Product Developer - Restaurants

Founded in 2003, Wasabi's vision is to lovingly create and serve delicious Asian food for a busy nation. Wasabi now has 41 thriving restaurants across London and major UK cities and 4 in New York. In 2019, we introduced Wasabi Home Bento, the grocery channel, launching exclusively in Sainsbury's. Building on that success, the grocery business broadened its reach to Tesco in September 2022, followed by exciting launches in Co-op and Morrisons in 2024. Wasabi grocery has seen phenomenal growth and is now a £62m RSV brand. Wasabi proudly stands as the No. 2 chilled ready-meal brand in the market, consistently attracting new customers to the category through an innovative East Asian range. Wasabi's menu is celebrated for its unique character, exceptional freshness, and bold flavours. Our diverse range is designed to delight a wide audience, delivering both comfort and excitement with every bite. We have an ambitious 5-year growth strategy, focusing on new restaurants, franchise partnerships, and international expansion.

As we prepare for our next phase of growth and innovation, we have an incredibly exciting opportunity for a Product Developer (Restaurants) to join our Food Team. The role is based in Park Royal with frequent visits to our Restaurants.

The Role:

• Working alongside the Restaurant Senior Product Development Manager (SPDM) and Restaurant Product Development Technologist (PDT), you will support all related product launches from our Central Production Kitchen and location-based restaurant kitchens.
• This is a hands-on role, responsible for both creating new recipes and enhancing existing ones and training new recipes and processes to CPU and restaurant kitchen teams.
• You will collaborate closely with internal departments and key suppliers to deliver high-quality products while ensuring food safety, integrity, and legality.
• You will be involved throughout the full product lifecycle from concept through to launch including planning, recipe development, benchmarking, testing, sample preparation, recipe set-up, training and costings.
• The role also includes sourcing new ingredients, liaising directly with suppliers alongside procurement colleagues, supporting process teams during trials, and assisting the Restaurant Senior Product Development Manager with presentations.
• In addition, you will play a key role in the continuous improvement of our products, working with the Central Production and restaurant operations teams to manage projects through the business gate process and driving quality and innovation across the restaurant menus.

Key Responsibilities:

• Product Development

• Develop new restaurant recipes in line with company strategy, briefs, food vision, nutritional standards, and CPU capabilities with specific focus on restaurant operations restrictions and capabilities.
• Continuously improve existing recipes and processes to enhance quality, cost efficiency, nutrition, and compliance.
• You will have a good understanding of our restaurant operations and target development of product according to limitations and capabilities.
• Support optimisation and growth of the restaurant hot food category through innovation and best practice.
• Conduct competitor benchmarking, gap analysis, and trend monitoring to identify opportunities.
• Test new operations equipment, processes, packaging, and hot-hold times to optimise product quality and service.
• Produce high-quality samples for presentations, photography, tasting sessions, retailer sell-ins, and customer visits.
• Deliver presentations at gate stages alongside the Senior PDM and Product Development Technologist.
• Continuously improve existing recipes and processes to enhance quality, cost efficiency, meeting nutrition targets and compliance.
• Testing new hot hold times to optimise quality, provide records and recommendations.

• Define, write, and maintain recipes, costings, QA specifications, and product attribute documentation.
• Conduct kitchen-level yield, organoleptic, and shelf-life testing of products, ingredients, and packaging.
• Validate and sign off raw ingredients and packaging with procurement and supplier assurance.
• Attend taste panels and positive release tastings, providing feedback and signing off quality prior to launch.
• Regularly visit restaurants and CPU kitchens to review recipe execution, quality, and consistency, making recommendations for improvement.
• Troubleshoot issues and lead corrective actions on recipes, ingredients, or processes either directly in CPU or at restaurant kitchen locations.
• Ensure compliance with all food safety, integrity, and company standards.

• Lead and deliver training of new recipes and processes to CPU and restaurant kitchen teams.
• Support trials, pre-production runs, launches, and handovers to ensure seamless scale up from development to operations.
• Provide post-launch support in site-based restaurant kitchens, ensuring consistent delivery of standards.
• Work closely with restaurant teams to identify quality improvement opportunities and embed best practices in restaurant kitchens and central sushi production kitchen.
• Support marketing and promotional activities, ensuring food is represented to brand standards.
• Support SPDM and Food Director with franchise or company international operations requirements.

• Prepare ingredient sourcing briefs under guidance of the Senior PDM and liaise with suppliers on specifications and amendments.
• Support the Senior Product Development Manager with packaging briefs and related documentation.
• Support procurement and supplier assurance on validation, communication, and corrective action processes.
• Attend supplier visits, food trawls, and food shows to source innovation and strengthen supplier partnerships.

• Share responsibility for maintenance and operation of the development kitchen, including cleaning, restocking, and raw material procurement.
• Attend photography sessions, preparing samples and props supporting marketing team.
• Support hospitality activities for customers, internal events, and high-profile visitors.
• Assist the Senior PDM with packaging briefs, sample preparation, and customer-facing sessions.
• Stay up to date with food trends, competitor activity, and retail market developments.
• Attend training courses as required to maintain knowledge and skills.

Our requirements:

• Previous experience as a Product Developer within the food manufacturing and QSR industry.
• Proven background in short shelf-life chilled products within a manufacturing and QSR environment (essential).
• Degree in a food-related discipline (e.g., Food Science, Food Technology, Home Economics) preferred.
• Strong knowledge of food, ingredients, and culinary practices.
• Awareness of food trends; knowledge of East and Southeast Asian cuisine advantageous but not essential.
• Passion for great-tasting food.
• Self-motivated, enthusiastic, and proactive with strong industry awareness.
• Excellent communication skills, able to interact effectively at all levels.
• Highly organised and methodical, with the ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously.
• Strong planning skills with exceptional attention to detail.
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, dynamic environment.

In return we provide:

• A great working environment.
• Pension scheme.
• Target Bonus.
• Refer A Friend Scheme.
• Free Sushi or hot food (vegan options available).
• 50% discount in our Branches.
• Employee Assistant Programme.
• Hybrid working model.
• Long Service Awards.
• Wagestream - a financial wellbeing benefit that lets you access your pay as you earn it in real time and manage savings.
• Life Assurance.
• Electric Vehicle Scheme through Octopus.
• Cycle To Work.
• Free on-site parking.
• A variety of discounts (shopping, food & drink, entertainment and health & fitness) through Perkbox.
• The opportunity to develop your skills within a growing company.

Our people make us who we are. Join a company where you'll have the opportunity to work for a growing company and build a real career.

COME ROLL WITH US!