Part -time Head Chef at The Farm Kitchen at Quickes Cheese Farm - No Evenings!

Do you have senior chef/catering experience and a passion for good local food?

Would you like a chance to be part of a recently started high quality café/restaurant on a high profile farm with an Artisan cheese manufacturing business, winner of Live Love and Eat Best Café in Devon 2014 ?

Applicant would need experience of managing and day to day running of a kitchen, including food safety, and be highly motivated and committed to developing menus and evening openings, using our own and local produce.

Job Purpose

AIM – To be responsible for producing great food for the guests of Quickes Farm Kitchen, during the time they are on duty and when they are not
To ensure our own world class artisan cheese and farm products are presented world class in the Kitchen, and that other products used are of similar quality and provenance
Be instrumental in increasing brand awareness, profile and reputation by satisfied customers
To cater for events in the Kitchen and elsewhere

Key Responsibilities and accountabilities

The Head Chef is responsible for ensuring that Quickes Farm Kitchen is world class, achieving this by: –

Operational

Hands on producing iconic meals, an exemplar to others in the team, and responsible for the quality of meals produced by others
Day to day management of Kitchen function
Ensuring great quality and presentation to delight our guests, including dealing calmly and effectively with workload peaks, maintaining quality whatever the challenges

Menu

Ensuring best use of the products that come from the farm and cheese business, and feeding back on the quality of them
Trialling new products and menus, working with Front of House Manager, Chefs and the rest of the team what works and what doesn’t, and developing new menus with Front of House Manager
Developing seasonal and special events and dinner menus with Consultant Kitchen, Retail and Events Manager, and taking from Front of House Manager what works for guests and adapting accordingly

People

Having the chef team work to their Job Descriptions
Creating and managing rotas for chefs, and alerting Consultant Kitchen, Retail and Events Manager what staff we need, including for daily, seasonal, event and dinner peaks
Complete timesheets for chef team
Hiring as required, inducting, training and recording training of chef team
Conducting performance reviews & disciplinary actions for chef team
Communicate effectively with the aim of resolving issues and contributing to relevant meetings

Resources

Ordering sufficient ingredients of the correct quality from Shop, Farm, including MC Kelly (farm meat) or external suppliers consistent with shop stocking, receiving, signing for & accounting for incoming ingredients
Maintaining stocks of consumable stores & ordering as required
Completing the required records and developing and implementing standard operating procedures to ensure Kitchen catering unit runs smoothly, and problem solving as required
Maintaining Health & Safety and First Aid for chefs and maintaining all appropriate records
Ensuring Food Safety consistently, undertaking required actions and maintaining all required records, responsible for ‘Safer Food Better Business’ implementation in catering unit
Keeping all equipment operational in catering unit
Ensuring all equipment and catering unit are left clean, safe and fit for use

Finances

Delivering correct portion size to deliver targeted margins, and feeding back constraints to achieving them

Quality Control

Responding to complaints in a positive manner, and resolving them and working to remove root cause of complaints

This is a part time permanent position, currently 3 days a weeks to include weekends plus 1 day average for evening working and to cover for holidays and sickness, to fulfil the demands of the business. The Farm Shop and Kitchen are open 9.00 – 5.00 Monday – Saturday and 10.00 – 4.00 Sundays and Bank Holidays with developing evening events

The Person will be:

Highly motivated, self-utilising and self-starting, inspired by Quickes Farm Kitchen and what it provides to guests
Fulfilled by delighting guests
Experienced at managing competing pressures and delivering iconic food to every guest
Be willing to be held to account and to hold other people to account
Able to raise issues and concerns with the person who can deal with those issues
Take full ownership and responsibility for their role
Be flexible and prepared to do whatever is required (e.g. working outside normal hours where necessary)
Be robust and alert to the impact of a highly visible role
A team leader and team player
Have a high level of communication skills
Disciplined and organized in the use of their and others’ time
Hygienic and clean, able to maintain their appearance despite the pressures, with a good eye for presentation and detail
Passionate about world class food and enjoy using, eating and sourcing artisan products

The Person will have the following experience:

Proven track record of success in catering
Experience of managing and training other chefs and being responsible for organising their own day as well as others.
Essential interest in artisan food or drink, desirable background and training will be given.

Skills:

The position requires a high calibre performer, who is: