Development Chef in Derby

The Cuisine Centre is an innovative food service company that’s dedicated to nourishing the nation, one meal at a time. As part of the Compass Group, we pride ourselves on providing sustainable prepared meal solutions to make catering easier and more efficient for our customers in healthcare, senior living, education, and workplaces across the UK.

Role Overview: Working together with the NPD Manager and Process Manager, you will bridge the gap between kitchen innovation and scalable factory production. You will take chilled and frozen prepared foods from blue-sky concepts through to successful launches, for a range of sectors, including Healthcare, Education, Defence, as well as for other workplaces. You will be the culinary champion of the business, helping to lead the foodie strategy and elevating our Foodist culture. This role covers a vast range of cuisines and end consumer profiles.

Key Responsibilities:

• Champion, implement and drive a foodie culture across the entire business, in collaboration with the wider NPD team.
• Working with the NPD team, translate customer briefs and market insights into high-quality, commercially viable dish concepts, that meet the strict and varied nutritional guidelines for varying sector requirements.
• Develop recipes and prepare samples that maintain taste, texture, and visual appeal after processing, freezing, and reheating.
• Work collaboratively to transition recipes from the development kitchen to large-scale manufacturing, ensuring factory capability, yields, and consistent quality.
• Ensure that all dishes meet tight cost parameters, and strict food safety/allergen standards.
• Work with Procurement and Technical teams to source raw materials, evaluate new ingredients, and check supplier consistency.
• Lead product tastings alongside the wider NPD team during customer sessions and internal stakeholder reviews.
• Responsible for maintaining the development kitchen to the highest standards of cleanliness, safety, and operational readiness, and manage the kitchen team as it is implemented and grows.

Essential Skills and Experience:

• Proven experience as a Development Chef, ideally within the chilled and/or frozen prepared meals food manufacturing sector.
• Strong culinary foundation (e.g., professional cookery qualifications or extensive kitchen experience).
• Exceptional team player who thrives in highly collaborative, cross-functional environments, with the ability to bridge the gap between chefs, food technologists, and production operatives.
• Excellent organisational skills with a proven track record of managing a kitchen space.
• Understanding of ingredient behaviour, shelf-life factors, and raw material scaling.
• Level 3 Food Safety and Hygiene certification (or willing to obtain).

We ensure you're rewarded for all your hard work, which is why we offer a comprehensive benefits package which includes but is not limited to:

• Contributory pension scheme.
• Grow your career with our Career Pathways and MyLearning programmes.
• Quick access for you and your immediate family to a Digital GP, and wider healthcare benefits.
• Exclusive travel discounts with TUI, Expedia, Booking.com and many more.
• Save money on your food shop with discounts on Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons and many more.
• Up to 44% off cinema tickets to enjoy your favourite blockbuster.
• Receive cash rewards every time you spend and use them on a wide range of brands.
• Unwind with us with free wellness, mindfulness and exercise classes.

As part of Compass you'll help to feed people, fuel progress and forge connections in around 6,000 venues. Join us to grow your career with the industry leader, and get competitive pay, great perks and unrivalled opportunities for learning and development, at one of the UK's biggest businesses.

Compass Group UK&I is committed to fostering an environment where every individual can truly be themselves at work and has equal opportunities to advance in their careers. We strive to build a culture that respects and celebrates the unique talents, beliefs, backgrounds, and abilities of all our team members. We want our colleagues to feel valued, empowered to reach their full potential, and to thrive - because diversity is our strength!