Enterprise Development Head Chef, The Connection at St Martin’s

About Us:

The Connection at St. Martins is based in the heart of London, tucked between Charing Cross Station and Trafalgar Square. The Connection has been helping homeless people since the First World War and is one of London’s largest homelessness charities. We have an annual turnover of £5.2m, a staff team of 100 and around 50 regular volunteers.

This is an exciting time to join the organisation in this role.  We have embarked on a new strategy, have inducted social enterprise into the heart of our organisation and, in doing so, have made a step change in how we work.

The Enterprise Head Chef role will straddle managing the day to day running of the catering function at The Connection with developing a enterprise pipeline of food and drink products and pop-ups and events from the kitchen at The Connection.

Historically The Connection at St Martins has very limited experience of trading and enterprise.  As part of our strategy for 2018-23, we have an ambition to change this.

We will be scaling up our enterprise revenue from less than 1% of our turnover currently to nearer 5% over the next 4 years, with activity from the newly formed Enterprise Kitchen forming a significant portion of this growth.

We want to achieve a mixture of purely profit-making activity alongside activity which creates training and route to work opportunities for clients.

Job Description:

This role will report directly to the Enterprise Development Lead, and the Enterprise Head Chef will be charge with leading the development of all food and drink-based enterprise within the kitchen.

We are developing a broad spectrum of new enterprise activity in the kitchen at The Connection. We will be developing food and drink products in-house to be sold across site and eventually wholesale across London; we will continue to run food pop-ups; we are developing a café prototype to be rolled out in the future; and much more.

Particular focus for this role will be on:

• Working closely with the Enterprise Development lead to build business cases around new kitchen enterprise projects
• Managing and optimising the catering team to both deliver a high-quality diverse menu to our clients as well as incorporating enterprise activity into the workings of the kitchen
• Working across the organisation to incorporate as much client interaction into the kitchen enterprise plans as possible

This is an ideal role for someone who wants to work in a fast paced, cause-driven environment and get a diverse range of opportunities across food and drink based social enterprise. You must be have experience as a Sous or Head Chef; be dynamic and energetic; combine entrepreneurial initiative with a detailed and strategic mind; have good practical skills as well as management experience and have the soft skills to build relationships with colleagues and clients both inside and outside of the kitchen.

Responsibilities:

The Enterprise Head Chef will have day to day responsibility for the entire catering service. In practice this means they will; oversee the catering team and work closely with the catering supervisor to ensure the high-quality delivery of the catering service to CSTM clients; ensure an efficient and high-quality catering service is delivered to CSTM clients; assist the catering team in the design and costing of daily menus; maintain a weekly stock control and monthly inventory of goods and ingredients; oversee the costing, portion control and wastage control of the catering team, mitigating food waste where possible and leading on the sustainability and environmental impact of the kitchen.

In line with any role of this type, there will be an expectation that the Head Chef will engage in the active management and development of their team.

In terms of Enterprise, the Head Chef will support the Enterprise Development Lead across the various food and drink trading opportunities being pursued; engage with and understand the enterprise development plan; proactively research and develop areas where both profit and client interaction with the service can be added; support the administrative work behind each new business opportunity; support a training and employability program for our clients through the CSTM kitchen; design and host all kitchen-based route to work training; and attract and engage clients onto the training program and work alongside them and their various support workers to gain experience, accreditation and, where appropriate, support them into work.

Submit your application via the Apply Now button or our website.