Chef de Partie / Patisserie Chef
Ajé Cafe and Studio, Ilkley
Three Full-Time, Salaried Positions | Start date: Approximately 21st September 2026
Ajé is a new independent restaurant, café and wellness space opening in Ilkley, and we’re currently looking for three chefs to join our opening kitchen team: Two Chef de Partie and a Patisserie Chef.
These are separate full-time positions, but we’re advertising them together as we’re looking for the same kind of people: enthusiastic, motivated chefs who care about their craft, work cleanly and professionally, and want to be involved in building a new independent restaurant from the beginning.
Ajé is more than one restaurant service, so our kitchen will work across several different parts of the business.
Ajé by Day is our main daytime restaurant and café, open seven days a week. The menu is contemporary and produce-led, covering breakfast and lunch without falling into standard café food.
The daytime kitchen will be busy. Organisation, preparation and consistency will be critical, but we also want food with personality and a level of detail that sets Ajé apart from a conventional daytime operation.
Pastry will form an important part of this offer too, with cakes, baked items and desserts produced in-house rather than relying on a generic bought-in counter.
Ajé by Night runs on Friday and Saturday evenings, when the space becomes a more intimate, reservations-led restaurant with a chef-driven à la carte menu.
The cooking becomes more detailed and technically considered, with a strong focus on Yorkshire produce, seasonality and Mediterranean influence.
Our kitchen team will have the opportunity to work across both services, giving chefs exposure to high-volume daytime cooking as well as a more detailed evening restaurant environment.
Ajé Cellar is our informal wine and drinks offer, centred around interesting bottles, sherry and cocktails alongside charcuterie, cheese and small plates.
The food is simpler in format but held to exactly the same standards, with a focus on excellent sourcing, preservation, preparation and food that naturally belongs alongside a good bottle of wine.
Alongside the hospitality business sits the Ajé yoga and wellness studio.
The studio will influence some of our daytime audience, but Ajé is not a health café. The food will be balanced, seasonal and produce-focused while still being generous, interesting and enjoyable.
Cake will still be cake.
Chef de Partie
As Chef de Partie, you’ll take responsibility for your section and work closely with the Head Chef and wider kitchen team.
You’ll be involved in preparation, service, stock rotation, ordering, cleaning and the day-to-day organisation of your section.
You’ll need to know your mise en place, understand your prep levels and be ready for service without needing to be chased.
We’re looking for someone who can work accurately at speed, communicate properly during service and maintain the same standards whether the kitchen is quiet or completely full.
You’ll have opportunities to work across different sections, develop new skills and become involved in menu development as you progress.
For the Chef de Partie position, we’re looking for someone who:
- Has experience as a Chef de Partie or strong Demi Chef de Partie in a good restaurant, hotel or quality independent kitchen.
- Has strong basic cooking skills and sound technical foundations.
- Is comfortable taking responsibility for a section.
- Is organised and takes preparation seriously.
- Works cleanly, quickly and consistently.
- Understands seasoning, presentation and attention to detail.
- Has a good understanding of food safety and kitchen hygiene.
- Enjoys working with fresh, seasonal produce.
- Understands stock rotation, waste and food cost.
- Communicates well and supports the chefs around them.
- Is calm under pressure.
- Wants to learn, develop and progress.
Patisserie Chef
As Patisserie Chef, you’ll take responsibility for pastry production across Ajé, working closely with the Head Chef and wider kitchen team.
The role will cover both daytime patisserie and evening restaurant desserts.
That means cakes, baked items and sweet elements for Ajé by Day alongside plated desserts, pastry components, petit fours and seasonal development for Ajé by Night.
We want the pastry offer to feel like part of the restaurant rather than a separate collection of standard café cakes.
There will be familiar things done extremely well, but also room for interesting flavours, strong seasonal ingredients and your own ideas.
This is a position with genuine creative input.
There is already a clear direction for Ajé's food, but we want the person responsible for pastry to help develop it rather than simply reproduce a fixed collection of recipes.
For the Patisserie Chef position, we’re looking for someone who:
- Has professional pastry or patisserie experience within a good restaurant, hotel, bakery or quality independent business.
- Has strong technical foundations in pastry and baking.
- Is confident producing cakes and daytime patisserie.
- Has experience with, or a strong interest in, plated restaurant desserts.
- Understands the importance of accurate recipes, weights, temperatures and timings.
- Is extremely organised and able to manage their own production.
- Works cleanly and maintains a well-organised section.
- Understands yield, wastage, stock rotation and food cost.
- Enjoys working seasonally.
- Wants to contribute ideas and develop new dishes.
- Is precise without losing sight of the fact that food still needs to be enjoyable.
- Wants to continue developing professionally.
For both roles
We’re looking for chefs with high standards, but without unnecessary ego.
You don’t need to arrive knowing everything.
What matters is having strong foundations, taking responsibility for your work and genuinely wanting to become better at what you do.
You’ll work closely with the Head Chef and owners, with continual development and opportunities to contribute to dishes, seasonal menu changes and the evolution of Ajé as the business grows.
We want a kitchen that is ambitious and disciplined without recreating the outdated culture that has existed in too many professional kitchens.
High standards are expected.
Shouting and unnecessary hierarchy are not.
What we offer
- Full-time salaried positions.
- The opportunity to join a new independent restaurant from opening.
- Genuine involvement in menu development.
- Experience across both daytime and evening restaurant service.
- Quality ingredients and a strong focus on independent and seasonal sourcing.
- Continual professional training and development.
- Opportunities to progress within the kitchen.
- Meal while on shift.
- Shared tips throughout the team, distributed according to hours worked.
- Staff discount across Ajé.
- Free yoga classes or discounted studio membership.
- Workplace pension.
- Statutory holiday entitlement.
We’re building a small, ambitious kitchen team of people who care about food, enjoy what they do and take pride in the details.
Whether your strength is behind the stove or on the pastry section, if you want to be part of establishing something new and have genuine influence over the food you produce, we’d like to hear from you.
Please apply with your CV and a short introduction/cover letter telling us which position you are applying for, a little about your experience, the areas of cooking or pastry you most enjoy and why Ajé interests you.
Pay: £28,000.00 per year
Work Location: In person
