Head Chef
Ajé Cafe and Studio, Ilkley
Full Time | Start date: Approximately 21st September 2026
Ajé is a new independent restaurant, café and wellness space opening in Ilkley, and we’re looking for an exceptional Head Chef to lead the kitchen from the beginning.
This is a hands-on position for someone who wants to cook, lead, organise and build something properly.
We’re looking for a chef who is highly motivated, clinically organised and obsessive about consistency. Someone who can set standards and maintain them, develop people around them and understand that a successful kitchen needs to work commercially as well as creatively.
Ajé is not one restaurant operating one menu, so the Head Chef needs to understand the full business they will be responsible for feeding.
Ajé by Day is our main daytime restaurant and café, open seven days a week. The food is contemporary, produce-led and designed to work equally well for breakfast, lunch and an everyday local audience, without falling into standard café food.
The daytime kitchen needs to be fast, organised and extremely consistent. Volume matters, preparation matters and GP matters. The food should look and taste considered without becoming unnecessarily complicated.
This will form the largest part of the kitchen operation.
Ajé by Night runs on Friday and Saturday evenings and is a very different style of service.
The restaurant becomes more intimate and reservations-led, with a chef-driven à la carte menu focused on strong produce, seasonality, thoughtful technique and confident cooking.
The food will draw heavily on Yorkshire produce while taking influence from the Mediterranean and from the places and food cultures that have shaped Ajé.
We are aiming high with the evening restaurant, but without creating food that feels forced, theatrical or overworked.
We want plates that are interesting because they taste exceptional, not because they need explaining.
Ajé Cellar is our more informal wine and drinks offer, centred around interesting bottles, sherry and cocktails alongside charcuterie, cheese and small plates.
The food here needs to feel simple and generous while still carrying the same standards as the rest of Ajé. Good produce, excellent sourcing, strong preservation and preparation, and dishes that make sense alongside a bottle of wine.
Alongside the hospitality business sits the Ajé yoga and wellness studio.
The Head Chef will not be involved in running the studio, but it is an important part of the overall business and influences the daytime audience and food offer.
Ajé by Day needs to work for someone coming in for coffee and eggs after a class just as comfortably as it does for someone coming specifically for lunch. The food needs to be fresh, balanced and produce-focused without becoming worthy, restrictive or defined as “wellness food”.
The role
You’ll take responsibility for the day-to-day kitchen operation across Ajé.
You’ll lead service, organise prep, manage ordering and stock, maintain food safety and kitchen standards, control waste and food cost, and develop a kitchen team capable of delivering consistently across very different services.
You’ll work closely with the owners, experienced chefs and restauranteurs, on menu development and seasonal changes, with considerable scope to contribute ideas and influence how the food evolves.
This is very much a cooking/service position.
We are not looking for a Head Chef who wants to spend the majority of their week in an office. You’ll be expected to lead from the kitchen, cook alongside your team and understand exactly what is happening during service.
Organisation will be critical.
A seven-day daytime restaurant alongside a two-night evening operation only works if preparation, ordering, staffing and communication are extremely strong.
Creativity is important, but discipline and consistency comes first.
We’re looking for someone who:
- Has experience as a Head Chef, Senior Sous Chef or equivalent in a quality independent restaurant. We are happy to train up the right candidate.
- Is an excellent cook with strong classical foundations and a modern outlook.
- Is genuinely hands-on and wants to remain involved in service.
- Is exceptionally organised and comfortable managing several different food offers from one kitchen.
- Understands food cost, GP, labour, waste and stock control.
- Can write prep systems, rotas and ordering procedures that actually work.
- Has strong knowledge of seasonality, British produce and good sourcing.
- Is comfortable working closely with local butchers, fish suppliers, growers and independent producers.
- Can balance creativity with consistency and commercial reality.
- Understands the difference between simplicity and lack of effort.
- Can train, motivate and develop younger chefs.
- Maintains high standards without creating an aggressive or ego-driven kitchen.
- Is calm under pressure and capable of making good decisions during a difficult service.
- Takes food safety, cleanliness and kitchen organisation seriously.
- Notices problems early and deals with them.
- Wants to help build a restaurant rather than simply inherit someone else’s systems.
We are particularly interested in chefs who have worked within ambitious independent restaurants and understand that high standards do not require unnecessary formality.
You do not need to arrive with every menu already written, we have a full and comprehensive menu to roll out, and have developed a menu to see us well into the new year.
There is already a clear food direction and substantial menu development behind Ajé, but we want the Head Chef to become part of that process rather than simply reproduce somebody else’s ideas.
The right person will be given room to contribute, develop dishes, work directly with suppliers and help shape the kitchen as the business grows.
What we offer
- A genuine Head Chef position in a new independent business.
- The opportunity to lead and help shape the food at Ajé from opening.
- Significant involvement in menu development and sourcing.
- A kitchen built around quality produce and strong independent suppliers.
- Continual professional development.
- 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 team of people who care about hospitality, enjoy what they do and take pride in the details.
The kitchen culture matters just as much as the food.
We want high standards, discipline and accountability, but without shouting, unnecessary hierarchy or the outdated parts of professional kitchens that do nothing to make the food better.
If you’re an ambitious chef who wants real ownership of a kitchen, enjoys leading from the stove and wants to help build an independent restaurant from its first service onwards, we’d like to hear from you.
Please apply with your CV and a short introduction/cover letter telling us a little about yourself, your cooking background, the restaurants that have shaped you and why Ajé interests you.
Pay: £32,000.00-£36,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Discounted or free food
- Employee discount
Work Location: In person
