Innovation Chef: Shape Trend-Driven Food Concepts

Pilgrim's Europe; Grantham; On-site; GBP 36,000 - 54,000; Full time

Job summary

Pilgrim's Europe is seeking a Development Chef to join the Product & Innovation team in Grantham. You will transform consumer insights into innovative, scalable products and work across marketing, commercial and customer teams to deliver exciting concepts with culinary excellence.

The successful candidate will combine exceptional cooking skills with strong commercial awareness, lead multiple development projects, and help drive growth across categories.

Qualifications

• Relevant chef experience within restaurants, hospitality, foodservice or food manufacturing.
• Exceptional culinary skills with a passion for food innovation.
• Strong creativity combined with commercial awareness.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills.
• Ability to manage multiple projects and deadlines.
• Self-motivated with the ability to work independently and collaboratively.
• Willingness to travel when required.

Responsibilities

• Develop insight-led food concepts and commercially viable products in line with customer and category strategies.
• Create innovative products that meet customer briefs while delivering exceptional quality and consistency.
• Present concepts, products and ideas directly to customers, demonstrating culinary expertise and market awareness.
• Identify emerging food trends and translate them into exciting opportunities within customer innovation pipelines.
• Build strong relationships with customer development chefs and industry influencers.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to successfully commercialise new product concepts.
• Manage multiple development projects from concept through to customer presentation and handover.
• Ensure recipes and product specifications are accurately costed and documented.
• Work closely with NPD, Operations, Procurement, Packaging and Commercial teams to ensure product feasibility and successful launches.
• Support factory handovers and maintain product quality throughout the development process.
• Contribute towards budget targets, value chain projects and overall business performance.
• Deliver training through our Food Academy programme, sharing culinary skills and industry knowledge across the business.
• Support the development of future trainers and promote best practice.

Skills

Chef experience

Culinary creativity

Commercial awareness

Communication skills

Project management

Self-motivation

Willingness to travel

Education

City & Guilds 706-1, 706-2, NVQ Level 3 in Professional Cookery

Job description

Pilgrim's Europe is seeking a Development Chef to join the Product & Innovation team in Grantham. You will transform consumer insights into innovative, scalable products and work across marketing, commercial and customer teams to deliver exciting concepts with culinary excellence.

The successful candidate will combine exceptional cooking skills with strong commercial awareness, lead multiple development projects, and help drive growth across categories.