Sous Chef - Letchworth Garden City

Lounge Café Bars; Letchworth; On-site; GBP 25,000 - 35,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading café bar chain is seeking a Sous Chef for their Letchworth location. You will lead the kitchen team, ensuring high standards and effective operations while working with fresh ingredients. The role offers competitive pay, staff discounts, and opportunities for career progression in a dynamic environment.

Benefits

Overtime pay for every hour worked over contracted hours

Staff food on every shift

50% off staff discount

Paid breaks

28 days holiday pro-rata

Enhanced maternity and paternity pay

Company pension scheme

Long service awards

Achievable bonuses

Tips shared equally across the team

Qualifications

• Experience as a Sous Chef or Junior Sous Chef/Assistant Kitchen Manager.
• Good chef/kitchen skills with fresh ingredients.
• Strong knowledge of best practices in kitchen management.

Responsibilities

• Lead shifts and ensure kitchen runs effectively and safely.
• Maintain high kitchen standards and uphold Health & Safety practices.
• Manage kitchen team and deliver training for kitchen staff.

Skills

Kitchen skills

Communication

Leadership

Food safety knowledge

Job description

Sous Chef - Letchworth Garden City

You love real cooking. We love real cooking. Customers love real cooking. It's a no-brainer so you wonder why so many other places don't do it. We do it, and you'll be doing it with us - fresh, customer-led, and with high-quality ingredients. As Sous Chef, you'll be the Head Chef's go-to for support, leading and engaging the kitchen team to deliver 14 great shifts week in, week out.

You'll be leading shifts, making sure the kitchen runs effectively and safely. You're as relentless as us about the detail, so you'll be all over things like stocks, Health & Safety, and Hygiene, manning the pass to ensure our food goes out on-spec and on-time, and always upholding 5* kitchen standards. You'll be on it. Like a chef's bonnet.

The Good Stuff

• Overtime pay for every hour worked over contracted hours!
• Staff food on every shift
• 50% off staff discount to enjoy outside working hours from day one
• Paid breaks
• 28 days holiday (inclusive of Bank Holidays) pro-rata
• Enhanced maternity and paternity pay after 2 years' service
• The most talked-about staff party in hospitality - Loungefest!
• Competitions and incentives (like jetting off on an all-expenses-paid trip with one of our suppliers)
• Company pension scheme
• Long service awards
• Power over your pay with Wagestream
• Emotional and practical support via the Licensed Trade Charity
• Great opportunity for personal development and career progression in a fast-growing business
• Achievable bonuses
• Tips shared equally across the team, based on hours worked
• Christmas and Boxing Day off!

What you'll bring

• You are probably an existing Sous Chef, or perhaps a Junior Sous Chef/Assistant Kitchen Manager looking to take the next step in your career.
• You will have experience working with fresh ingredients and be able to demonstrate good chef/kitchen skills (food prep hot and cold, cleaning, knife skills, good hygiene practices).
• Your work ethic involves rolling up your sleeves and leading from the front; playing an active role in delivering excellent kitchen and food standards as part of a high-performing team.
• Extremely driven and relentless at deconstructing the can't mentality.
• Familiar with KPIs and making decisions in the absence of the Head Chef considering labour, stock, food safety requirements, and others.
• Epic communication skills with the ability to manage stakeholders and build rapport and trust (with our Ops Chefs and Ops Managers).
• Strong knowledge of best practices around rota scheduling, sales and labour forecasts, reporting, recruitment, HR, etc.
• You will have demonstrated successful delivery of training and recruitment for kitchen teams including Apprentices, KPs, Chefs, Junior Sous Chefs, and Sous Chefs.

If you want to find out more about us, follow us on LinkedIn or @life.at.loungers on TikTok and Instagram.