You could work in a city for a tasteless corporate juggernaut and rarely see daylight.
Or…
You could spend your days beside the River Arun, cooking simple, delicious food and helping us build what we think could become one of Sussex’s most enjoyable places to eat.
The Boathouse will move from coffee and pastries into long lunches of handmade pasta, South Coast fish, wood-fired meat and pizza. As the afternoon rolls on, we’ll serve Venetian-inspired cicchetti, excellent-value spritzes and a compact wine list from small-scale producers.
All beside the river in the heart of the South Downs.
We’re looking for a seriously capable Chef de Partie to join us from the beginning.
Someone with strong cooking skills, excellent organisation and a genuine understanding that the best restaurants are often the simplest.
The Food
There will be no printed menu. Each day, we’ll write a short menu on the blackboard, shaped by the season, the weather and what our suppliers have brought us.
It will simply be food we would like to cook and food our customers genuinely want to eat.
Expect:
- Seasonal, impeccably sourced produce
- Italian inspiration without unnecessary complication
- Handmade pasta
- Cicchetti and aperitivo
- Wood-fired meat, fish and pizza
- A pudding trolley
- Generous food at sensible prices
The menu will change regularly, but it will remain familiar, recognisable and good value.
We want to build a busy, lively restaurant that becomes part of people’s regular lives.
Somewhere customers can return for a quick spritz and cicchetti, a bowl of pasta by the river or a long lunch with friends.
The Person
You might already be a strong Chef de Partie looking for a better kitchen.
You might be an experienced Demi Chef de Partie ready to step up.
Either way, you’ll need:
- Excellent basic cooking skills
- Confidence running your own section
- Strong organisation and attention to detail
- A good understanding of ingredients and seasonality
- The ability to work calmly during a busy service
- Pride in maintaining a clean, well-organised kitchen
- Reliability, energy and a sense of humour
- A willingness to learn, contribute ideas and support the wider team
Most importantly, you’ll understand that hospitality is about making people happy.
What You’ll Be Doing
- Preparing and cooking consistently excellent food
- Taking responsibility for your section
- Contributing ideas to the daily blackboard menu
- Working with fresh fish, meat, vegetables, pasta and the wood-fired oven
- Responding intelligently to seasonal produce and daily deliveries
- Supporting and developing junior members of the kitchen team
- Maintaining excellent standards of cleanliness and food safety
- Working closely with the Head Chef and front-of-house team
- Helping create a kitchen culture people genuinely want to be part of
- Helping us build a restaurant customers return to week after week
It will be busy, but it should also be enjoyable.
We want to create the kind of kitchen where people work hard, laugh often, cook properly and feel proud of what they are building.
What We’re Offering
- Competitive salary based on experience
- Share of service charge
- Staff meals
- Employee discount
- On-site parking
- Genuine opportunities to learn and progress
- Significant input into the development of the food
- The chance to join an ambitious independent restaurant from day one
- A beautiful riverside place to work
No corporate nonsense. No endless meetings. No shortcuts.
Just good ingredients, good people, excellent-value spritzes and a daily menu written on the blackboard. If that sounds appealing, we’d love to hear from you.
Please apply with your CV and a brief note telling us a little about yourself and the sort of food you enjoy cooking and eating.
Pay: £34,000.00-£38,000.00 per year
Work Location: In person
