Chef

You will take the lead in hands on cooking, menu design, dish costings, and daily kitchen operations, ensuring that all catering services meet the highest standards of quality, safety, and compliance with food hygiene and health & safety legislation.

• Lead, motivate and support the catering team to deliver outstanding food and service.
• Plan and prepare balanced, appealing menus for patients, staff, and visitors, ensuring dietary and cultural needs are met.
• Oversee the day to day running of the staff & visitor restaurant and patient meal service.
• Manage food production and portion control, ensuring cost effective use of resources.
• Ensure all catering operations are fully compliant with current food safety, hygiene, and health & safety legislation.
• Support team training and development, fostering a positive and professional working environment.
• Work collaboratively with colleagues to continually improve catering standards and customer satisfaction.

If you're a motivated catering professional who takes pride in great food and great teamwork, we'd love to hear from you. A wide range of staff benefits are available to our staff including staff development, enrolment in the NHS pension scheme, auto enrolment to our Temporary Workforce Service, access to onsite nurseries, staff restaurants and accommodation.

In addition to an internal Occupational Health department, all staff also have access to free psychological support through our confidential Employee Assistance Programme. Onsite parking is available from only £50 a year.

Statement on the Use of AI

We value the individuality that each candidate brings to the application process. While we understand that AI tools are widely available, we strongly discourage applicants from using AI-generated content when applying for jobs with us. We believe that your application should reflect your true skills, experiences, and motivations, which are best conveyed through your own words and unique perspective.

Using AI for your application may not accurately represent your knowledge, skills, and experience and may result in a disconnect between your qualifications and our assessment of your application.

We encourage applicants to take the time to thoughtfully complete your applications; by doing so, you allow us to better understand your true potential and ensure a fair and transparent evaluation of your application. Over reliance on AI-generated content may diminish your chance of success. The healthcare provider of first choice for the people of East Sussex.

Our mission is to:

• Deliver better health outcomes and an excellent experience for everyone we provide with healthcare services.

Our strategic objectives are to:

• Improve quality and clinical outcomes by ensuring that safe patient care is our highest priority.
• Play a leading role in local partnerships to meet the needs of our local population and improve and enhance patients' experiences.
• Use our resources efficiently and effectively for the benefit of our patients and their care to ensure our services are clinically, operationally and financially sustainable.

Our aims are that all services delivered by the Trust are:

• Safe
• Effective
• Caring
• Responsive and
• Well led

We are looking for an enthusiastic and experienced Chef to join our busy and friendly Hospital Catering Department. This is a hands on role where you'll play a vital part in providing nutritious, high quality meals to both patients and visitors, while leading a team committed to delivering excellent service across our hospital site.

We are looking for someone who is:

• Food focused with a genuine passion for creating nutritious, tasty meals.
• Positive and proactive, with excellent organisational and leadership skills.
• Experienced in large scale catering environment.
• Knowledgeable about food safety, allergen management, and HACCP systems.
• Creative and detail oriented, with the ability to design menus that balance quality, cost, and variety.
• A team player, eager to contribute to a department with great potential and a shared commitment to achieving excellent results.

We are one of the largest organisations in East Sussex with an annual income of £700 million and we are the only integrated provider of acute and community care in Sussex.

Our extensive health services are provided by over 8 000+ dedicated members of staff working from two acute hospitals in Hastings and Eastbourne, three community hospitals in Bexhill, Rye and Uckfield, over 100 community sites across East Sussex, and in people's own homes.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) rated us as 'Good' overall, and 'Outstanding' for being Caring and Effective. The Conquest Hospital in Hastings and our Community Services were rated 'Outstanding' and Eastbourne DGH was rated 'Good' Our two acute hospitals have Emergency Departments and provide 24 hour a day care, offering a comprehensive range of surgical, medical, outpatient and maternity services, supported by a full range of diagnostic and therapy services.

• Regular working hours - mainly Monday to Friday, with no late nights.
• The opportunity to make a real difference in the experience and wellbeing of our patients, staff, and visitors.
• Ongoing training and development opportunities within a growing catering service.