Executive Chef - Group culinary leadership across Sheffield, North Derbyshire and the Peak District
Location - Multi-site across The Peak District, North Derbyshire & South Yorkshire
Contract - Full-time, permanent
Reporting to - Group Operations Director
Leadership scope - Venue Head Chefs, Kitchen Managers and food-production leads
Package - Competitive salary; bonus and benefits to be confirmed
Travel - Regular independent travel between rural and city-edge venues is essential
THE MANDATE Lead the food direction, standards, commercial performance and kitchen talent across a diverse, growing portfolio - without flattening the identity that makes each venue worth visiting.
About The Northern Collective
The Northern Collective is an independent hospitality, retail and leisure group based across Sheffield, North Derbyshire and the Peak District. Its stated aim is to create exceptional, memorable guest experiences through a collection that ranges from contemporary dining and characterful pubs to coffee shops, fresh bakery, wine merchants, wood fired pizza and smash burgers.
The food estate is deliberately varied. This role must create the shared disciplines of a group - safety, recipes, purchasing, training, margin and execution - while giving each venue a clear culinary point of view and the freedom to serve its own community and occasion.
Portfolio at a glance:
Destination dining
Bank House Hathersage; The Dore Bar & Grill
Seasonal, contemporary food; broad day parts and occasion-led menus.
Pubs & stays
The Cross Scythes Totley; The Little John Hathersage
Elevated and traditional pub food, Sunday trade, breakfast and local hospitality.
Wine & courtyard
Vintners on the Brook; Peak Pizza Co
Seasonal small plates, charcuterie and hand-made wood-fired Neapolitan-style pizza.
Cafés, bakery & retail
Castleton Coffee Co; Peveril Stores & Bakery; Castleton Kitchen
Speciality coffee, fresh bakes, grab-and-go lunches, hot food and visitor-centre service.
Fast casual
Peak Burger Co
Fresh-to-order smash burgers using regional beef and high-welfare British chicken.
Role purpose
The Executive Chef is the senior culinary leader for the named portfolio. Working with the executive team, venue General Managers and kitchen leaders, they will set the group food strategy, establish practical operating standards, develop people and deliver menus that guests want to return for and the business can execute profitably.
This is a visible, hands-on, multi-site role. It combines creative authority with coaching, commercial analysis, rigorous food-safety ownership and calm intervention during live service. The Executive Chef is accountable for turning strong individual offers into a consistently excellent culinary portfolio.
Review-informed priorities
Across the public feedback sampled, guests repeatedly value flavour, freshness, presentation, friendly teams, atmosphere, local character, good coffee and bakery, inclusive choices and a sense of value. The opportunity is to make those strengths dependable at every service and every site.
- Consistency under pressure. Build routines that protect taste, temperature, presentation and portioning during weekends, holidays, Sunday service and seasonal tourism peaks.
- Pace without compromise. Improve prep planning, pass discipline, queue management and kitchen-to-floor communication so waits are anticipated, controlled and honestly communicated.
- Freshness by design. Set clear production, shelf-life, holding and waste controls across restaurant, bakery, grab-and-go and takeaway formats.
- Value and choice. Balance quality, portions, price architecture and vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options in ways each venue can execute safely and confidently.
- Distinct concepts, shared backbone. Keep Bank House, the pubs, the wine courtyard, cafés, bakery, pizza and burger brands recognisably different while standardising what guests should never have to notice.
- Feedback into action. Use reviews, complaints, remakes, refunds and direct guest comments as operational data, with owners and deadlines for recurring issues.
Key accountabilitiesCulinary strategy and brand
- Create and deliver a 12-month group culinary plan, seasonal menu calendar and clear food proposition for every venue.
- Partner with venue chefs to develop menus that fit the brand, guest occasion, equipment, team capability, service model and price point.
- Own recipe development, tastings and launch sign-off; issue usable recipe cards covering yield, portion, method, plating, allergens, shelf-life and cost.
