Head Chef

The White Horse; Little Wymondley; On-site; GBP 45,000 - 62,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Staff Accommodation available

Bonus Scheme

Staff meals on shift

Rising Stars program for career growth

Job summary

Anglian Country Inns is seeking a dynamic Head Chef to lead the Farmhouse restaurant kitchen, driving seasonal menu changes and setting the tone for exceptional food. You will recruit, train and develop the kitchen team while upholding the highest standards of safety, cleanliness and cost control.

You’ll work closely with the Restaurant Manager and Exec Chef to deliver a premium guest experience, collaborating with events to ensure business excellence.

Qualifications

• Take full accountability of the Farmhouse restaurant kitchen and team.
• Lead and inspire the kitchen, driving culinary excellence and brand values.
• Ensure health, safety and cleanliness standards across the BOH.
• Own stock management, ordering, wastage, and cost control.
• Develop and implement seasonal menus to reflect the brand.

Responsibilities

• Take full accountability of the Farmhouse restaurant kitchen & team.
• Report into Exec Chef and work with Restaurant Manager & wider team.
• Lead the senior management team to drive business forward.
• Create and own seasonal menu changes with high-quality, guest-focused dishes.
• Oversee stock, wastage, and ordering with strict controls.
• Recruit, train and develop kitchen staff to deliver excellence.
• Ensure kitchen cleanliness and health & safety standards.
• Collaborate with events team to support business excellence.
• Manage labour, rosters and deployment for kitchen staff.

Skills

Leadership

Menu development

Health & safety

Stock management

People management

Events coordination

Training & development

Brand ambassador

Job description

Who are you?

You are the leader and face of your kitchen from the day to day running to creating special memories for our guests. It’s all about leading and inspiring your team every day, running a tight ship and keeping everyone safe whilst delivering our culinary innovative, seasonal menus. Our kitchens are busy places so a level head, great organisation, delivered every time, with a smile, is the key to success. This is a 2 Rosette aspirational kitchen with bigger goals, you will be integral to the food journey within this business, no detail can be missed.

What’s the role?

• Take full accountability of the Farmhouse restaurant kitchen & team
• Reporting into the Exec Chef and work collaboratively with the Restaurant Manager & wider management team.
• A key member of the senior leadership team driving the business forward.
• Culinary creation and innovation through ownership of seasonal menu changes - this is a high quality tone setting position with food at the forefront of the businesses heart.
• Ownership of frequent food led events setting the tone for our Farmhouse brand.
• Recruit, train and develop all kitchen team reporting in to you. Creating a thriving environment for excellence.
• Ownership and driver of kitchen BOH cleanliness standards
• Ownership and standards setter of all health & safety within the restaurant kitchen
• Full stock ownership, ordering, wastage stock taking and everything in between.
• Drive standards and knowledge to create food Wow moments for your guests
• Be an ambassador of the Food Journey and exceed your guests’ expectations
• Supporting the events team and working collaboratively with them to ensure overall business excellence.
• Labour management & deployment, full rota accountability for the restaurant kitchen team.
• Being a great role model and setting the standards for our guests and team
• Displaying the ACI values each and every day and working towards our company mission of ‘making people happy’

What’s in it for you?

• Generous discount across all ACI sites on both food and drink
• Regular trips out to suppliers locally and internationally
• Great share of tips and tronc
• Bonus Scheme
• Staff Accommodation available
• Staff meals on shift
• Rising Stars program for career progression within the company
• Free gym membership
• Cycle to work scheme
• ‘Live your life’, charity day off each year
• Wine at cost

Anglian Country Inns

Anglian Country Inns is a family run business that first opened its doors over twenty seven years ago and now we have nine award winning establishments across East Anglia, a coffee shop and brewery to boot!