Head Chef in Hamilton

Hamilton Park Racecourse, Bothwell Road, Hamilton ML3 0DW; driving license/own car essential. £41,000pa + excellent bonus and benefits package. 40hrs pw 5/7 free parking, free meal on shift. Level 3 Food Safety Essential, Level 4 desirable.

At Sodexo Live!, we create exceptional moments and unforgettable experiences. From prestigious sporting venues to world-class hospitality environments, our teams deliver extraordinary service, innovation, and food experiences that keep guests coming back. We are now seeking an inspiring and commercially driven Head Chef to lead the culinary operation at the iconic Hamilton Park Racecourse. This is an exciting opportunity for a passionate hospitality professional to shape premium food experiences across racedays, conferences, events, and hospitality suites in a fast-paced and dynamic venue.

As Head Chef, you’ll lead the day-to-day culinary operation, ensuring the highest standards of food quality, innovation, consistency, and service delivery across the racecourse operation. We’re looking for a confident culinary leader with creativity, resilience, and a passion for delivering exceptional hospitality experiences. If you thrive in high-volume hospitality, love leading talented teams, and have a passion for delivering exceptional culinary standards, we’d love to hear from you.

What You’ll Do:

• Leading and inspiring a high-performing kitchen team across racedays and non-raceday events.
• Delivering exceptional food experiences across hospitality suites, conferencing, events, and catering outlets.
• Driving menu innovation and developing exciting seasonal food concepts.
• Ensuring all food is prepared and presented to the highest standards, consistently and efficiently.
• Managing kitchen operations across multiple outlets and simultaneous events.
• Supporting tastings, client meetings, and hospitality planning.
• Managing labour, food cost, stock control, and ordering processes to achieve financial targets.
• Monitoring waste reduction initiatives and operational efficiencies.
• Building strong relationships with suppliers and internal stakeholders.
• Maintaining the highest standards of food safety, allergen management, hygiene, and compliance.
• Coaching, developing, and motivating your team to achieve excellence in every service.

What You Bring:

• Proven experience in a senior culinary leadership role within high-volume hospitality, events, sports venues, or premium catering environments.
• A strong background in fine dining and high-quality food production.
• Experience managing large and diverse kitchen teams.
• Excellent leadership and people management skills with the ability to inspire and develop others.
• Strong commercial awareness with experience managing food and labour costs effectively.
• Exceptional organisational and planning skills within a fast-paced environment.
• A strong understanding of: Food Safety, HACCP, COSHH, Allergen Management, Health & Safety compliance.
• The ability to remain calm under pressure during peak service periods.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
• CIEH Level 3 Food Safety certification (or equivalent).
• IOSH Managing Safely qualification.
• Professional Cookery qualifications (desirable).

What we offer:

• Unlimited access to an online platform offering mental health and wellbeing support.
• Employee Assistance Programme to help with everyday issues or larger problems where you may need additional support, including legal and financial advice, support with work-related issues or personal issues such as bereavement.
• Access to a free health and wellbeing app that provides rewards for maintaining a healthy lifestyle and includes access to a 24hr virtual GP and various other services.
• The Sodexo Discounts Scheme, offering great deals 24/7 (also open to friends and family) and/or the prepayment cashback card.
• Money Insights and financial benefits via the Salary Finance Platform.
• Save for your future by becoming a member of the Sodexo Retirement Plan.
• A Death-in-Service benefit for colleagues who pass away whilst employed by Sodexo.
• Opportunities to enable colleagues to grow and succeed throughout their career at Sodexo, including a variety of learning and development tools.
• Cycle to Work Scheme to help colleagues to do their bit for the environment whilst keeping fit.
• Volunteering Opportunities to enable all colleagues to help support worthwhile causes in our communities.
• Flexible and dynamic work environment.

Ready to be part of something greater? Apply today!

Sodexo reserves the right to close this advertisement early if we are in receipt of a high volume of applications.

At Sodexo Live!, our purpose is to create a better every day for everyone to build a better life for all. As the global leader in services that improve the Quality of Life, we operate in 55 countries, serving over 100 million consumers each day through our unique combination of On-Site Food and FM Services, Benefits & Rewards Services and Personal & Home Services.

We are committed to being an inclusive employer. We are a forces friendly employer. We welcome and encourage applications from people with a diverse variety of experiences, backgrounds, and identities. We encourage our employees to get involved with our Employee Networks such as Pride, Sodexo Parents & Carers, Sodexo Disability, Ability network, So Together, Generations and Origins.

We’re a Disability Confident Leader employer. We’re committed to changing attitudes towards disability, and making sure disabled people have the chance to fulfil their aspirations.