About the Restaurant:

A prestigious fine dining destination located in Hong Kong’s Victoria Dockside arts and cultural district, offering breathtaking views of Hong Kong Island. Renowned for its exceptional culinary experiences, the restaurant blends contemporary elegance with classic techniques, providing guests with innovative dishes, meticulously crafted menus, and an immersive dining environment. The establishment emphasizes creativity, precision, and excellence, consistently delivering a world-class hospitality experience that exceeds expectations.

Role Purpose:

As Head Chef, you will lead and mentor a talented kitchen team, ensuring that every dish is prepared, cooked, and presented to the highest culinary standards. Your leadership will uphold exceptional quality across all aspects of the menu, drive operational excellence, and achieve KPIs aligned with the restaurant’s vision and values. You will also cultivate a culture of creativity, precision, and excellence while ensuring compliance with health and safety regulations and delivering outstanding culinary experiences for every guest.

Key Accountabilities:

Lead the kitchen to ensure its profit margin and targets are met.
Coach and develop Sous Chefs and CDPs to ensure their skills continually improve, leading by example.
Update the teams on business performance, new initiatives, and other pertinent issues.
Check the kitchen for standards regularly, ensuring that all audits and temperature checks are completed.
Chair regular meetings with the brigade.
Take ownership of stocktake and provide feedback on key indicators to the Executive Chef.
Engage with suppliers to ensure they deliver the best products and service.
Own monthly reporting for your kitchen, communicating highlights, lowlights, opportunities, and risks for the period.
Complete and deliver monthly one-to-one reviews in line with Company Objectives, Vision, and Values, using this time to set and review individual objectives.
Communicate effectively, ensuring that teams remain aware of the menu and can source the correct ingredients.
Demonstrate strong planning, organising, and time management to drive operational execution across the department.
Monitor and maintain inventory, follow up on discrepancies, and ensure full stock and ingredient availability.
Ensure adherence to company policies, controls, and standards (e.g., due diligence, cleanliness, cash handling, H&S, dress code standards).
Develop strong working relationships with internal and external stakeholders to influence key commercial decisions.
Maintain awareness of market trends in the retail industry, understanding forthcoming customer initiatives and monitoring competitor activity.

Performance Indicators:

Sales vs. forecast, Profit margin vs. Budget and Wastage.
Labour turnover rate, follow through on outcomes from MDR meetings & discussions, Performance reviews submitted, ATR management.
Roles filled through succession, Absence % / £ / hours lost, Internal succession plan, Outstanding RTWs.
Payroll to sales ratio, Customer feedback, Health & Safety standards.
Profit measures, Compliance audit result, Dump stock take results.
Trading performance.
Ongoing feedback from line managers, peers, and team; feedback from senior management / regular kitchen and health & safety audits.
Follow through from team meetings and people discussions, Team members promoted, Team commitment to attend training.
Feedback from listening groups and other areas of the business, e.g., employee survey results.

Health and Safety:

Ensure correct food practices are followed in the preparation and serving of all food and drinks.
Ensure food safety is maintained during all stages of food preparation, storage, and cooking.
Forecast and review risks and opportunities on a quarterly and half-year basis.
Carry out regular checks on food deliveries, especially frozen and ambient food.
Conduct regular checks on fridges, cupboards, and all food storage areas.
Ensure all produce is in date and stored at the correct temperatures.
Ensure correct processes are followed for receipt, storage, and dispatch of foods.
Work with the Health and Safety Executive to maintain our 5-star ratings.
Drive the training of all employees to ensure they understand legal and company standards.
Complete regular audits for cleanliness of the kitchen and equipment.
Ensure all equipment is maintained to the highest standards.
Manage and maintain maintenance contracts so all machinery remains safe and in working order.
Ensure that the kitchen’s audit score remains at 90%.

Customer Experience:

Ensure the presentation of food is right the first time, demonstrating a commercial mindset that responds to customer needs.
Create and take ownership of a clear plan, delivering results on time.
Contribute to choosing the wine list to ensure the best pairings for the menu.
Maintain an inspiring presence with high visibility in operations.
Engage, coach, and develop the team to continually strive for the highest standards.
Continually seek new ways to develop long-lasting customer relationships and exceed expectations.
Develop and share market intelligence, including knowledge of customers, products, and competitors.
Generate winning ideas.
Inspire and develop a commercial mindset across the team.
Think profit contribution and overall business benefit.
Be proactive and tenacious when identifying solutions to grow the business.
Remain accountable for delivering results, considering both short and medium-term opportunities.

People:

Manage and lead through performance management tools and processes.
Set and drive the agenda for briefs, reviewing content and impact.
Deliver feedback and coach the team regularly, recognising achievement and addressing performance.
Identify training needs and influence stakeholders to deliver on them.
Conduct complex disciplinaries, appeals, RTWs, and reviews.
Review monthly/quarterly KPIs, identifying trends and areas for improvement.
Meet monthly with the HR Manager to review people and team standards, trends, and action plans.
Implement a succession plan for the team.
Define team member recruitment by agreeing and communicating profile criteria.
Review employee recruitment to ensure the right people join the right roles.
Coach the team to drive performance and enable change.
Inspire creativity and innovation within the team to support business goals.
Seek and act on feedback to improve the kitchen and the team.
Mentor high-performing team members and identify mentors and mentees.

Operational Standards:

Ensure the smooth running of the kitchen.
Communicate in a confident and friendly manner.
Complete all temperature checks and legislative requirements.
Prepare effectively for food tastings.
Ensure menus are costed correctly and can reach their GP.
Follow recipes to maintain high quality and consistent food standards.
Give timely feedback and challenge appropriately at all levels.
Build rapport effectively to deliver strong solutions and results.
Develop menus aligned with the Company Brand.
Work closely with key business partners, including the Restaurant Manager and HR.
Collaborate flexibly as part of a team.
Develop an “Achieving Together” environment across the restaurant.
Build supportive internal and external relationships.
Prioritise duties while considering the wider business needs.
Create a dynamic team where diverse skills and personalities complement each other.
Actively collaborate with colleagues to improve succession planning and share best practices.

Role Specific Criteria (Experience / Behaviours / Technical Ability)

We expect the successful candidate to have the following skills and experience:

A background in busy and high-volume environments.
Experience overseeing multiple teams.
Strong experience in menu development.
Excellent knowledge of costings and GPs.
An approachable, enthusiastic, and organised manner.
The ability to lead and mentor a large, talented brigade.
Health and Safety and Food Safety certificate level 3 or above.

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