Operations Chef in Hampshire

What makes the perfect pub? It’s great ales, delicious food, a welcoming atmosphere, and the warm welcome from a team that’s at the heart of everything we do. The Inn Collection Group is a multi-award-winning pubs with rooms company, proudly located in some of the most outstanding destinations across the North of England and Wales. At ICG, we deliver exceptional hospitality by living and breathing our core values of respect, customer focused, warmth, and honesty, all with the goal of Making People Happy.

This role is field-based across the stunning landscapes of the Lake District, covering a variety of lakes, hills, and open countryside. You’ll travel between multiple sites across the region, working closely with Head Chefs and kitchen teams to support operations, drive standards, and strengthen performance across each kitchen.

As an Operations Chef, you’ll play a key role in supporting our Lake District inns through its busiest trading period of the year. This role is about pace, quality, standards, team confidence and commercial acumen. You will work alongside our Head Chefs and kitchen teams to strengthen kitchen performance, identify the gaps that slow service down, and coach teams to deliver consistently brilliant food.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Team building: Build strong, open and positive relationships with Head Chefs and Sous Chefs, creating a team culture that is honest, fun, supportive and focused on succeeding together.
• Peak skills building: Work the pass during peak trading periods to identify skills gaps, mise en place gaps and operational gaps that impact speed, food quality and guest experience. Turn these observations into practical coaching and clear actions.
• Commercial performance: Help sites maximize summer trading by improving pace, quality, consistency and kitchen readiness, supporting teams to bank the cash during peak periods.
• Cost control: Implement purchase tracker immediately where needed, monitor overspend and coach Head Chefs and Sous Chefs on stronger purchasing discipline, stock management and commercial decision-making.
• Food quality: Coach teams to reduce excessive frozen stock holding, deplete frozen items appropriately and strengthen fresh food quality, availability and consistency across the region.
• Recruitment support: Support recruitment needs across the region, including CV screening, interviews and practical advice to help build stronger kitchen teams.
• Kitchen audits and clean kitchens: Complete regular kitchen audits to ensure cleanliness, food safety, compliance and company standards are being maintained. Where gaps are identified, provide follow-up coaching and clear improvement actions.
• Diary planning: Work to a signed-off weekly diary agreed with the Operations Manager and Operations Director. The diary should cover five days per week across a range of shifts and sites, ensuring activity is planned, purposeful and aligned to regional priorities.
• Clear reporting: Report into the Operations Manager, with a dotted line to the Operations Director, sharing clear updates on progress, risks, actions and support required.

What Success Looks Like:

• Head Chef and Sous Chef relationships are stronger, with more open communication and clearer accountability.
• Sites are better prepared for peak trading, with stronger mise en place, better pass control and improved service pace.
• Kitchen teams receive practical coaching that improves confidence, standards and consistency.
• Purchase trackers are in place and overspend is challenged, understood and coached quickly.
• Frozen stock levels are reduced and fresh food quality is strengthened.
• Kitchen audits are completed, gaps are followed up and standards improve week by week.
• The weekly diary is planned, signed off and focused on the sites and shifts where support will have the greatest impact.
• The role supports commercial delivery during summer trading without becoming shift cover.

About You:

• You are driven by great food, high standards and doing the basics brilliantly.
• You understand what a busy kitchen needs to deliver pace, quality and consistency at peak trading times.
• You build strong relationships with Head Chefs and Sous Chefs through open communication, trust, challenge and support.
• You are confident working the pass, reading as a service and spotting the skills, mise en place and operational gaps that affect speed and quality.
• You are commercially aware and understand the link between purchasing, stock holding, waste, food quality and cash performance.
• You are calm under pressure, solutions focused and able to coach in the moment without taking over.
• You are comfortable supporting recruitment activity, including CV screening and interviews where needed.
• You are based within commutable distance of the Lake District and happy to travel regularly across the region.
• Your values align with ours.