Performance Chef

Baxterstorey; Greater London; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 45,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

28 days holiday

Free meals on shift

Bespoke training opportunities

Pension and life insurance

Employee discounts

Job summary

BaxterStorey is looking for a Performance Chef to support Academy players at Tottenham Hotspur through expert meal preparation. You will design tailored menus that align with players' nutritional needs and performance goals.

Your culinary skills will contribute directly to athlete recovery and performance. The role requires a strong background in high-performance catering within elite sports, excellent communication skills, and the ability to create appealing dishes for a diverse group.

Qualifications

• Minimum of 5 years relevant experience in professional sport.
• Strong working knowledge of performance nutrition and hydration.
• Experience in delivering tailored athlete meal planning.

Responsibilities

• Design and deliver performance-focused menus aligned to training cycles.
• Communicate nutritional breakdowns to the Academy's nutritionists.
• Manage kitchen operations, hygiene, safety, and food standards.

Skills

High-performance catering

Performance nutrition

Kitchen management

Communication

Tailored meal planning

Scratch cooking

Education

Relevant professional catering qualifications

Level 3 food safety & hygiene

Job description

If you are a chef with high performance catering experience, this is a rare opportunity to work at the heart of a professional football environment, directly supporting Academy player preparation, performance and recovery through food. The successful candidate will be required to engage with athletes and guests during meal service to ensure that their needs are met, as well as running cooking demonstrations throughout the year. If you are passionate about performance nutrition, elite sport and culinary excellence, and want your food to directly impact results on the pitch, we would love to hear from you. As Performance Chef, you will lead the nutritional culinary provision for academy teams across a variety of age groups, designing menus alongside Tottenham Hotspur Academy's nutritionists and sports scientists as well as delivering food that directly supports training loads, match performance and recovery. You'll work closely with performance, medical and coaching teams to translate nutritional strategy into outstanding, tailored meals, ensuring every dish is purposeful, performance-led and appealing to a multi-national squad. We're looking for someone credible, creative and highly knowledgeable in performance nutrition catering, not just great food, but the right food.

Responsibilities

• Design and deliver performance and recovery-focused menus aligned to training cycles and match demands
• Communicate clear nutritional breakdown and purpose behind dishes to the Academy's team nutritionists
• Tailor individual meals to player dietary needs, allergies and performance or recovery goals
• Lead high-quality food provision across the training ground restaurant
• Collaborate with the wider interdisciplinary team, including medical, nutrition and performance staff on nutrition strategy to better connect them to our kitchens
• Support player performance not only through the food served, but through the overall dining experience, creating a welcoming environment, thoughtfully designing food displays and buffet layouts, accommodating individual preferences and consistently going above and beyond to meet player needs.
• Create globally inspired dishes for a multi-national squad
• Manage kitchen operations, hygiene, safety and food standards
• Lead, develop and upskill kitchen staff
• Control stock, ordering and budgets
• Fuse seasonality with science to be environmentally conscious across the food offering
• Deliver occasional education sessions on cooking, nutrition and food hygiene
• Travel with the Academy teams for domestic and international fixtures when required, We work together as a team to lead by example, protecting the planet and supporting local communities.

Interested? Even if you don't meet all requirements, we'd like to hear from you. If you are motivated and hungry to learn, we can work together to develop your potential. We are proud to be an inclusive employer and welcome applications from candidates of all backgrounds. We celebrate individuality and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We encourage applications from people of all ages, abilities, gender identities, sexual orientations, races, religions, and socio-economic backgrounds. BaxterStorey is committed to encouraging equity, diversity, and inclusion (ED&I) among our workforce and aim for our workforce to be truly representative of all sections of society, and for each employee to feel respected and able to give their best. To support our commitment to this we have set ourselves an ambition to 'set the standard and to be recognised for having the most inclusive culture in hospitality'.

Qualifications

• Relevant experience as a high-performance Chef catering within professional sport, elite performance, or any other high-pressure environments such as the military.
• Strong working knowledge of performance nutrition, with the ability to translate guidance from the Nutrition team into high-quality food provision that supports player performance and recovery.
• Experience delivering tailored athlete meal planning
• Relevant professional catering qualifications
• Strong leadership and kitchen management capability
• Excellent communication skills with the confidence to engage athletes and staff
• Experience managing food standards, compliance and hygiene at high level
• Ability to work under pressure in performance environments
• Culinary Expertise: Professional training background with strong scratch-cooking and international flavour skills.
• Strong working knowledge of performance nutrition, hydration, sports fuelling and recovery nutrition, gained through professional experience and/or relevant qualifications
• (Relevant catering qualifications, for example level 3 food safety & hygiene for catering as a minimum)
• Minimum of 5 years relevant experience of working in professional sport

Additional Information For almost 20 years, for every client, in every location (whether that's an office, stadium, cathedral or university), we have created beautiful spaces, exciting menus and friendly teams, so that each and every customer can have the hospitality experience they deserve. We need the brightest and the best to join us to make this all possible. We will support you to create your hospitality legacy and build a career that you are proud of. Our drive and belief in our people, means that we always strive to supercharge our team's careers. 'Better' is a daily habit that sits deep within our DNA, meaning learning will be front and centre of your experience working with us.

Benefits

• 28 Days holiday including bank holidays
• Plus your birthday off
• 3 volunteering days
• 3 days grandparent leave
• 24 week's enhanced maternity leave
• Secondary carer leave
• Wedding/commitment day leave
• Free meals on shift
• Bespoke training and development opportunities
• Apprenticeships opportunities for all experience levels
• Pension and life insurance
• Discounts available on our Perkbox app; high street shops, holidays & cinema
• Wellbeing hub
• Access to employee assistance programme
• Cycle to work scheme

Are you a culinary connoisseur and gastronomic genius? Do you have an insatiable passion for the culinary arts and a burning desire to create masterful dishes that delight the senses? Yes? Then this is the role for you. At BaxterStorey we offer an exceptional culinary playground where your creativity can flourish and your talents shine. We wholeheartedly believe that the best food comes from nurturing talent, and empowering our chefs to continuously evolve and refine their craft, that's why invest in you to develop your professional growth. As a member of our team, you will be supported in an inclusive environment that encourages growth and celebrates diversity. We will invest in your development with ongoing training, to ensure that you have the skills and knowledge to thrive in your role, and we guarantee a good work-life balance, because we believe that people excel when they are given the space to take care of themselves.