Chef jobs

This role is a unique and exciting opportunity for a passionate, hands-on Chef and Trainer to join our rapidly growing charity and support our mission to transform kids’ health through food in schools in a new region. This role will be critical in delivering our flagship programme Transformations and work directly with school kitchen teams across the North West and North East of England.

Who we are
Chefs in Schools is a young, ambitious charity that’s rapidly growing. Our mission is to improve kids’ health, through improving school food & food education. We focus our efforts in areas of high socio-economic deprivation, where more than a third of children are entitled to free school meals, and diet-related disease is driving further inequality. We support and train school kitchen teams to serve the best, freshest and tastiest food possible, alongside meaningful food education. We share learning and resources, aiming  to inspire and enable others to follow our lead. We’re backed by some of the biggest names in food and have ambitious targets to ensure every child has access to incredible school food and food education, setting them up for life with the skills and knowledge to feed themselves well.

 About you and the role

This role is responsible for the delivery and continuous improvement of the Chefs in Schools Transformation Programme across the North West and North East of England. The Transformation Programme is our flagship year-long initiative, designed to support school kitchen teams and senior leadership teams in serving the best, freshest, and most nutritious food possible. Through this programme, we transform school lunches, upskill kitchen staff, and integrate food education into the heart of the school culture, ensuring that high-quality, scratch-cooked meals become the standard for every pupil.

As a Chef Trainer, you will act as a pivotal, hands-on ambassador for this mission, supporting kitchen teams, school leadership and the wider school community to embed a high quality, sustainable school food culture in schools. You will support development of the programme’s pipeline and join a brilliant, passionate and experienced team of Chef Trainers, with the opportunity to connect, share and learn from one another.

A key component of this role involves being based in schools for 2–3 weeks at a time, working directly on-site to implement the programme. You will travel to different locations across the North West and North East, supporting schools to build high-quality, sustainable food cultures. During your first year, the focus will be specifically on the North West region,  ranging from Manchester to the Wirral, where you will help establish Chefs in Schools’ reputation for positive change.

The responsibilities, skills and experience listed below are intended to give you an idea of what we need for this role. If you don’t meet every requirement but feel you would be able to work with us to deliver the majority of them, we urge you to apply anyway. We are dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workplace, and for us the most important ‘experience’ is passion for our mission.

We want to get to know you at the interview and understand we can do this best if you’re at ease. We’re an inclusive employer and work hard to create a welcoming working environment for everyone, including appointing a neurodiversity champion to help us  identify how we can make our work environment work for everyone. If you need adjustments to the interview process please let us know.

As we work with children and young people, an offer of employment will be subject to satisfactory references and DBS clearance, in line with our safeguarding policy.

Key responsibilities:

Programme Delivery & Training:

● Inspire, train and cook with chefs, cooks and kitchen teams in the preparation of fresh, nutritious food to meet specified standards, imparting your passion for fresh, quality food and building capability across client schools in line with the Chefs in Schools model.

● Deliver and oversee Transformation Programme delivery in schools within the region, ensuring high quality outcomes aligned to programme objectives and proposals, including check-ins to support proposal and pipeline development.

● Work closely with Head Chefs, Headteachers and School Business Managers to provide fair assessment of culinary ability for existing and new Head Chefs including skills tests.

● Support with recommended kitchen structures at Transformation schools using the Kitchen Brigade system.

● Advise and guide Head Chefs, Kitchen Teams and School Business Managers to improve uptake, menu development and School Food Standards compliance.

● Advise on reputable, quality and cost-effective suppliers to support schools to reduce cost per meal per child without sacrificing food quality. Including light-touch auditing and development of procurement suppliers in the region.

● Encourage schools to monitor, control and reduce kitchen, service and food waste.

● Train kitchen staff to follow up-to-date Health and Safety and hygiene policies and procedures, alongside latest EHO, Food Standards Agency and Allergen guidance.

● Work with the Senior Programme Manager to develop training materials that support the charity’s wider work, ensuring training plans reflect the latest relevant guidance including EHO, Food Standards Agency and Allergen guidance.

● Support schools to develop a whole-school food culture through food education with pupils, aligned to School Food Standards, and the creation of scratch-cooked, delicious and nutritious school food.

Transformation Programme Development:

● Support growing regional brand awareness, in partnership and alignment with the Senior Programme Manager.

● Visit potential new school clients to assess kitchens and kitchen teams (check-ins) within the region, working with the Senior Programme Manager to support proposal and pipeline development as required.

● Support the onboarding of new schools based on the outcome of check-ins conducted and proposals.

● Support in maintaining, improving and running the programme, and Innovations, School Chef Educator and Membership programme needs as required.

Administration & Measurement:

● Support with monitoring and capturing of programme KPIs of Transformation schools, measuring success against Chefs in Schools benchmarking and keeping the Senior Programme Manager updated on any variances.

● Support with case study development working in partnership with the Comms and Fundraising team.

● Report any complaints or serious incidents to the Senior Programme Manager and follow relevant actions related to Chefs in Schools Escalation and Tracking processes.

Essential Skills & Experience:

● You have interest and belief in our mission to improve kids’ health through improving food and food education in schools.

● You have significant professional experience as a chef (minimum of 5 years), ideally with a background in schools, high-volume catering or institutional cooking.

● You have experience training or mentoring kitchen staff, including building culinary capability and culture change.

● You are confident in assessing culinary skills and advising on kitchen structure, menus and supplier choices.

● You are organised, methodical and able to manage multiple workstreams simultaneously.

● You are a strong communicator able to build trusting relationships with different types of stakeholders.

● You have a sound understanding of Health and Safety, Food Hygiene, Allergen regulations and School Food Standards.

Desirable skills & experience:

● Experience working in a school or educational setting.

● Comfortable with data capture, reporting and keeping accurate records.

● Familiarity with the Kitchen Brigade system or equivalent kitchen management structures.

● Experience working with or for a charity or social enterprise.

● A full UK driving licence.

Benefits

You would be joining a friendly, supportive team who works hard but believe in a healthy work/life balance. We were voted one of CODE Hospitality’s happiest places to work in 2024. We seek a diverse range of perspectives, skills, experience and knowledge. Joining a small, collaborative team means you’ll be able to contribute to and draw on various projects and strategic insights.

We offer 33 days of holiday per year including bank holidays, 3 additional office closure days over the Christmas period as well as wellbeing days over the summer school holidays.  We also have a Cycle to Work scheme, hybrid working, enhanced parental leave, and free access to the CODE app for discounted restaurants & hospitality venues. We are committed to developing our team and will support you with relevant training opportunities including £250 towards elective training and development of your choice.

We also offer Bupa Dental Insurance, Income Protection Insurance, as well as access to the Aviva Smart Health Platform which offers health benefits including free rapid access online GP appointments, free counselling and wellbeing support.