Creative Cook / Part-Time Evening Chef
Location: Eliane Café, HungerfordWork type: Part-time, on-siteWorking days: Thursday, Friday and Saturday eveningsPay: Negotiable according to experience, ability and responsibilities
About Eliane
Eliane is an established independent café with a friendly, close-knit team and a strong reputation for freshly prepared food. We make our food in-house using high-quality ingredients, with great care given to flavour, presentation and creativity.
We are now planning to relaunch our evening dinner service on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings, and we are looking for an enthusiastic and creative cook to help us develop it.
The Opportunity
You do not need to be a formally trained chef or have spent years working in restaurants. Professional kitchen experience would be welcome, but it is not essential.
We are equally interested in hearing from a passionate and confident home cook who is ready to take their cooking further.
What matters most is that you genuinely love food, enjoy creating dishes and have the confidence and enthusiasm to help us build an evening service from the ground up.
This is not simply a role following the same fixed menu every week. We would like the successful person to contribute ideas and help shape the food we serve.
The menu may change weekly, allowing us to explore different dishes, seasonal ingredients, flavours and styles of food. We are open-minded about the direction of the evening menu and want to find someone who will enjoy developing it with us.
This role could be ideal for:
- An enthusiastic and talented home cook
- Someone with natural cooking ability who wants to gain professional experience
- An experienced chef looking for a creative part-time position
- Someone seeking an enjoyable additional role alongside other work
- A cook who wants the freedom to develop their own dishes and ideas
What You’ll Do
- Help develop creative evening menus with the owners
- Prepare and cook dishes for Thursday, Friday and Saturday dinner services
- Contribute your own ideas, recipes and suggestions
- Produce food that is full of flavour and attractively presented
- Work with changing weekly menus and seasonal ingredients
- Maintain consistent quality and sensible portion control
- Organise preparation and assist with ordering and stock control
- Keep the kitchen clean, organised and compliant with food-safety standards
- Work collaboratively with our friendly kitchen and front-of-house teams
- Help us develop and grow the evening service over time
Who We’re Looking For
We are interested in your passion, confidence and ability—not simply your qualifications or employment history.
You should be:
- Passionate and knowledgeable about food
- Creative and excited about trying new ideas
- Confident preparing and cooking a range of dishes
- Able to produce food consistently during a busy service
- Clean, calm and organised in the kitchen
- Reliable and available on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings
- Comfortable working independently and as part of a team
- Keen to learn, develop and respond to customer feedback
- Excited by the opportunity to help create something new
Working Hours and Pay
This is a part-time position covering Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings. The precise starting and finishing times will be discussed with the successful applicant.
Pay is flexible and will reflect your experience, cooking ability and the level of responsibility you take on. We are also happy to discuss how the role could develop in the future as the evening service becomes established.
If you love cooking, have ideas you would like to explore and want to help build a new dinner service within a welcoming independent café, we would love to hear from you.
Please apply with a short introduction telling us about yourself, what you enjoy cooking and why this opportunity interests you. A traditional restaurant CV is welcome, but it is not essential.
Benefits:
Work Location: In person
