Head Chef – Oxford, Oxford

Holroyd Howe; Oxford; On-site; GBP 36,000 - 43,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading contract catering company seeks an experienced Head Chef for a prestigious independent school in Oxford. You will lead a dynamic culinary team, creating imaginative and nutritious meals while ensuring high standards of food quality. The ideal candidate will have proven experience in contract catering, excellent management skills, and is passionate about shaping a vibrant dining culture for students. This role offers a competitive salary and various benefits including training and development opportunities.

Benefits

28 days holiday

3 volunteering days

Free meals whilst at work

Career development opportunities

Wellbeing hub

Qualifications

• Experience in a high-volume, quality-focused kitchen.
• Skill in managing, training, and supporting kitchen teams.
• Ability to create and maintain budgets.
• Excellent coaching and delegation skills.
• Capability to thrive in a fast-paced environment.

Responsibilities

• Craft imaginative and nutritionally balanced menus.
• Lead and inspire the kitchen team.
• Oversee day-to-day kitchen operations.
• Ensure adherence to health and safety regulations.

Skills

Presentation skills

Organizational skills

Communication skills

Passion for food & service

Team management

Budget management

Creativity

Attention to detail

Education

Proven experience as Head Chef or Executive Chef

Job description

Head Chef – Oxford, Oxford

Company Description

Title: Head Chef –– A term-time plus opportunity (46 working weeks)

Location:Oxford, Oxfordshire

Annual Salary: Up to £43,000 per annum

Benefits:

• 28 days holiday
• 3 volunteering days
• 3 days grandparent leave
• 24 week’s enhanced maternity leave
• Bespoke training and development opportunities
• Pension and life insurance
• Discounts available on our HAPI app; high street shops, holidays & cinema
• Wellbeing hub
• Access to employee assistance programme
• Free meals whilst at work
• Career development opportunities
• HIT Apprenticeships for all experience levels

Are you an experienced and innovative Head Chef with a passion for exceptional dining? Join us as the Head Chef for our prestigious independent school, Summerfields, located in the heart of Oxford. Here, you’ll play a pivotal role in leading and inspiring our culinary team, crafting memorable meals that shape a vibrant dining culture for students, staff, and boarders alike.

About the Role: At Summerfields, we provide a comprehensive range of food services, including breakfast, lunch, supper, and special event catering. The site operates 7 days a week to support boarding, but this position allows a balanced work-life routine. We value our team’s well-being and are committed to fostering a supportive environment that promotes professional and personal growth.

What We Offer:

• Contracted Hours: 40 per week, across 46 weeks per year (including 5.6 weeks of annual leave).
• Location: Set in an iconic, inspiring school campus, our kitchens provide a unique setting to elevate education-based dining.
• Career Development: As part of Holroyd Howe, this role offers opportunities for you to make a name in the industry, establishing new benchmarks for catering within educational settings.

This is an exceptional opportunity to bring your culinary vision to life and make a lasting impact on the dining experience of future generations. If you’re passionate about delivering high-quality, nutritious meals and driving a dedicated team, we’d love to hear from you!

Due to the demanding nature of this role, we are ideally seeking applicants with experience in contract catering or the independent education sector.

Job Description

As ourHead Chefyour focus is to work closely with your teams to develop a great work relationship and together provide the best customer service.

As well as having an excellent presentation, organisational and communication skills, you will be able to demonstrate a real passion for food & service and possess bags of enthusiasm.

• Craft imaginative and nutritionally balanced menus that cater to diverse tastes, dietary preferences, and nutritional needs of our students.
• Lead a dynamic kitchen team by example, fostering a culture of creativity, collaboration, and efficiency.
• Oversee the day-to-day operations of the kitchen, ensuring high standards of food quality and service.
• Maintain strict adherence to health and safety regulations, ensuring a clean and organised kitchen environment.

Qualifications

• Proven experience as a Head Chef or Executive Chef in a high-volume, quality-focused environment.
• You can demonstrate that managing, training, and supporting a team has been an important part of your career to date.
• Financially astute, you are very analytical and know how to create and maintain budgets and drive commercial performance.
• Excellent coaching, delegation and influencing skills.
• Ability to prioritise multiple projects in a fast-paced, multi-faceted, creative environment and able to thrive under pressure.
• Meticulous organisational abilities and a high attention to detail
• Empathetic, clear and highly effective verbal and written communication
• Ability to adapt to challenges and opportunities with a solution-oriented perspective.
• Excellent strategic thinking and critical reasoning skills

Additional Information

Holroyd Howe is one of the UK’s leading contract caterers, providing fresh innovative food services solely to independent schools and colleges. We are a team of experienced professionals who tailor our catering service provision specifically to suit children of all ages in order to meet the bespoke requirements of each school.

To provide our teams with the right skills to succeed in their jobs, we invest in their training and development. Our exceptional teams of seasoned specialists customise our catering services to fit children of all ages and satisfy the unique needs of our clients.

We pride ourselves on:

Sustainability

Sustainability is at the heart of our thinking; always mindful of the ethics of our sourcing and how we prepare our meals.

Nutrition

We take nutrition seriously and understand the impact a healthy diet has on the fundamental years of development. Meals are always freshly prepared from scratch and packed with nutritious ingredients.

Food Innovation

We offer a wide portfolio of training opportunities and experiences, which attracts chefs who are passionate about culinary excellence and menu innovation to our team.

From tasting tables, theme days and food theatre, to chef demonstrations and supplier showcases, we create engaging and fun dining experiences for our students. We work together to make mealtimes exploratory, quirky, and fun for our pupils, helping them build strong and healthy relationships with food.

“Holroyd Howe is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and expect all employees to share this commitment. All roles within Holroyd Howe are regarded as regulated activity, it is an offence to apply for a role in regulated activity if you are barred from working with children, therefore we will require an Enhanced DBS which includes a Barred List check for all successful applicants. We will also require shortlisted applicants to provide appropriate information regarding any criminal offences and shortlisted applicants will be subject to an online search of public available information on suitability to work with children.“

This appointment is offered on the return of satisfactory professional references.

IND1