Position: Full time (guaranteed minimum 30 hours per week)
Rate of Pay: £19.25 per hour.
Benefits:
- 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays
- Paid leave day to celebrate your birthday
- Free access to on-site gym facilities at Burleigh Springs
- Free meal on shift
- Christmas closure – enjoy time off over the festive period
- Free on site car parking
- Enrolment into company pension scheme
We have an exciting opportunity for an experienced Lead Chef to join one of the UK's leading conference venue and hotel brands.
Fifty The Street Restaurant is a busy 120-seat hotel restaurant, welcoming both hotel guests and the local community. Known for its high-quality food, excellent drinks offering and welcoming atmosphere, the restaurant delivers memorable dining experiences throughout the day. With a menu that is 50% plant-based, we are committed to offering innovative, sustainable, and flavour-driven dishes that appeal to a diverse range of guests.
As Fifty the Street’s Lead Chef, you will lead the culinary operations of Fifty the Street kitchen, ensuring exceptional food quality, consistency, and guest satisfaction.
You will be responsible for leading and developing your kitchen team, supporting menu creation, managing food costs, maintaining health and safety compliance, and contributing to the commercial success of the restaurant.
What You'll Do
Key responsibilities will be to:
- Support the Head Chef in menu development and design and regularly update menus for Fifty the Street restaurant
- Ensure consistency, quality, and presentation of all dishes to the highest standards and to required timelines
- Ensure full compliance with food safety regulations (e.g., HACCP, Food Hygiene Standards) and train all team on hygiene, food handling, and safety procedures
- Cater for diverse dietary requirements, including allergens, vegetarian, vegan, and special diets
- Oversee daily kitchen operations, ensuring a smooth and efficient service for Fifty the Street
- Support the Head Chef in managing food cost percentages and kitchen budgets, and control portion sizes, waste, and stock levels to maximise profitability
- Implement and maintain standard operating procedures (SOPs)
- Support in planning and coordinating staffing levels and schedule rotas for Fifty the Street
- Train and develop the kitchen team
- Conduct monthly 1:1’s, performance reviews and provide coaching and mentoring to foster a positive, motivated, and high-performing team
- Monitor stock usage and conduct regular inventory checks
- Maintain cleanliness and organisation of kitchen areas
- Conduct regular safety checks and risk assessments
About You
We are looking for someone with excellent culinary skills and creativity, and a proven ability to lead and motivate a team in a fast-paced environment. You will have significant experience as a Sous Chef within a hotel or high street restaurant, together with strong leadership skills.
Alongside your experience managing and developing a kitchen team, you will have excellent communication and interpersonal skills, and a good understanding of food cost control and kitchen operations. You will be passionate about delivering high quality food and maintaining consistently high standards across all areas of the kitchen and restaurant.
About Us
Based at Loughborough University Campus, our brand portfolio includes:
- Burleigh Court Hotel and Conference Centre
- Holywell Park Day Conference Centre
- The Link Hotel
- The Elite Athlete Centre and Hotel
- Loughborough University Nursery
Every year we host over 92,000 delegates from around the world; we service over 90,000 bedrooms; we serve over 200,000 meals; we take over £30 million in enquiries.
With excellent customer service at the core of our offer, we are recognised as a leading academic venue, winning multiple awards and accreditations in customer service, business tourism and people management. We achieve this by putting our guests at the heart of everything we do.
We take workplace engagement seriously and are proud to have been awarded the Best Companies accreditation as very good to work for 2025.
Simply put, we’re trying to make Imago Venues a place where people love to be. We care about our people and we’re kind to each other. We’re ambitious, ethical, sustainable and, most importantly, we’re accountable.
If you're an ambitious and passionate Lead Chef with the ability to deliver outstanding guest experiences, develop high-performing teams, and maintain strong operational partnerships, we'd love to hear from you.
Come join our fabulous team!
To apply for the position, log onto the Imago website
To find out more about the role click here
Closing date: 3rd August 2026
Imago Venues are an Equal Opportunities and Disability Confident Committed Employer
