Head of Culinary in London

Location: London

Department: Development

Reporting to: VP Development

Time Out Market is a global food and cultural market leveraging the editorial curation of Time Out Media to bring the best of the city together under one roof: its best chefs, restaurants, bars, and cultural experiences.

Role Overview

The Head of Culinary is a senior, central leadership role responsible for evolving the culinary direction of Time Out Market across its global portfolio. Sitting in the Head Office, the role works across multiple markets, supporting both new and existing markets through structured, data-led culinary decision-making. This position blends a deep understanding of the global food landscape, operational rigour, and commercial acumen. It isn’t just a “talent scout” role alone; success is defined by the ability to assess culinary concepts through an operational and financial lens, and support markets in curating kitchens that are commercially viable, operationally sound, and aligned with the Time Out Market brand. The Head of Culinary plays a critical role in managing complex internal and external stakeholder relationships, ensuring alignment between culinary ambition, operational realities, and business performance.

Key Responsibilities:

• Culinary Strategy & Curation
  • Refine the culinary curation strategy for new Time Out Market cities using a data-led, structured approach to chef and concept selection.
  • Identify and evaluate the strongest culinary operators in each city, combining data, desktop research, market insight, and brand alignment.
  • Support existing markets in re-curating kitchens, reviewing performance, mix, and operational fit.
• Operational & Commercial Oversight
  • Provide operational guidance rooted in hands-on chef and food operations experience.
  • Support the building, review, and stress-testing of unit-level vendor P&Ls, ensuring concepts are commercially viable.
  • Assess operational models to balance quality, throughput, staffing, and guest experience.
• Kitchen & BOH Design
  • Work closely with Design & Construction teams to ensure kitchens are correctly sized, fit for chosen cuisines, and operationally efficient and future-proofed.
  • Ensure back-of-house design supports menu execution, ticket times, and staffing models.
• Menu Engineering
  • Guide chefs and markets on menu development and optimisation.
  • Assess the impact of menu design on margins, labour requirements, speed of service, and operational complexity.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration
  • Work closely with Marketing to ensure culinary storytelling, launches, and ongoing programming are aligned.
  • Collaborate with Operations, Development, Food Curation, Design & Construction, and Media teams at both HQ and market level.
  • Act as a central culinary authority, providing clarity and consistency across the estate.
• Stakeholder Management
  • Manage a wide range of stakeholders including internal HQ teams, market leadership and GMs, external chefs, partners, and operators.
  • Build trust through credibility, clarity, and a collaborative approach.

Skills & Experience

• Minimum 10 years’ experience in senior culinary, chef, or food operations role.
• Experience working across multiple sites or concepts, ideally in complex or international environments.
• Strong chef and operational background, with real unit-level experience.
• Proven understanding of P&Ls, margins, cost structures, and commercial decision-making.
• Demonstrated ability to take a data-led and analytical approach to culinary decisions.
• Deep understanding of kitchen design, BOH operations, and cuisine requirements.
• Menu engineering capability with a clear commercial mindset.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills.

Leadership & Mindset

• Commercially minded with strong culinary judgement.
• Analytical, structured, and comfortable using data to inform decisions.
• Collaborative and pragmatic, able to balance creativity with operational reality.
• Confident operating at both strategic and detailed levels.
• Comfortable working in a central role supporting multiple markets globally.

What we look for in a candidate:

• Be commercially astute.
• Either have experience at or want to dive headfirst into a fast-paced transformative company in pursuit of excellence.
• Think globally.
• Have excellent communication and relationship building skills.
• Have a high sense of ownership, urgency and drive.

About our culture

At Time Out Group we believe in diversity and equal opportunity for all people. We do not discriminate against external or internal candidates on the basis of age; disability; gender, gender reassignment; race; religion or belief; sexual orientation; marriage and civil partnership; pregnancy and maternity. We believe that diversity develops creativity and enables personal and professional growth where we all learn from each other. We believe in an open culture where ideas are shared candidly and where there is no fear of failure, but rather an understanding that we must experiment and have the freedom to succeed. We believe that everyone has the right to express themselves as they are as this enriches us all. We believe in an open world, social justice, and the pursuit of happiness, after all, we are in the happiness business.

About Time Out Group

Time Out Group is a global brand that inspires and enables people to experience the best of the city. Time Out launched in London in 1968 to help people discover the best of the city - today it is the only global brand dedicated to city life. Expert journalists curate and create content about the best things to do, see, and eat across over 350 cities in over 50 countries and across a unique multi-platform model spanning both digital and physical channels. Time Out Market is the world’s first editorially curated food and cultural market, bringing a city’s best chefs, restaurateurs and unique cultural experiences together under one roof. There are currently Markets in eleven cities including Lisbon, New York and Dubai, with several new locations expected to open in 2026 and beyond, in addition to a pipeline of further locations in advanced discussions.

Time Out Media’s multiple digital and physical channels span websites, mobile, social media, videos and live events. Across these channels, Time Out distributes its high-quality content – curated and created by a global team of local experts around the best food, culture, art, music, theatre, travel and entertainment in over 350 cities and over 50 countries. The Company is giving international, national and local brands and businesses the opportunity to connect with this global reach and strong traffic from a desirable audience by offering bespoke 360-degree multichannel advertising solutions. Since its launch in 1968, Time Out has become a global brand that advertisers and consumers love and trust.

Time Out Market is the world’s first editorially curated food and cultural market, bringing a city’s best chefs, restaurateurs and cultural experiences together under one roof. From award-winning chefs to much-loved local gems, from cooking classes with top chefs to installations from local artists and live entertainment, Time Out Market captures and celebrates the best of the city. The first Time Out Market opened in 2014 in a historic market hall in Lisbon, quickly turning into one of the most popular destinations in the city. The success of Lisbon brought further expansion, and there are currently thirteen Markets in cities including New York, Montreal, Dubai and Cape Town, with several new locations expected to open in 2026 and beyond, in addition to a pipeline of further locations in advanced discussions.

Time Out is a dynamic, pioneering brand and so is our team. We want to work with the best and brightest talent because we work for the world’s greatest cities, the people enjoying them and the businesses in them. As a truly global team we get to collaborate with the best colleagues from all over the world. It’s our expertise, authenticity and collaboration that make us successful and a unique team.