Culinary Director/ Head of Food in London

Heliix is an established performance-focused food and beverage business and the UK F&B partner of Equinox, operating across Kensington, St James's and Bishopsgate. We are now entering the next stage of the business. Our mission is to curate wholefood nutrition that enhances human performance today and extends healthspan for tomorrow.

We are evolving Heliix beyond our existing F&B business, developing a premium food and nutrition proposition around exceptional food, performance, longevity and personalisation. We believe there is an opportunity to do something genuinely different in this space and are looking for an exceptional culinary leader to help us build it.

This isn't a conventional Head Chef position. We're looking for someone who combines serious culinary credentials with production experience, NPD capability and an entrepreneurial mindset. Initially, the role will be hands-on. You'll work closely with the founder and our nutrition team across food development, ingredient sourcing, recipe development, production and execution. As the business develops, we expect the role to evolve with it – increasingly focusing on culinary strategy, NPD, systems, standards and building the team around you. The opportunity is ultimately to help shape and lead the culinary direction of Heliix.

Exceptional food

Food comes first. We want to create food that is nutritionally intelligent without ever feeling like "health food". Ingredient quality, provenance, seasonality, flavour and execution matter enormously to us. We're therefore looking for someone who has operated at a very high culinary level and understands the discipline and attention to detail required to produce exceptional food consistently. Michelin-starred or equivalent high-end restaurant experience would be highly relevant. However, restaurant experience alone isn't enough. You also need to understand production and how to translate exceptional food into an environment where consistency, repeatability and operational control matter.

NPD & personalisation

You'll play a central role in developing the next generation of Heliix food. This will include our retail ranges as well as more personalised areas of the business we're currently developing. Some of what we're working on introduces significant culinary and operational complexity. We're interested in finding someone who enjoys solving those problems. Someone capable of taking sophisticated nutritional requirements and turning them into food that remains exceptional, practical and executable. You'll work alongside specialists in performance nutrition and other areas of health and wellness, bringing the culinary depth required to turn thinking into something people actually want to eat.

Technology & AI

We're also interested in how technology, and particularly AI, can help us build a better food business. You don't need to be technical and we're certainly not looking for a software engineer. We are looking for someone curious. Someone who uses new tools, questions inefficient processes and instinctively looks for smarter ways of doing things. The food industry is going to change considerably as these technologies develop. We want someone who is interested in being part of that change rather than watching it happen.

Who we're looking for

• Serious high-end culinary experience, ideally including Michelin-starred or equivalent environments
• Production kitchen experience
• Strong NPD and recipe development capability
• Exceptional standards around ingredients, sourcing and provenance
• Experience maintaining quality and consistency as complexity or volume increases
• Strong operational discipline
• An entrepreneurial and solution-focused mindset
• An interest in technology and the opportunities created by AI
• The confidence to challenge existing thinking when you believe there is a better way

Most importantly, we're looking for someone who genuinely cares about health, fitness, nutrition and human performance. You may train seriously yourself. You may be interested in endurance sport, strength, longevity or simply fascinated by the relationship between what we eat and how we perform and age. We don't particularly mind what form that takes. But it needs to be genuine.

The person

This role will suit someone who has already operated at a high level but still wants to build. There won't initially be a large team underneath you. You'll need to be equally comfortable developing the culinary direction of the business and getting into the kitchen to make it happen. As Heliix grows, that balance should change. The objective is to build the food, systems, standards and team that allow you to move increasingly towards NPD, innovation and culinary leadership. We're looking for someone ambitious but without ego. High standards, curiosity, attention to detail and a willingness to get your hands dirty matter more to us than job titles.

The opportunity

Heliix already has an established platform through our partnership with Equinox and three premium London locations. What we're building next goes considerably further. Our ambition is international and we believe Heliix has the opportunity to become a distinctive food and nutrition brand at the intersection of exceptional food, human performance and longevity. We're looking for someone who wants to help build that with us.

Structure

We're more interested in finding the right person than forcing the role into a predetermined structure. We would therefore consider full-time, fractional or an initial contract arrangement for an exceptional candidate. The important thing is finding someone with the ability and appetite to make a meaningful contribution from the outset and potentially grow into a significant long-term leadership role within Heliix.

If this sounds like the kind of challenge you've been looking for, we'd like to hear from you. Please send us your CV together with a short introduction explaining why Heliix interests you and why you think you're the right person to help us build what comes next.