CPU Sous Chef
About the Role
We are seeking an experienced CPU Sous Chef to lead food production across multiple restaurant sites. The successful candidate will ensure consistent quality, taste, presentation, and portion control, while maintaining the highest standards of culinary excellence, food safety, and efficiency.
Key Responsibilities
Production Leadership
- Lead the planning and delivery of food production for multiple restaurant sites, ensuring consistent quality, taste, presentation, and portion control
- Set and maintain high culinary, production, food safety, and quality standards across the production unit
- Support menu development and bespoke product requirements, ensuring efficient production and timely supply to all restaurant outlets
- Manage production workflows and resources to maximise efficiency while maintaining brand standards and consistency
Operational Management
- Manage and supervise all daily kitchen operations, ensuring smooth workflow, organisation, and optimal productivity
- Ensure all mise en place is completed to exceptional standards and within strict timelines
- Coordinate with procurement to forecast needs, maintain ingredient quality, manage stock rotation, and proactively identify shortages or quality concerns
- Oversee precise labelling, packaging, and storage of all dishes to ensure safe transit and premium inflight presentation
Team Development & Leadership
- Lead, motivate, and mentor the kitchen team, providing training, guidance, and development to junior chefs, sous chefs, and production staff
- Uphold a disciplined, calm, and collaborative working culture that supports efficiency and high performance
- Conduct performance reviews and support recruitment efforts to build a strong, skilled culinary team
Quality, Safety & Compliance
- Maintain strict adherence to food safety, hygiene, HACCP standards, and aviation-specific protocols, ensuring full traceability and best-practice handling at all times
- Implement and monitor quality-control procedures to ensure consistency across all dishes departing the kitchen
- Work closely with operational and logistics teams to ensure seamless production and dispatch workflows
Communication & Cross-functional Collaboration
- Collaborate with management, operations, and client-facing teams to ensure client expectations are understood and exceeded
- Communicate effectively with the wider team to ensure daily priorities, deadlines, and service levels are met
Requirements
- Proven experience as a Sous Chef in a central production unit, high-volume, or inflight catering environment
- Level 3 Food Safety / HACCP certification
- Strong leadership and team management skills
- Excellent organisational and time management abilities