Head Chef

Head Chef – Care Home

£33,200 per year | 40 Hours per Week | Full Time | Permanent

Great food is about much more than what's on the plate. In a care home, mealtimes can bring comfort, familiarity, connection, and some of the most enjoyable moments of the day.

This is a fantastic opportunity for an experienced Head Chef to lead the kitchen within a specialist dementia care home, creating a high-quality dining experience that puts residents' individual needs, preferences, and wellbeing first.

Set within a beautiful property surrounded by landscaped gardens, the home has been thoughtfully designed for people living at all stages of dementia. The same attention to detail extends to the dining experience, with food and hydration playing an important role in supporting residents' health, wellbeing, and quality of life.

The successful candidate will have previous care home catering experience, combining strong culinary skills with the ability to lead and develop a kitchen team. You'll bring creativity to menu planning while confidently catering for specialist diets, allergies, individual preferences, and nutritional requirements.

What We're Looking For

• Previous experience working as a Head Chef, Chef Manager, or Senior Chef within a care home.
• Strong leadership skills with experience managing and motivating a kitchen team.
• Ability to create a high-quality, premium dining experience for residents.
• Excellent knowledge of nutrition and hydration within an older person's care setting.
• Strong understanding of specialist and texture-modified diets.
• Good knowledge of food allergies, intolerances, and individual dietary requirements.
• Excellent food hygiene and kitchen management standards.
• Ability to create varied, nutritious, and appealing menus.
• A compassionate approach with an understanding of the importance food and mealtimes can have for people living with dementia.

Benefits

• £33,200 per year
• 40-hour permanent contract
• Comprehensive induction and ongoing training
• Pension scheme
• Benefits portal
• Employee Assistance Programme (EAP)
• Annual leave that increases with length of service
• Paid breaks
• Paid enhanced DBS check
• Uniform provided
• Enhanced pay rates for bank holidays
• Opportunity to lead the dining experience within a specialist dementia care environment

Your Role

• Lead the day-to-day operation of the kitchen and manage the catering team.
• Create varied, nutritious menus that provide residents with an enjoyable and premium dining experience.
• Ensure individual dietary requirements, allergies, and preferences are understood and catered for.
• Support residents with specialist diets and hydration requirements.
• Maintain exceptional standards of food preparation, hygiene, and presentation.
• Manage kitchen stock, ordering, budgets, and waste effectively.
• Ensure compliance with food safety legislation and care home policies.
• Work closely with the wider care team to understand residents' changing nutritional needs.
• Train, support, and develop members of the kitchen team.

All appointments are subject to satisfactory references, an enhanced DBS check, verification of the right to work in the UK, and any other pre-employment checks required for the role.

Reference

WILL247309/JJ-AZ

INDNUR