Sous Chef – Niche Restaurant, Angel
Full-time | Permanent | 45 hours per week
We're looking for an experienced Sous Chef – or an exceptional Junior Sous Chef ready to step up – to join our kitchen team at Niche.
This is a hands-on senior kitchen role. You'll need to be a professionally trained chef who can lead a busy service, cook confidently from scratch, organise yourself and others, and maintain consistently high standards of food and presentation.
About Niche
Niche is an award-winning independent restaurant in the heart of Angel, London, just moments from Sadler's Wells Theatre.
For more than 13 years we've built a reputation that reaches far beyond our restaurant. We were London's first 100% gluten-free restaurant and today we're one of the UK's best-known destinations for free-from and allergy dining.
But we are a restaurant first.
We make almost everything from scratch using fresh ingredients, and flavour, technique, consistency and presentation matter enormously to us.
Our menu is entirely gluten-free, tree nut-free, peanut-free and sesame-free, with dairy-free, vegan and low-FODMAP dishes alongside our core menu.
Working at Niche isn't about limitations. It's about producing exceptional food that every guest can enjoy with confidence.
The role
Working closely with our Head Chef, you'll help lead the day-to-day running of the kitchen and take responsibility in their absence.
You'll be expected to:
- Confidently lead lunch and dinner services
- Maintain consistently high standards of cooking, seasoning and presentation
- Ensure dishes are produced correctly and consistently to specification
- Organise mise en place, preparation and daily kitchen operations
- Support, train and develop junior chefs
- Maintain excellent portion control and minimise waste
- Assist with ordering, stock control, food cost and GP
- Check deliveries, storage, labelling and stock rotation
- Maintain excellent standards of food hygiene, health & safety and allergen control
- Contribute ideas to menu development
- Communicate effectively with both kitchen and front-of-house teams
- Take responsibility for standards when the Head Chef is absent
- Lead from the front and be prepared to get stuck in
We're a relatively small independent restaurant with a busy kitchen. This isn't a role for someone who wants to stand at the pass and delegate everything.
Our senior chefs cook, lead and take responsibility.
About you
You should already be working at Sous Chef, Junior Sous Chef or strong Senior Chef de Partie level in a professional fresh-food kitchen.
We place real importance on proper culinary training as well as practical experience.
You must have completed recognised professional chef training. This could include NVQ Level 1, 2 or 3 in Professional Cookery, City & Guilds, a recognised culinary diploma, professional chef apprenticeship or an equivalent UK or international qualification.
We're looking for someone who:
- Has recognised professional cookery training or has completed a professional chef apprenticeship
- Has at least 3 years' professional kitchen experience
- Has experience at Senior Chef de Partie level or above
- Has strong foundation knowledge of professional cookery
- Understands classical and modern cooking techniques
- Has good knife skills and kitchen discipline
- Is comfortable working with meat, fish, vegetables, sauces, stocks and fresh ingredients
- Understands seasoning, flavour, texture and presentation
- Can confidently lead and organise a busy service
- Has excellent attention to detail and consistently high standards
- Understands food hygiene and allergen control
- Understands stock management, portion control, food cost and waste
- Can organise, support and develop other chefs
- Communicates clearly and treats colleagues professionally
- Remains calm and organised under pressure
- Takes ownership and responsibility for their work
- Is curious about food and wants to continue learning
Experience alone is not a substitute for professional culinary training for this position.
You don't need to be a gluten-free chef
Previous specialist gluten-free or allergen experience is not required – we'll teach you that.
Many of our guests have coeliac disease or serious food allergies and choose Niche because they trust our kitchen.
Every chef therefore receives specialist training in our allergen-control procedures, ingredients and systems.
What matters is having the discipline and attention to detail to follow those systems precisely.
We don't see specialist dietary cooking as restricting what chefs can do. It requires knowledge, creativity and technical understanding to produce excellent food while working within clearly defined parameters.
At Niche, exceptional food and exceptional allergen safety go hand in hand.
What we offer
- Full-time, permanent employment
- Contracted 45-hour week
- Credit card tips paid in addition to salary
- Bright Exchange employee benefits package
- NEST workplace pension
- Employee discounts and offers
- Meals whilst on duty
- Staff discount at Niche
- A sensible, properly managed rota
- Specialist gluten-free and allergen training
- Opportunities to contribute to menu development
- Ongoing professional training and development
- A small team where your contribution genuinely matters
- Genuine opportunities for career progression
Where the role can lead
Niche is growing.
Alongside our established Angel restaurant, the wider business is expanding into delivery, events, retail and other food projects, with further restaurant locations planned.
We want to develop good people from within wherever possible.
For the right Sous Chef, this isn't simply a job beneath a Head Chef. There is a genuine opportunity to progress towards a Head Chef position as the business grows.
Before you apply
Please only apply if you:
- Are currently living in the UK
- Have the legal right to work in the UK without sponsorship
- Have completed recognised professional chef training or an equivalent professional chef apprenticeship
- Have at least 3 years' professional kitchen experience
- Have experience at Senior Chef de Partie level or above
- Are able to work a contracted 45-hour week, including evenings and weekends
- Have a good command of spoken and written English
This is not an entry-level chef position. Professional culinary training and substantial professional kitchen experience are essential.
Unfortunately, we are unable to provide visa sponsorship or consider applications from candidates currently living overseas.
If you're a professionally trained, experienced chef who wants greater responsibility, enjoys cooking properly from fresh ingredients and wants to join an independent restaurant where your contribution will genuinely matter, we'd love to hear from you.
Please apply with your CV and a short covering note telling us about your professional training, the kitchens you've worked in, what you're looking for next and why Niche interests you.
Job Types: Full-time, Permanent
Expected hours: 45 per week
Benefits:
- Bright Exchange employee benefits package
- Company pension
- Employee discounts
- Meals on duty
- Staff discount
- Training and development opportunities
Work authorisation: United Kingdom (required)
Job Types: Full-time, Permanent
Pay: £38,000.00-£40,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Company pension
- Discounted or free food
- Employee discount
- Store discount
Work authorisation:
- United Kingdom (required)
Work Location: In person
