Head Chef

The Bunk Inn; Thatcham; On-site; GBP 38,000 - 46,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Meal discounts

Hotel/ accommodation discounts

Development program

Lifestyle discounts

Service awards

Refer a friend incentive

Job summary

Upham Inns is seeking a dedicated Head Chef to lead our kitchen teams across premium pubs in Southern England. You will_direct, plan and deliver high-quality meals while upholding strict hygiene and service standards.

The role offers up to £42,000 in Tronc (potentially up to £5,000 per year) plus a strong career development pathway and extensive employee benefits. We value passion for food, leadership, and a team‑oriented mindset.

Qualifications

• Excellent culinary and presentation skills.
• Minimum 1 year experience as Head Chef.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Energetic with passion to do a great job.
• Able to manage staff in a calm, inspirational manner.
• Forward-thinking with stock management and waste reduction.
• Passion for food and quality.

Responsibilities

• Plan, organise and direct the preparation and cooking of food to uphold quality.
• Prepare high quality dishes quickly and efficiently.
• Maintain food hygiene and safety standards.
• Responsible for ordering and stock controls, reducing waste.
• Oversee day-to-day kitchen operations in a proactive, hands-on way.
• Lead a team of chefs, train and mentor staff.
• Maintain a clean and organised kitchen.
• Adhere to allergen laws and dietary requirements.

Skills

Culinary skills

Leadership

Communication

Stock control

Team management

Food passion

Attention to margins

Team player

Job description

• Up to £42,000of Tronc (this can be up to £5000per year)
• Up to 33% off meals taken off duty for you and up to 6 guests
• 33% off our hotel accommodation - 20% for Friends and Family
• Development program with a clear pathway
• Access to the lifestyle card - which will provide you with instant access to over 5,000 discounts across all aspects of their lifestyle. With thousands of discounts covering local independents, national and online businesses, there are plenty of opportunities to save money. The lifestyle card is a 100% free benefit for our Upham Inn team members.
• Service Awards
• Refer a friend and Chef recruitment incentives of up to £1000

Head Chef Requirements:

• Excellent Culinary and presentation skills
• Minimum 1 years experience as a Head Chef
• Excellent Communication and Interpersonal skills
• Energetic with passion to do a great job
• Able to manage staff in a calm, inspirational manner
• A forward-thinker that can manage stock with minimal wastage
• Demonstrates a passion for food
• Team Player
• An understanding of profit margins and food stock controls.
• The Right to Work in the UK

Head Chef Responsibilities:

• Plan, organise and direct the preparation and cooking of food ensuring that the company's reputation for quality is enhanced
• Preparing high quality food for our guests quickly and efficiently
• Maintaining food hygiene and safety standards
• Responsibility for ordering and stock controls, reduction of waste
• Overseeing day to day kitchen operations in a proactive and hands-on way
• Leading a team of chefs and KP's, Train, Coach and mentoring is a must
• Maintaining a clean and organised kitchen
• Adhere to allergen laws and respect for dietary requirements
• producing rotas and cleaning schedules for kitchen staff

A job you can enjoy

We are looking to recruit a passionate and dedicated HeadChef who is a natural born leader to join us on our very exciting Journey.

We are very passionate about what we do and the quality ofthe ingredients we cook with, so we need a Head Chef who loves to cook with rawingredients as well as having the ability to coach and educate their team.

If you haveprevious Head Chef experience, a strong team approach, a real passion fordelivering service excellence, and the strong desire to work within aprogressive and expanding company - then we want to hear from you!

This is not for the faint hearted as we are busy and goingto get busier, so we need an experienced high class operator to lead and manageour Kitchen whilst executing great food quality.

It goes without saying that 5 star food hygiene standardscome before everything.

What do we do?

We own a collection ofbeautiful and individual premium pubs across Southern England. Our pubs are inidyllic settings in country villages and towns, where we are proud to be thequality local of the area, serving high quality fresh pub food in a cozy pub ambience.Most of our pubs have some Charming Bedrooms as well. New to our growing familyis Harper's Steakhouse, a new premium American Steakhouse brand that we startedrolling out last year.

It's an exciting time to join us!

Upham Inns is growing,and we want you to grow with us and be part of our success. We've been busyinvesting in our business and we are seeing some great results. So, we want tocontinue to grow our pub family and we are looking to recruit passionate peopleinto our team

We are looking for great people to join us

Our company is bigenough to support you but small enough to care about your individual needs. Weare a friendly, hands-on team who have a passion for running great pubs. We arealways on the lookout for like-minded people who have the desire to work andgrow with us.