Senior Head Chef

The Role and the Department

The Operations Directorate: Elevating the Student and Staff Experience

The Operations Directorate is integral to the Colleges and Student Experience Division, dedicated to providing a world-class experience for our diverse student and staff communities, which is essential to our students’ learning journey. Our passionate team delivers services and facilities across 15 colleges, including catering, housekeeping, reception, security, and maintenance. These resources create a safe environment where our students can live, work, dine, socialise, and thrive together.

Within the Operations Directorate, we have three key areas:

1. University Catering: Our robust catering team of 500 ensures fresh, exciting, and diverse dining experiences throughout our colleges, catering to the unique needs of our University Community, which includes students, staff, and visitors, and offer expert advice on bar management.
2. College Operations: With over 200 dedicated professionals, we provide residential services within the colleges as well as supporting student and non-student-led events.
3. Retail Services: Our branded retail catering and merchandise outlets offer an enticing array of menus and high-quality products thoughtfully presented to enhance the shopping experience for our students and staff whilst building positive relationships via efficient service and attentive staff.

The Head Chef will be responsible for supervising a large kitchen team which produces three meals per day for up to 400 students and staff. The post holder will be responsible for catering for high-profile clientele, private dining external functions and banqueting. The Head Chef must be able to develop existing teams to ensure that consistently exceptional standard of food and service is delivered. The post holder will also assist with day-to-day cleaning of kitchen and catering equipment, receipt and storage of goods, and checking and signing for deliveries.

Catering team members will be expected to adopt and promote a flexible approach to working, and to undertake any or all of the tasks outlined below regardless of their designated shift.

The post holder will be required to work flexibly across all catering areas.

Please note, the interview process will be in two stages with stage one (Trade test) taking place on Tuesday 17th September 2024 and the stage two (formal interview) taking place on Wednesday 25th September 2024

Contact details
If you would like to have a chat or ask any questions about the role, Dave Walker would be happy to speak to you. david.walker@durham.ac.uk 

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