“I Need A Chef For My Restaurant!” How A Relief Chef Agency Can Help
Are you the manager or owner of a busy pub or hotel restaurant? Between checking inventory levels, sorting rotas, training, juggling suppliers, resolving customer concerns, and maintaining food safety standards, the last thing you need is your current chef calling in sick or handing in their notice.
If you've ever screamed "I need a chef for my restaurant - now!" you'll know the panic that comes with the thought of a restaurant packed with diners and no food coming out of the pass.
Yet hiring a new chef can be daunting - will they have the right skills and personality to protect your restaurant's reputation?
In our latest blog, we're sharing with you how turning to a relief chef agency can solve your urgent kitchen dramas and keep your restaurant open for business.
Where can you find a chef for your restaurant at short notice?
Wondering how to find the right chef for your kitchen?
You don't need us to tell you a good chef can be hard to come by, not to mention one who has the right combination of culinary talent, professionalism and reliability.
Whether it's a head chef, sous chef, or chef de partie you need at short notice, we can help.
Chefs Jobs UK is a temp chef staffing agency (read our blog on why we only do temp recruitment) based in Lancashire and operating nationwide.
We know how fast-paced the hospitality and catering industry is, and how critical the right chef is to the success of your site, especially when it's a new hire (either permanent or temp).
Hiring chefs is our forte. We thoroughly vet each relief chef on our books and match you with an experienced chef that's a good fit for your restaurant.
This means they can slot in easily, pick up the slack quickly, and work in harmony with your restaurant staff and the rest of the kitchen.
What to look for when hiring a temp chef
You want your chef to be able to swoop in and save your kitchen from chaos. So, here's what we look for in a competent chef that fits the bill:
Culinary talent
Passion for food
Work experience in similar settings, so they know how to use your equipment and are familiar with your environment (e.g. if you're part of a chain, we'll reach out to chefs who have worked at another site within your company first)
Reliability - reliable chefs who we know from experience will turn up on time every shift and won't let you down
Ability to work well with current kitchen staff and front of house team
Confidence to come into a kitchen and embrace different menus and cuisines
Fast learning to pick up new menus, equipment, processes, and working practices
Good communication
Problem-solving skills to think on their feet and adapt to the situation at hand
Positive attitude so everyone can work together happily without disruption.
A good relief chef must have all of these qualities for us to send them out to a job.
Do you need to hire someone like this urgently? Speak to our team.
What kind of chef can you send me?
We specialise in supplying head chefs, sous chefs, and chefs de partie on a temporary basis.
This could be a single day or several months, depending on your needs.
What's the hiring process like for a relief chef?
Looking to hire a chef from our brigade?
How the hiring process looks from a site manager's perspective depends on various factors, but here's an example of how it would look for a new client.
Step 1 - if you're a new client, you'll call our team with a vacancy to fill and answer a series of questions about your company and site, then you'll receive a registration form and credit account form to get you set up on our system
Step 2 - you complete the relevant paperwork - we can't send you a chef until we have that back, so this part depends on you, but we will be speaking to chefs in the meantime to let them know we have a potential job for them and see who's suitable and available
Step 3 - once your paperwork is submitted and our finance team has confirmed everything is good to go, we'll let you know if we have an available chef and give you an overview of them, their experience, and their availability to check it fits your requirements
Step 4 - your new chef is booked in and ready to start work!
If you're already registered with us and live on our system, this process is much quicker, but it's pretty fast either way as long as you do your bit and get your paperwork back to us promptly.
How urgently can I get a chef? Can I get one the same day?
Most of our site managers call us needing someone later that week or next week.
Sometimes, we're asked to supply a chef the same or next day.
This is possible if you're set up on our system and we have someone available and ready to go, but it's not guaranteed as there are multiple factors to take into consideration.
A relief chef agency that understands what your restaurant needs
Looking for a chef who can plug a gap within your restaurant in the short-term?
Talk to our experienced and friendly recruitment specialists, Stacie and Adam today.
We have talented chefs on our books waiting for work in the right kitchen - we only hire the best relief chefs from across the UK to come and work in your kitchen.
We know what you look for in a chef and we listen to your specific requirements to help you find the right candidate for every vacancy.
Hire the right chef today and find the perfect solution to keep your restaurant open and your customers happy - speak to us on info@cjuk.co.uk or 01254 355 666.
