Assistant Development Chef

Food Innovation / Product Development

Starting Salary: £35,000 base salary

Location: Surrey

Monday - Friday | Predominantly Site Based

Are you a chef who loves food, flavour, creativity and new ideas, but knows you want more from your career than another service? This is a brilliant opportunity for a chef who wants to step into food development, innovation and NPD, while still staying hands-on in the kitchen every day. We're working with a highly respected and growing food business to recruit an Assistant Development Chef. This is a role for someone who gets excited by ingredients, trends, samples, tastings and turning ideas into real products. You will be joining a collaborative culinary and NPD team where people cook, taste, test, trial and build products together. This is not a senior Development Chef role, and it is not looking for someone who wants to walk in and run the show. It is a proper development opportunity for a chef with solid kitchen experience who wants to learn how products move from an initial brief through to trials, customer presentations and launch.

The Role

As Assistant Development Chef, you will work closely with the Development Chef and wider NPD team to support the creation of new food concepts, snacks and meal solutions. You will be involved in sample preparation, kitchen development, tastings, trials, presentations and day-to-day kitchen activity. One day you could be preparing samples for an internal review, the next supporting a customer presentation, helping refine a concept or making sure the development kitchen is organised, clean and ready for the next project. This is a hands-on, food-first role in a team where everyone gets stuck in.

Key Responsibilities

• Support the Development Chef and wider culinary team with new product ideas, development briefs and project timelines
• Prepare high-quality food samples for tastings, internal reviews, customer presentations and manufacturer reviews
• Help develop and refine new food concepts in line with briefs, quality standards and customer expectations
• Support kitchen trials, development sessions, presentation set-up and clean-down
• Keep the development kitchen organised, clean, safe and presentation-ready
• Support stock control, stock rotation, ordering, product labelling and packaging stock
• Work closely with NPD, culinary, technical and wider business teams
• Learn the full product development process from concept through to launch
• Support stage gate documentation and development administration where required
• Bring energy, curiosity and genuine enthusiasm for food innovation

About You

We're looking for someone with real chef experience, strong food passion and the right attitude to build a career in food development. You'll ideally have:

• Experience working as a chef in a professional kitchen environment
• A genuine love of food, flavour, ingredients and global food trends
• A desire to move into NPD, product development or food innovation
• Level 2 Food Hygiene and Safety
• Good organisation and the ability to juggle multiple tasks
• A practical, hands-on approach and a willingness to muck in
• Strong communication skills and a positive team-first attitude
• Basic IT skills across Word, Excel and PowerPoint
• Confidence working between a kitchen environment and an office environment

This could suit someone currently working as a Chef de Partie, Junior Sous Chef, Sous Chef, Catering Chef, Development Kitchen Assistant, Junior Development Chef, Culinary Assistant or Food Development Assistant.

What's on Offer

• £35,000 base salary
• 25 days’ holiday plus bank holidays
• 10% discretionary bonus
• Company pension scheme
• £1,000 annual flexible benefit pot
• Free on-site parking
• Complimentary food products for lunch
• Additional holiday purchase scheme
• Annual eye care and flu vaccination support
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Cycle to Work scheme
• Electric vehicle salary sacrifice scheme
• Volunteering days, social events and wellbeing activities
• Dress for your day policy
• Opportunity to finish early on summer Fridays where hours are fulfilled and business needs allow
• Pay Day Friday early finish

Why This Role?

Because it gives you a genuine route out of traditional kitchen service and into food development. You will still be cooking, tasting, preparing, organising and working with food every day, but you will also be learning how new products are created, tested, refined, presented and launched. If you're a chef who wants to build a career in food innovation, join a supportive NPD team and be part of a business known for quality, creativity and great food, we'd love to hear from you.