Blog | Made In Hackney

Exciting Job Opportunity - Head Chef

Posted Wednesday 20th October 2021...

We are looking for a new Head Chef - Community Meal Service to join our team. Read on for more information about this exciting new opportunity.

Post: Head Chef, Meal Delivery Service

Hours: 25 hours per week - 2 days on site and 7 hours flexible working

Location: Combination of meal service kitchen (Hackney) and home based

Salary: £19,800/annum pro rata 3 days/week (£33,000/annum full time equivalent)

Contract: Permanent

Reports to: Community Food Manager

SUMMARY

Since the start of the COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020, Made in Hackney has pivoted from a community cookery school providing face to face cookery classes to a free direct to door meal delivery service for households in need of support. In the early stages of the meal service, MIH partnered with Angelina restaurant to cook the meals and fresh produce was donated by food waste suppliers such as Edible London and City Harvest. Our service is now provided in house with an MIH team responsible for all food preparation in a donated restaurant space in Hoxton. We have now committed to establishing the service as a core part of MIH’s programme of activities for the foreseeable future as funding allows.

This is an exciting and rewarding (freelance) role leading the kitchen team to prepare 550-600 meals twice a week (180-200 portions each) to community members in Hackney (120+ people.)

The successful candidate will have experience as a catering chef and managing staff in a busy commercial and/or community kitchen environment. You will have a passion for local, seasonal, organic, plant-based food. You will also be able to communicate effectively the social benefits and Made in Hackney’s USP to partner organisations, beneficiaries and suppliers.

The experience of working for Made in Hackney is varied, unique and rewarding. There is plenty of room for the successful candidate to be creative and bring new ideas for developing the service. There is plenty of room for the successful candidate to be creative and bring new ideas for developing the service.

Suggested time allocation:

25 hours per week - 2 days on site and 7 hours flexible working

Responsibilities include:

A. Managing community meals preparation

Managing a kitchen team of three Lead Chefs and volunteers;
Ensuring 3 meals prepared on each day which use different recipes that complement each other (550-600 meals twice a week (180-200 portions each);
Liaising with MIH Community Food Manager about any issues arising relating to food and special meal requests from beneficiaries;
Liaising with Meal Service Logistics Team about any changes to meal numbers, allergen or no-spice meal requests, containers available for food etc;
Overseeing clean down of kitchen space after each shift;

B. Team leading, management and training:

Provide kitchen team with clear briefings and instructions on how to prepare the meals, giving support where needed;
Communicating efficiently with the kitchen team about shift hours and any time changes or extra responsibilities;
Accurately logging chef hours and timesheets
Lead the kitchen team and support them to deliver their roles efficiently through one to one support, effective training and a compassionate approach to identify and resolve issues
Actively support in the management and training of onsite volunteers

C. Ordering, Finances and Budget

Ordering fresh and dried food produce from suppliers and coordinating food donations;
Liaising with MIH Finance department and MIH Development Manager to ensure invoices are paid and expenses remain in budget;
Maintaining oversight over kitchen equipment needs and any maintenance required and liaising with the Community Food Manager for assistance.

D. Health and Safety

Working with the Community Food Manager to undertake regular Health and Safety risk assessments to ensure safe operation of the meal service premises including working in line with a Food Safety Management System and conducting HACCP risk assessments
Follow all Covid19 Health and Safety protocols and undertake any additional training as required. Ensure safety of volunteers and staff when on site, ensuring the team simply with regular hand sanitising and/or wear food hygiene gloves where possible and be mindful of social distancing;
Coordinate the collection of kitchen laundry through the laundry service apps
Report any safeguarding concerns to MIH’s Safeguarding Lead;
Follow correct manual handling procedures on a daily basis when lifting deliveries and moving heavy loads.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

At least 2 years’ experience as a head chef in catering or a café/restaurant;
Experience of working in a commercial and/or community kitchen, pop up or café/restaurant;
Demonstrable experience and ability to effectively scale up recipes in to meet the demand of the meals service;
Strong communication and interpersonal skills;
Experience as a team leader, managing and supporting a diverse team
Computer literate with excellent IT skills and confident in using MS Excel to manage staff rotas, recipe metrics and using apps to order supplies;
Excellent organisational skills and the ability to manage a variety of tasks simultaneously;
Ability to take initiative, be flexible and think creatively on a limited budget;
Ability to deal with, and have empathy for, a diverse range of people including vulnerable groups;
A passion for organic plant-based food;
Enthusiasm, energy and a positive attitude.

BENEFITS

Flexible working arrangement with combination of working from MIH meal service kitchen and from home
Training provided in Safeguarding Adults and Children, Emergency First Aid, Food Safety and Salesforce CRM etc
Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) which includes counselling and physio
Staff Wellbeing and social activities throughout the year
Pension Scheme
Staff discount of 15% in Food For All Shop;

Equal Opportunity and Anti Racism

We have a strong commitment to promote diversity, equality and equal opportunities. We welcome applications from underrepresented groups, whether these be of ethnicity, gender, identity, religion, physical ability, sexual orientation or other.

Made In Hackney is on a journey of embedding anti-racism practice into all areas of our work. The Community Food Manager would welcome this and participate in this organisational journey.

To Apply:

Please either:

Fill in our online application form here or
Send in a short 5 - 10minute video application explaining why you feel you’re appropriate for the role to rashmi@madeinhackney.org

Deadline: 5pm Wednesday 17th November 2021

Interviews: Wednesday 24th November 2021 (provisional date)

Post commences: Monday 29th November 2021

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

Background on Made in Hackney

Made in Hackney is a community cookery school and charity. We teach vital cooking, composting and food growing skills that are good for people and planet. In our classes we draw people's attention to the much-overlooked reality of, 'without a healthy planet, how can we be healthy people?' We therefore teach people in fun and inspiring ways healthy eating and lifestyle skills alongside environmental best practice.

Our courses are attended by local charities, housing associations, support groups and community groups most in need of developing food skills. We also run courses in other community kitchens around London such as the Redmond Community Centre, Lea View Hall, and in Age UK community centres in Barnet and Peckham. We are currently running our classes online due to the covid19 pandemic and plan to reintroduce very small face to face classes in our new venue Liberty Hall from October.

For our COVID-19 crisis response we set up a free direct to door borough wide meal delivery service and juicing service. The juicing service has ended but the meal service continues.

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