Field Based | Home Counties, Hampshire & Berkshire
Serving Up Great Memories
Initially offered as a 3-month fixed-term contract, with the opportunity to progress into a permanent role.
An exceptional opportunity has arisen for a passionate and experienced Senior Operations Chef to join Upham Inns.
Operating across 25 diverse managed venues, you'll help deliver brilliant food experiences through four distinct menu formats, alongside locally driven specials, events, breakfasts, dinners, takeaway and buffet menus across our growing collection of premium pubs, inns and steakhouses.
This is a highly visible, field-based role where you will play a critical part in ensuring our kitchens consistently deliver exceptional food, outstanding safety standards and operational excellence.
At Upham Inns, we believe great food starts with brilliant fundamentals. You'll champion everything from the perfect breakfast and stunning daily specials to exceptional steaks and the best Sunday roast for miles around, ensuring every dish reaches our guests exactly as it was developed — first time, every time.
You will take pride in ensuring that our food operation's vital statistics are second to none:
- Outstanding food quality and consistency.
- Industry-leading food safety and compliance standards.
- Five-star guest feedback and kitchen reputation.
- Strong kitchen teams with effective succession plans.
- A healthy talent pipeline of future Sous Chefs and Head Chefs.
- Robust kitchen systems that support safe, profitable and consistent food delivery.
Working closely with our Head Chefs and Operations teams, you will help embed best practice across:
- Stock control and ordering systems.
- Prep and production planning.
- Portion control and specification guides.
- Site-specific cleaning and food safety systems.
- Kitchen organisation and labour efficiency.
- Chef recruitment, development and succession planning.
Developing Great Chefs
A key part of the role will be developing our future culinary talent.
You will support the induction and development of new Head Chefs and Sous Chefs, coach Commis Chefs and Chef de Parties through the ranks, and deliver both structured training programmes and hands-on coaching within our kitchens.
You'll be equally comfortable running an off-site training workshop as you are standing beside a chef during a busy service, helping them improve their skills and confidence.
A Hands-On Operations Role
This is not an office-based position.
We are looking for a chef who leads from the front, is comfortable rolling up their sleeves and stepping into any of our kitchens when support is needed. Whether covering absence, supporting a new opening, coaching a team through a busy weekend or helping deliver service during peak trading periods, you'll be a visible and hands-on presence in our business.
You'll spend your time in chef whites, supporting frontline teams, coaching and developing chefs at every level and helping ensure our kitchens are safe, compliant, profitable and consistently delivering exceptional food experiences.
To truly understand our guest journey and support our teams when it matters most, you'll regularly work across all key dayparts. That means being present for early morning breakfasts, busy lunch services, late-night Friday and Saturday trading and, of course, the perfect Sunday roast. We believe standards are built and maintained during peak trading periods, so you'll be highly visible in our kitchens when the business is at its busiest, providing hands-on support, coaching and leadership.
This is a role for someone who prefers chef whites to spreadsheets. Whilst there will always be reports to review, actions to follow up and projects to deliver, your primary place of work will be in our kitchens, shoulder-to-shoulder with our teams, helping them execute safely, consistently and brilliantly.
We are looking for a true operations chef who gains satisfaction from seeing a service run flawlessly, developing great people and delivering exceptional food experiences for our guests.
What We're Looking For
- Proven experience as a Head Chef, Executive Chef, Operations Chef or Multi-Site Chef.
- Experience gained across both branded and independent hospitality businesses would be advantageous.
- Strong operational, commercial and food safety knowledge.
- A passion for developing and coaching chefs at all levels.
- Excellent leadership and communication skills.
- A hands-on approach with a genuine love of being in kitchens.
- Full UK driving licence.
- Flexibility to travel extensively across Hampshire, Berkshire and the Home Counties.
- Willingness to undertake occasional overnight stays.
- Availability to support key trading periods including weekends and peak seasonal events.
Why Upham Inns?
At Upham Inns we're passionate about serving up great memories through heartfelt hospitality, exceptional food and beautiful pubs.
This is a unique opportunity to influence food standards across an entire collection of premium pubs, develop the next generation of great chefs and help shape the future of one of the South's most exciting hospitality businesses.
If you're passionate about food, obsessed with standards and happiest when you're in chef whites helping teams deliver their very best, we'd love to hear from you.
