Chef

Job overview

• Base Location: Central Production Kitchen (CPK), Royal Bournemouth Hospital
• Hospitals Served: Bournemouth, Poole, and Christchurch Hospitals
• Working Pattern: Full-time, Monday to Friday staggered shifts (7:00 am to 5:00 pm)

Interview: September 25th

Main duties of the job

As a Production Chef, you will prepare nutritious meals that cater to a wide range of dietary and cultural requirements, directly impacting patient recovery and well-being. Your core responsibilities include:

• High-Volume Cooking: Preparing, batch-cooking, chilling, and portioning dishes safely using approved standard recipes and production schedules.
• Specialist Nutrition: Supporting patient meal delivery by preparing specialized dietary meals, including IDDSI texture-modified recipes.
• Food Safety Compliance: Monitoring critical temperature controls, chill logs, food storage parameters, and strict stock rotation protocols.
• Hygiene & Environment: Maintaining exceptional levels of kitchen cleanliness and food hygiene protocols in alignment with statutory legislation.
• Allergen Management: Strictly adhering to ingredient controls and allergen legislation to safeguard vulnerable patient groups.
• Team Collaboration: Partner with the catering assistants and management team to maintain smooth, highly efficient kitchen operations.
• Service Innovation: Contributing professional ideas toward future menu planning, recipe development, and food waste reductions

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Experience & Knowledge

• Proven experience cooking high-volume dishes using structured production schedules.
• Comprehensive understanding of food safety legislation, HACCP controls, and kitchen hygiene protocols.
• Practical knowledge of specialist dietary requirements, cultural preferences, and allergen management.
• Previous experience working within a hospital or large-scale institutional catering environment.
• Documented experience or formal training with IDDSI texture-modification standards.

Skills & Attributes

• Strong teamworking mindset with a willingness to support and train junior kitchen team members.
• High attention to detail regarding portion controls, weighing accuracy, and recipe adherence

To understand the role in more detail please read the full job description and person specification documents which are attached to this advert.

Applicant requirements

The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.