Description:
Nourish is a fast-growing halal meal prep and catering business serving retail customers, athletes, community programmes and catering clients. We operate a production-focused kitchen where consistency, food safety, organisation and reliable execution matter every day.
This is not a restaurant service role. It is a hands-on kitchen leadership position focused on high-volume production, disciplined systems and making sure meals leave the kitchen to the required standard, correctly packed and on schedule.
We are looking for someone professionally trained, dependable and operationally strong enough to run the kitchen properly, hold standards and take ownership of output.
Core Responsibilities
- Lead day-to-day kitchen operations across meal prep and catering production.
- Translate confirmed orders into structured prep, cook and packing schedules.
- Run high-volume batch cooking to a consistent standard across multiple menu items.
- Supervise blast chilling, portioning, labelling, packing and dispatch preparation.
- Ensure meals are produced correctly, packed accurately and handed over on time.
- Allocate work across kitchen assistants and maintain control of workflow during busy periods.
- Monitor stock levels, forecast ingredient requirements and coordinate ordering with suppliers.
- Maintain an organised, clean and audit-ready kitchen at all times.
- Work closely with other departments to ensure customer satisfaction and operational excellence.
Food Safety, Standards and Kitchen Control
- Maintain strong food hygiene standards across all stages of production.
- Follow and enforce HACCP procedures, allergen controls and temperature logging requirements.
- Apply disciplined stock control practices, including FIFO systems where appropriate.
- Maintain recipe consistency, portion control and production accuracy across all batches.
- Identify operational issues early and take practical action to protect quality, timing and output.
- Escalate recurring issues around waste, stock, quality or kitchen performance where necessary.
Production Accuracy and Performance Expectations
The person in this role will ultimately be responsible for ensuring the kitchen delivers what is required, when it is required, and to the expected standard.
- Consistent on-time fulfilment of meal prep and catering orders.
- Reliable high-volume output without compromising food quality or food safety.
- Accurate portioning, labelling and packing of finished meals.
- Strong control of food cost, stock use and avoidable waste.
- A calm, organised and standards-driven kitchen culture.
Candidate Profile
- Proven experience in a high-volume kitchen, production kitchen or large-scale catering environment.
- Professionally trained chef with the confidence to run kitchen operations day to day.
- Strong batch-cooking capability and the ability to maintain standards under pressure.
- Reliable, punctual, organised and able to lead by example.
- Good understanding of food cost control, waste reduction and kitchen discipline.
- Comfortable supervising a small team and holding people to clear standards.
- Level 2 Food Hygiene certificate required.
- Full UK driving licence preferred if operational support beyond the kitchen is ever needed.