Nursery Cook

Shorefields; Harlow; Remote; GBP 19,000 - 21,000; Full time

Job summary

Raindrops Day Nursery is seeking a passionate Cook to join our Outstanding Nursery team. You will prepare nutritious meals, deserts and snacks for children aged 6 months to 5 years, ensuring meals are inviting and safe while accommodating dietary needs.

You will lead menu planning, manage stock and ordering to minimise waste, and maintain a spotless kitchen to support our 5-star hygiene rating.

Qualifications

• Catering qualification and food hygiene certificate level 2 or above.
• Strong knowledge of food safety practices and regulations.
• Excellent organisational skills and attention to detail.
• Ability to work well under pressure.
• Flexible and able to work without direct supervision.

Responsibilities

• Prepare and cook a variety of inviting and age appropriate, nutritional meals, deserts and snacks for the children in the Nursery.
• Ensure all food is prepared in compliance with food safety regulations and hygiene standards.
• Take responsibility to ensure all dietary requirements are catered for and clearly communicate with the child's base room.
• Take the lead in the planning of menus and meal preparation schedules.
• Regulate stock control and monitor levels of food supplies, take responsibility for the ordering of food as required, ensuring minimal wastage.
• Maintain our excellent record of 5 star food hygiene ratings by ensuring cleanliness and organisation of the kitchen area, including proper storage of ingredients and equipment.
• Be an excellent communicator with Staff, Parents and Children and work as part of a team.
• Work alongside staff to support safeguarding and ensure child welfare and health and safety.
• Support the Nursery in extra curricular activities, such as Summer fetes and various Christmas events.
• Support staff in providing different cooking and food based activities for the children

Skills

Food safety

Kitchen experience

Organisation

Communication

Flexible

Education

Catering qualification

Food hygiene certificate Level 2

Job description

Job Ref No. ECC494495-7S Position Type: Catering Pay Range: £14/£15 per hour but negotiable on experience

Position Start Date: Immediate Contract Type: Full-time Contract Term: Permanent

Application Close: 30/10/2026 Midnight Date of Interviews: To be arranged with Candidate

Overview

Raindrops Day Nursery is seeking a passionate and skilled Cook to join our Outstanding Nursery team . The ideal candidate will have a strong background in food preparation and safety, with the ability to create delicious, nutritional meals, deserts and snacks ,that are inviting and appropriate for children from 6 months to 5 years. The candidate will also need to be confident in substituting foods to meet individual dietary requirements. As the Nursery cook you will be responsible for ensuring that everything is operating correctly, so that you have an efficient, top performing and reliable kitchen each day.

Duties

• Prepare and cook a variety of inviting and age appropriate, nutritional meals, deserts and snacks for the children in the Nursery.
• Ensure all food is prepared in compliance with food safety regulations and hygiene standards.
• Take responsibility to ensure all dietary requirements are catered for and clearly communicate with the child's base room
• Take the lead in the planning of menus and meal preparation schedules.
• Regulate stock control and monitor levels of food supplies, take responsibility for the ordering of food as required, ensuring minimal wastage.
• Maintain our excellent record of 5 star food hygiene ratings by ensuring cleanliness and organisation of the kitchen area, including proper storage of ingredients and equipment.
• Be an excellent communicator with Staff, Parents and Children and work as part of a team.
• Work alongside staff to support safeguarding and ensure child welfare and health and safety.
• Support the Nursery in extra curricular activities, such as Summer fetes and various Christmas events.
• Support staff in providing different cooking and food based activities for the children

Requirements

• Previous experience in a domestic or commercial kitchen is preferred.
• Catering qualification and food hygiene certificate level 2 or above.
• Clear enhanced DBS is required and not negotiable. (This will be completed by the Nursery upon job offer)
• Strong knowledge of food safety practices and regulations.
• Exceptional knowledge and understanding of food allergies, how to record allergen information and the ability to manage different dietary requirements to a high standard.
• Ability to prepare meals efficiently and to an allocated budget while maintaining high quality standards, with minimal wastage.
• Excellent organisational skills and attention to detail.
• To be responsible for the completion of all necessary paperwork.
• Ability to work well under pressure.
• A passion for cooking inviting meals for children while promoting healthy eating.
• Undertake additional training as required.
• Flexible and able to work without direct supervision
• Join us in creating positive food experiences for our children, promoting an early introduction into healthy eating and good relationships with food.

Information about the School

Raindrops Day Nursery has been open since 2006 and is a 4x OFSTED Outstanding Nursery.Raindrops Day Nursery is currently a 64 place day Nursery, registered to take children from Birth to 5 years.

Our Nursery is a caring, safe and stimulating environment that caters for all children and families regardless of their personal circumstances or background. We strive to support the Family as a whole, we understand that Children will flourish and thrive when the needs of the whole Family are being met and supported.We offer a broad curriculum across all of the base rooms and each child and family has an allocated Keyperson.All families are welcome to use the Nursery. We offer 2 year old and 3-4 year old funding, this enables parents to access excellent quality childcare, that is affordable for all.Our children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities are given every opportunity to excel to the best of their ability and staff work alongside the Childs professionals to ensure that strategies and outcomes are in place to support the development of the individual child.Our Nursery staff, Children, Parents and Child Careers, are held in high esteem and together we can build a relationship to enable each staff member, Child and Family to reach and develop to their own potential.Here at Raindrops we are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the children. All staff undertake regular training and we have a team of designated safeguarding persons to oversee this.

All appointments are subject to safer recruitment requirements to ensure the safeguarding of children and young people. All positions will involve appropriate checks and clearances.