Sous Chef

The Commercial Hotel; Biggar; On-site; GBP 28,000 - 36,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Free meals on shift

10% service charge shared

Tips retained by team

Wellbeing resources

Learning & development opportunities

Profit sharing after 1 year

Job summary

The Commercial Hotel in Scotland is seeking an experienced Sous Chef to lead and develop the kitchen team, designing menus and daily specials with the Head Chef, and ensuring high-quality food across restaurant and events.

You will manage day-to-day operations, mentor staff, control costs, and uphold hygiene and safety standards, with a supportive leadership style and a passion for hospitality excellence.

Qualifications

• Experienced Sous Chef with ability to mentor and lead kitchen teams.
• Level 2 Food Hygiene or equivalent; knowledge of current legislation.
• Strong organisational and management skills with service and event kitchen experience.

Responsibilities

• Manage day-to-day kitchen operations in absence of Head Chef.
• Supervise kitchen team and ensure high standards of food production.
• Control food costs and maintain budgets.
• Plan menus and daily specials with Head Chef.
• Ensure hygiene and HACCP compliance.

Skills

Leadership

Mentoring

Organisational skills

Education

Level 2 in Food Hygiene

Job description

We’re about much more than hospitality! We’re striving to make life better for people – whether they are team, guests or community, through our everyday actions and decisions. Our team care for others, bring their best and help us move forward, whatever job they do.

Our Sous Chefs (SC) are a pivotal part of our kitchen teams, working with the Head Chef, kitchen, Front of House teams and the General Manager to deliver great hospitality and experiences to our guest and the team.

The SC is passionate about their craft and all aspects of Kitchen Management and food experiences. With responsibility for all aspects of the day-to-day Kitchen operation and team in the absence of the HC, the SC works with their chefs to deliver a high quality of dishes across the restaurant, functions and other food outlets whilst maintaining a high level of profitability. They are financially aware and have built a relationship with suppliers to ensure the quality of produce is delivered.

Leading from the front, guiding and developing their teams they deliver consistent standards of cleanliness, tidiness and food service as well as an engaged and motivated team. Our SC’s can be found guiding a young chef de partie through a new dish, designing menus and daily specials with the Head Chef or running their pass in a wedding.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities:

Team

Our kitchens are run smoothly and efficiently, always promoting excellent working relationships between the kitchen and other departments. The kitchen teams are trained and developed to achieve high standards of food production by teaching new skills, emphasising the importance of presentation, developing new dishes and garnishes. Our SC undertakes a mentoring and coaching role to support the development of all team members.

Kitchen Management

The SC manages the day-to-day responsibilities of the Kitchen team in the absence of the Head Chef, allocating tasks and ensuring they are completed to the highest standard.

Stock levels are kept at agreed levels meaning groceries are fresh and frozen products are used quickly and rotated in a systematic way whilst managing and controlling daily food costs so that food production is achieved within budgetary limits on the production of all dishes. Sustainable responsibility is key and actions are taken to minimise wastage at every opportunity of food production implementing controls, keeping records and reporting as required.

Communication

By managing and communicating shift plans effectively our SC ensures comprehensive cover for all requirements, functions and services. Our SC’s work with our Head Chef to design and plan daily specials taking into account the varied requirements of the organisation, including special diets and allergen legislation.

Standards

Our SC’s create and maintain a culture of essential hygiene practices connected with cooking and storage of food; the importance of clean, tidy and hygienic working practices such as use of knives, chopping boards, table surfaces etc. They lead by example in observing the rules concerning personal hygiene and appearance.

The Kitchen team maintain timely training and accurate records in all health and safety and food hygiene statutory requirements and work with all governing bodies, abiding by current legislation relating to HACCP, COSHH and relevant Risk Assessments

Essential Requirements:

As an experienced Sous Chef you will have a level 2 in food hygiene and experience of all current legislation although this is not the most important requirement for us.

Our Sous Chef’s have a passion for high quality food and food service as well as being a confident leader and mentor for your team. You can clearly demonstrate strong organisational and management skills and have experience of working in both Restaurant service as well as running a function kitchen for a variety of functions and events.

Your attention to detail is first class, allowing you to recognise potential problems, identify and action effective solutions and with your effective communication skills.

As our Sous Chef you are not heard shouting at team members who have made mistakes or get annoyed with the Front of House team if communication is not correct. Your team are not left to clean up after service on their own, nor do they expect them to do anything you wouldn’t do yourself.

Success in this role will be defined by:

Our Teams are multi-skilled enabling them to work in all sections of the kitchen as well as being committed to developing their knowledge at every opportunity. The Kitchen team have a strong and effective working relationship with the front of house team in the venue, meaning clear communication at all times and appreciation of the challenges facing both teams.

Guests give positive feedback on the standard of food, the variety of menus and the speed and quality of service received.

The Kitchen consistently exceeds cleanliness, health and safety and food hygiene standards and all members of our team are aware of standards required, consistently working towards these and taking ownership of their role.

Our HC and Sous Chef work with their team to be sustainably responsible with our suppliers and food wastage achieving financial profitability and budget requirements.

Skill and experience are necessary to do this job, but more than anything else, we want someone who shares our vision of a hospitality industry that is better and sees themselves being part of the team who can make this happen!

We pay a fair wage – with our hourly pay being higher than the Government rates, at a minimum. Your earnings will be further enhanced by our 10% service charges and other tips that guests leave – with 100% of tips being retained by the team.

We make life better for our team by:

• Offering great perks and benefits to be enjoyed by you and your family!
• Sharing our profits with you after 1 year of service
• Giving you free meals, soft drinks and hot drinks on shift
• Listening to our team via surveys and feedback sessions
• Offering free wellbeing services and resources, for help whenever you need it
• Creating great learning and development opportunities to support your career