Head Chef - Ashford

PGL; Ashford; On-site; GBP 27,000 - 32,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a leading adventure company as a Head Chef at Grosvenor Hall in Ashford, Kent. You'll manage a team, ensuring high-quality meals for children while maintaining food safety standards. Enjoy a work-life balance with limited late nights and no Christmas shifts.

Benefits

FREE meals

Subsidised accommodation

24/7 Wellbeing Hub access

Financial wellbeing platform

Training and mentoring programme

Exclusive perks at retailers

Qualifications

• Experience as a Sous Chef/Head Chef in a mid-to-large scale dining environment.
• Understanding of food mass production.
• Knowledge of handling complex dietary requirements.

Responsibilities

• Manage a team of Chefs & Catering Assistants.
• Ensure food hygiene and safety standards are followed.
• Handle financial aspects of the catering operation.

Skills

Leadership

Organizational Skills

Food Hygiene

Education

City & Guilds 7061/2

Level 3 Food Safety

Job description

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Do you believe in the power of adventure?

• Grosvenor Hall Activity Centre
• Based in Ashford, Kent
• 27,227.20 per annum
• 40 hours per week
• Permanent contract
  
  

Grosvenor Hall is a stunning residential activity centre conveniently located in Ashford, Kent. This buzzing centre provides thrilling residential adventure camps for children - helping them to achieve the 'impossible' and providing extraordinary experiences in the great outdoors.

Play your part in Grosvenor Hall's exciting journey. In January this year, Grosvenor Hall was acquired by PGL Beyond and we're already busy welcoming guests and making improvements, ahead of its relaunch as a new PGL centre in 2026. This is your chance to be part of Grosvenor Hall's exciting transformation.

Use your catering skills to fuel adventure

PGL creates extraordinary breakthroughs for children through active and life-affirming experiences in the great outdoors.

But that's not all... we're part of something bigger. We're powered by PGL Beyond, a group of inspiring companies with a shared purpose to deliver enriching and transformative experiences to the younger generation.

By joining PGL, you'll play a key role in delivering on our mission to make outdoor education more impactful, sustainable, and inclusive for future generations. Excited? So are we!

A Head Chef position like no other...

What could be more important than fuelling the next generation for adventure? Our catering team are proud to serve tasty & nutritious meals, combining reassuring favourites and new cuisines to keep the adventure going. Our centralised team provides all the recipes, enabling you and your team to focus on executing our proven menus; delivering delicious as well as safe food by ensuring all health and safety, allergen safety & food safety standards are followed.

You will work limited late nights, with a Friday or Saturday evening off most weeks (especially outside of our peak season) and no working over Christmas - this could be the perfect role to progress your career in catering without sacrificing that all important social and family time!

As Head Chef, you'll be reporting to the Catering Manager, and responsible for managing a team of Chefs & Catering Assistants; organising rotas, setting clear objectives and identifying any training needs. You will also ensure your team is following procedures to maintain exemplary levels of food hygiene, and confidently managing complex dietary requirements. Alongside managing financial aspects of the catering operation, production planning, waste and stock management.

Is this you?

• Experience as a Sous Chef/Head Chef in a mid-to-large scale dining environment
• Has experience and understanding of food mass production
• A confident leader of people with strong organisational and decision-making skills
• Excellent knowledge of food hygiene & handling complex dietary requirements including allergies and intolerances
• You will hold your City & Guilds 7061/2 (or equivalent) and Level 3 or above in Food Safety and Allergen Management
  
  

Above all we value FUN, SAFETY, QUALITY, INCLUSIVITY, TEAMWORK and RESPECT. If you share these values, then we'd love to hear from you.

A place to thrive

No matter your background, ethnicity, age, neurodivergence or anything else ... this is a place to be yourself, have fun, make lifelong friends and celebrate what makes you brilliantly unique.

Putting our people first

• FREE meals and subsidised accommodation for colleagues who live on centre
• 24/7 access to a Wellbeing Hub alongside our Employee Assistance Program
• Access to a financial wellbeing platform for financial support if you need it
• Training and mentoring programme, career pathways, aided development and qualifications in future seasons
• Access to savings and exclusive perks at 100s of high street retailers
  
  

PGL is part of PGL Beyond, a group of innovative companies transforming the world of adventure through enriching experiences and breakthroughs.

For a full Job Description and Personal Specification please click here

For any enquiries specific to this role please email [e-mail]

We hire the best talent and value a diverse, inclusive team; so, we are committed to ensuring our application process is accessible to everyone and are happy to provide helpful adjustments to make it easier to complete. Simply email or call us with detail around the adjustments you need.

However, our top priority is the safety of the children at our centres. Therefore, all employees must undergo an Enhanced criminal records check (known as DBS or PVG), which we pay for. You will need to provide a 5-year address history and ID (such as passport/birth certificate). Convictions related to violence, drugs, or safeguarding may affect your application. Not all convictions will disqualify you, as we assess each case individually.

#AshfordHCFApr

Seniority level

• Seniority level

  Mid-Senior level

Employment type

• Employment type

  Full-time

Job function

• Job function

  Management and Manufacturing

• Industries

  Oil and Gas

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