Department: Hospitality Reports to: Hospitality General Manager Hours of Work & Contract: Full time up to 40 hours per week over seven days, to include weekends and late nights and Bank Holiday working. Job Summary: Joining the existing team that currently operate a successful Café, Play Area Café, and several on-site satellite kiosks, the Head Chef will help recruit, train and develop a kitchen team as part of the exciting new 250 cover restaurant development programme scheduled to open towards the end of 2024. Essential Skills, Experience and Qualifications • Have a minimum of 3 years experience as a Head Chef working within a large scale, high volume restaurant operation. • Be a ‘hands on, lead from the front’ Head Chef. • Have an excellent food and seasonal ingredient knowledge. • Have a strong working knowledge of cook-chill, batch, hot-holding and scratch cooking. • Demonstrate confident menu development and recipe costing skills. • Highly skilled in production planning and stock control. • Skilled in gross profit protection and labour spend. • Excellent organizational and planning skills. • Hold a current Level 3 Food Hygiene certificate and be prepared to work towards an Advanced Food Hygiene certificate. • Have previous experience in supplier engagement and negotiation. • Have an understanding of the local and national food trends. • High level of competency using Word, Excel and EPoS systems. • Have a conscientious, flexible ‘can do attitude’. • Good knowledge of current health and safety requirements. • Good knowledge of employment legislation. • Excellent verbal and written communication skills. Desirable Skills, Experience and Qualifications: • Confidentiality, discretion, and an awareness of the Date Protection Act ‘GDPR’. Main Duties & Responsibilities: • Be part of the Senior Leadership Team. • Be passionate about delivering traditional British food to the highest standards. • Integrate with the existing hospitality team and have a hands on approach to service and team development. • Produce and maintain kitchen standard operating procedures and menu recipe specifications. • Deliver the highest standards consistently while maintaining a friendly approach. • Maintain a 5 level of food hygiene and health and safety. • Work within agreed budgetary guidelines. • Continuously review operational costs and deliver savings where possible without impacting on standards. • Support the recruitment process for all back of house staff. • Carry out back of house staff inductions and reviews. • Ensure the highest possible standards of training in service, quality, and product knowledge. • Establish daily and periodic team briefings. • Ensure compliance with all statutory regulations. • Ensure that all data collected is done so within the GDPR framework. • Establish excellent communication and relationships between restaurant, kitchen, administrative teams, and other departments within Hollybush Garden Centre. • Work alongside the Hospitality General Manager to develop menus, promotional activity, and events, focusing on seasonality. • Take responsibility of the day-to-day kitchen P&L and structure staff deployment. • Establish budgetary targets and trackers to measure performance include taking measured remedial action. • Implement and review all stock loss prevention controls and develop practices specific to the needs of business. • Carry out all purchasing requirements within agreed budgetary guidelines. • Ensure back of house team comply with all uniform standards. • Ensure that the kitchen is maintained to the highest standard possible to include ongoing housekeeping and planned maintenance. • Attend any development courses as may be deemed appropriate. • Assist Hollybush Garden Centre in achieving national recognition, including trade awards. • Be a designated key holder. • Attend trade events. • Undertake investigations and take corrective action where appropriate. • Support other departments within Hollybush Garden Centre as may be required. • Ensuring teamwork is at the heart of all decisions. Other Duties & responsibilities: • Any other duties that may be deemed necessary, including deputising for senior members of the team. Measures Of Performance Specific targets will be given against the following areas: • Achieve sales targets. • Achieve gross profit margin in excess of 74%. • Maintain wage cost to agreed percentage of net sales. • Be able to report on agreed KPIs. • Record customer feedback and deliver action plan to minimise repetition. • Maintain a highly trained cohesive team with a strong focus on reducing staff turnover. • Deliver succession planning for all key stakeholders. • Maintain the highest 5 star level of food hygiene, health and safety. • Have an excellent working relationship with other departments within Hollybush Garden Centre. • Maintains all hospitality areas to the highest standards possible, both visually and operationally.