Head Chef

Wither Hills is an icon of the New Zealand wine industry – with our Cellar Door venue one of the most visited in the Marlborough region. Wither Hills adjoining Restaurant is now on the lookout for an experienced, passionate, talented Head Chef who wants to be part of a fun, committed, and experienced team.

This is a Permanent Full-Time position working 40 hours per week between Monday to Sunday, the restaurant's regular trading hours are Monday to Sunday lunch only with dinner service on Friday & Saturday evenings & occasional night events. 

Based out of Blenheim and reporting to the Hospitality Operations Manager, this is an excellent leadership opportunity to lead a small team with a focus on safety, quality, process excellence, culture and brand experience.

Your key responsibilities are:

• Deliver a balanced, costed and consistently excellent accessible menu that is site appropriate and will appeal to our customer base.
• Organise the preparation and workflow for a la carte, event and function menus concurrently within the resource parameters available.
• Maintain knowledge of current and emerging trends to produce products that impact business opportunities through research, development, and technical excellence.
• Drive a continuous improvement ethos within the kitchen department and support the development of staff professionally and technically.
• Establish, train, and maintain food safety procedures in accordance with legislative regulations for the production, storage and service of food.
• Conduct quality control inspections to ensure the department adheres to organizational standards, kitchen cleanliness, hygiene standards, food handling and storage standards.

Your experience and qualifications:

• Strong leadership and organisational skills coupled with a passion for mentoring and training.
• Qualifications in food safety management and commercial cookery qualifications (preferably cert 3 & 4)
• A broad and in-depth understanding of hospitality including local and industry trends, commercial management, key suppliers and customers
• Cross-functional agility and is able to easily work with other key stakeholders and departments to influence outcomes
• Strong technical and learning agility to apply new concepts and continuously improve
• Proven ability to motivate and inspire people at all levels to build a high-achieving team.

If you have a true passion for food & wine and being involved in something truly special excites you and you aren’t afraid to roll your sleeves up, please send us your application – we can’t wait to hear from you!