- Champion the best of local and seasonal produce while retaining pragmatic access to specialist ingredients where they improve the offer.
- Set the standard for flavour, presentation and product storytelling, from award-winning restaurant plates to coffee-shop bakes and fast-casual food.
Operational excellence and guest experience
- Spend meaningful time in every venue, including live services, and coach kitchen leaders through observation, tasting and practical problem-solving.
- Introduce a concise, evidence-based culinary audit covering mise en place, recipe compliance, food quality, temperature, pass standards, cleanliness, equipment and close-down.
- Set service-time expectations by format and use ticket data, observation and guest feedback to improve flow without driving unsafe shortcuts.
- Align kitchen and front-of-house teams on menu knowledge, availability, allergens, pacing, upselling and recovery when something goes wrong.
- Create robust peak-trading plans for weekends, bank holidays, events, Sunday lunch, school holidays and visitor surges in the Peak District.
- Lead root-cause reviews for recurring food complaints, stock-outs, remakes and service failures; track corrective actions to completion.
Commercial performance and supply chain
- Own food gross profit, menu contribution, portion cost, waste, stock variance and controllable kitchen spend with Finance and Operations.
- Use menu engineering and sales mix to protect guest value and culinary identity while improving profitability and reducing unnecessary complexity.
- Build accurate forecasts, pars and production plans that reflect weather, seasonality, reservations, events and local visitor patterns.
- Develop supplier relationships, specifications and contingency plans; negotiate with integrity and monitor quality, availability, provenance and service.
- Identify sensible cross-group buying, preparation or specification opportunities only where they strengthen quality, safety or value.
- Contribute to budgets, kitchen capital plans, equipment selection and make-versus-buy decisions with clear commercial cases.
People, culture and capability
- Help recruit, lead and retain strong Head Chefs, Kitchen Managers and food leads who can own standards in the Executive Chef's absence.
- Set clear expectations and review rhythms; give direct, respectful feedback and recognise excellent craft, leadership and teamwork.
- Build a structured culinary training pathway covering induction, core skills, recipes, allergens, food safety, leadership and commercial literacy.
- Create succession plans and cross-site development opportunities so growth does not depend on one individual or one kitchen.
- Model the group's people-first values through visible leadership, fair decisions, safe working practices and a calm, no-ego kitchen culture.
Food safety, allergens and workplace safety
- Act as the senior culinary owner of the food-safety management system across all relevant formats, with clear site-level accountability and escalation.
- Ensure documented HACCP-based controls cover purchasing, delivery, storage, preparation, cooking, cooling, holding, transport, service and recall.
- Maintain accurate allergen information and effective controls for made-to-order, takeaway and prepacked-for-direct-sale food, supported by training and verification.
- Lead readiness for environmental-health visits, internal audits and incident response; close corrective actions promptly and learn across the group.
- Work with Operations to control kitchen risks including slips, knives, manual handling, hot equipment, chemicals, ventilation and solid-fuel or wood-fired appliances.
Growth and innovation
- Support new openings and major refurbishments from concept, menu and kitchen workflow through recruitment, training, soft launch and stabilisation.
- Build an evidence-led innovation pipeline spanning seasonal dishes, events, retail lines, grab-and-go, bakery, breakfast and fast casual.
- Pilot before scaling, with clear quality, capacity, allergen, waste, labour and margin tests.
- Represent the group credibly with suppliers, local producers, industry partners, media and community stakeholders when required.
How success will be measured
Specific targets should be agreed after the initial baseline. The balanced scorecard should include:
- Guest food sentiment and venue-level review trends, with recurring complaint themes demonstrably reduced.
- Food quality and recipe-compliance audit results across every venue and daypart.
- Food gross profit, menu contribution and kitchen controllable costs against agreed budgets.
- Waste, stock variance, remakes, refunds, stock-outs and product availability.
