personality, we’re a boutique hotel that likes doing things a little differently.

And now we’re looking at what comes next for our kitchen and restaurant!

Our kitchen and restaurant operation is evolving, giving the right Head Chef a brilliant opportunity to come in, build their team and help create the next version of The Bird’s food story.

We’re not looking for someone to simply inherit somebody else’s menu.

We want an innovative, commercially minded chef with ideas, energy and a strong point of view. Someone who can look at what we have, see what it could become and work with us to make it happen.

That could mean grill, fire, smoke and brilliant South West produce. It could mean new dishes, new experiences, collaborations, feasts and ideas we haven’t even thought of yet - The exciting bit is helping us shape it.

What's it like to work here?

Imaginative, a little unconventional and genuinely good fun.

You’ll find a team that encourages you to be yourself fully, unapologetically — the you’est you. We’re big-hearted, inclusive and we look out for each other as much as we do our guests. Oh, and we’re absolutely serious about giving those guests a bloody good time.

Get a feel for us over on Instagram: @thebirdbath

As Head Chef, what will you be doing?

• First up, you’ll be helping us build what comes next. You’ll have the opportunity to shape the kitchen, develop the food identity and build a brigade around you who are excited about where we’re going.
• We want you to bring ideas. You’ll create menus that celebrate great ingredients, seasonality and the brilliant produce available on our doorstep, while making sure the food feels unmistakably Bird.
• But the experience can’t stop at the kitchen door.A huge part of this role is working hand in hand with our Restaurant & Bar team. Kitchen and front of house should feel like one team, creating one seamless experience from the moment a guest sits down to the moment they leave.
• You’ll also be commercially switched on.
• We want a Head Chef who understands that creativity and commercial success belong together — managing margins, labour, waste and purchasing while spotting opportunities to drive covers, create experiences and give people another reason to come back.
• You’ll collaborate with the wider senior team and our Brand Marketing team to bring ideas to life through pop-ups, collaborations, events and whatever else we dream up along the way.
• And importantly, you’ll build a kitchen culture people want to be part of.
• You’ll recruit, develop and inspire your brigade, create clear standards and expectations, and build a positive, energetic kitchen where people can learn, progress and do some of their best work.
• You’ll still be very much in the action too — at the pass, in the kitchen and leading from the front.

Who you are

Skills get you shortlisted. This is what gets you hired:

• You’re excited by the idea of building something, rather than simply taking over something that already exists.
• You have a strong culinary identity and plenty of ideas, but you’re equally happy collaborating and developing those ideas with others.
• You’re a big-hearted leader who develops chefs, builds confidence and creates a kitchen people genuinely want to work in.
• You believe the kitchen and restaurant are one team, and you understand how important that relationship is to creating a brilliant guest experience.
• You’re commercially sharp. You see the menu, the margins, the labour and the opportunity — not just the plate.
• You’re creative and naturally ask, “Why not?"
• Pop-ups, collaborations, events and new experiences excite you.
• You’re calm when it gets busy and understand that your energy sets the temperature of the kitchen.
• You care about the details — food, presentation, cleanliness, consistency and everything guests never see.
• You’ve got the drive to create something people talk about, a team people want to join and a restaurant people want to return to.

Most of all, you’ll want to put your stamp on something - it's about helping us create what The Bird becomes next.

At our kitchen we want our people to be themselves — and that means you.

Join our team and here is what you’ll get for being yourself:

• Monthly tronc payments as well as monthly pay
• Free parking for team members
• 48 hours per week for this management role
• Progression and training opportunities throughout Kaleidoscope Collection
• Cash-saving benefits to make your monthly pay go further, plus wellbeing support for you and your family
• Discount on eating, drinking and sleeping at all of our properties
• £500 refer-a-friend scheme for any new full-time team members you introduce
• Work in a stimulating environment as part of a diverse community of people
• Be part of a team who live and breathe our purpose

Compensation: Competitive salary