Chef, Kitchen Lead

MINCKA Coffee is looking for an experienced and highly organised Chef / Kitchen Lead to take ownership of our kitchen and food preparation in Haywards Heath. This isn't a traditional restaurant chef role. We're a busy daytime café and we're looking for someone who loves working with food but also enjoys the operational side of running a great kitchen: being organised, preparing ahead, maintaining high standards and making sure everything is ready when service gets busy. You'll have real ownership of your area and the opportunity to help us continue improving and developing MINCKA's food offering.

What you'll own:

• You'll be responsible for the day-to-day organisation of our kitchen and food preparation, including:
• Preparing and batch cooking ingredients
• Preparing our toasties, sandos, grab-and-go food and wider café offering
• Planning and managing daily and weekly prep levels
• Keeping the kitchen organised and ready for service
• Maintaining excellent food hygiene, safety and allergen standards
• Managing stock rotation and helping reduce food waste
• Ordering and managing kitchen stock
• Maintaining an exceptionally clean and organised working environment
• Supporting the development of new dishes and our wider food offering
• Working with our management team to improve and simplify kitchen systems and processes

Who we're looking for:

Experience with food matters, but we're equally interested in how you work. You'll probably be a great fit if you:

• Have professional kitchen, chef or substantial food-preparation experience
• Are extremely organised and take pride in a clean kitchen
• Work quickly and efficiently without sacrificing standards
• Are dependable and take ownership without needing to be chased
• Are comfortable planning your own workload and working independently
• Understand food hygiene, allergens and safe food handling
• Enjoy improving systems and finding better ways of doing things
• Are happy working as part of a small, ambitious and friendly team

You don't need to come from a fine-dining background. We're much more interested in someone who can consistently produce great food while running an organised, efficient and dependable kitchen.

The working pattern:

The role will be approximately 30-35 hours per week, with the option for more hours if that's your preference. We're happy to discuss how those hours are structured, although some later starts/finishes and weekend work may form part of the role. Because we're a daytime café, this could be particularly attractive to an experienced chef who loves working with food but wants to move away from the late nights and lifestyle of a traditional restaurant kitchen. Some preparation can also take place outside our busiest service periods, giving you the space to organise the kitchen, work independently and stay ahead.

Why MINCKA?

MINCKA is an independent coffee shop in Haywards Heath with a busy, loyal customer base and an ambitious team. We're continually looking for ways to make our food better, improve how we operate and build a business we're proud of. This isn't a role where we simply want someone to turn up and follow a list. For the right person, there's an opportunity to take real ownership of our kitchen and help us shape what the MINCKA food operation becomes next.

Apply: Please apply and answer our screening questions. We'd love to hear from you.