- Ticket-time performance and kitchen-to-floor pacing during normal and peak services.
- Food-safety, allergen and workplace-safety audit outcomes; incidents and corrective-action closure.
- Culinary team retention, absence, completion of training, internal progression and succession coverage.
- On-time, on-budget menu launches with successful team sign-off and stable post-launch execution.
First-year outcomes
Horizon
Expected outcome
First 30 days
Listen and baseline: visit every venue in live service, meet teams and suppliers, audit menus, recipes, food safety, labour, waste, equipment and guest-feedback themes.
Days 31-90
Stabilise the essentials: agree non-negotiable product and pass standards, address urgent safety or consistency risks, set the review rhythm and deliver visible quick wins.
Months 4-6
Build the system: launch the group culinary calendar, menu-engineering cycle, recipe and allergen library, training pathway and supplier-continuity plan.
Months 7-12
Prove sustainable improvement: deliver seasonal launches, stronger guest sentiment and commercial performance, a credible succession bench and a funded year-two culinary plan.
Experience and qualificationsEssential
- Substantial experience as an Executive Chef, Group Executive Chef, Culinary Director or senior multi-site Head Chef in a fresh-food hospitality business.
- A strong record of improving culinary consistency across more than one site while respecting different brands or trading formats.
- Credible menu-development and recipe-specification skills, with the ability to move from concept to repeatable service execution.
- Strong command of food margin, menu engineering, labour productivity, stock, waste and supplier management.
- Demonstrable leadership of Head Chefs and kitchen teams through recruitment, coaching, performance management and succession planning.
- Up-to-date working knowledge of HACCP-based food-safety systems, allergen controls and food labelling relevant to restaurant, takeaway and retail food.
- A recognised Level 3 Food Safety qualification or higher, or a commitment to refresh equivalent certification immediately on appointment.
- Experience managing busy services and seasonal demand without compromising safety, quality or team culture.
- Ability to travel reliably and frequently between venues in Sheffield and the Peak District.
Desirable
- Experience spanning premium casual dining, pub food, breakfast, café/bakery, grab-and-go, events or fast casual; depth in several is more important than superficial exposure to all.
- Opening or relaunch experience, including kitchen design, menu commissioning, recruitment and post-opening stabilisation.
- Experience with wood-fired pizza, PPDS food, bakery retail or accommodation breakfast operations.
- A Level 4 Food Safety qualification, formal allergen training, or recognised training/assessor capability.
- Established relationships with quality producers in Derbyshire, South Yorkshire or the wider North of England.
Leadership profile
- People-led. Builds trust, develops others and creates kitchens where high standards and respect reinforce one another.
- Passionate about product. Can discuss provenance and flavour, then translate that passion into recipes, training and repeatability.
- Proud of the detail. Notices the plate, the fridge label, the prep list, the margin and the guest comment - and knows which one to address first.
- Commercially grounded. Treats cost and capacity as design constraints, not reasons to lower standards.
- Calm and accountable. Leads visibly during pressure, owns misses and follows through on corrective action.
- Curious, not formulaic. Creates shared systems without imposing one menu, one aesthetic or one service style on every venue.
Working pattern and practical requirements
- This is a full-time senior operational role with regular presence in venues, not a head-office-only post.
- The pattern will include early starts, evenings, weekends and bank holidays when leadership presence is most valuable, balanced through disciplined planning.
- Regular travel between Hathersage, Castleton, Totley and Dore is required; some locations and service periods have limited public transport.
- The role requires safe physical participation in kitchen environments and the ability to work around heat, noise, allergens and busy service conditions, with reasonable adjustments considered.
CVs with covering letters can be sent directly to [email protected] or applications received through Indeed and other applicable job boards.
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Pay: £50,000.00-£60,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Company events
- Company pension
- Discounted or free food
- Employee discount
- Free parking
- On-site parking
- Store discount
Work Location: In person
