Are you a passionate cook with a desire to work in a small team creating delicious, hearty meals? Do you love the buzz of a busy kitchen and want your work to make a difference to young peoples school trip experiences? Join the Robinwood Activity Centre team as our new Lead Cook at Barhaugh Hall, near Alston.
What We Offer
A supportive and friendly working environment
Regular Monday - Friday daytime shifts no late-night restaurant hours!
Tax free profit bonus
12 weeks set holiday a year (term-time) including August and Christmas!
Uniform
All meals free of charge
Staff social events
Pension scheme
Training and development opportunities
Beautiful working surroundings in a historic hall and countryside setting
A role that makes a really positive difference to children
What Were Looking For
Experience in a busy kitchen environment, ideally with leadership responsibilities
A genuine love for cooking and working in a team
A strong understanding of food hygiene and kitchen safety
A positive, proactive and customer-focussed attitude
A Level 2 Food Hygiene Certificate (or willingness to obtain one)
Your Pay
The starting rate of pay for this role is £23,377.20 (£15.40 per hour) and is an annualised hours contract of an average of 20 hours per week. There will be opportunities for additional hours to be worked to cover leave. Actual annual earnings are spread evenly across the year, providing consistent monthly pay regardless of seasonal fluctuations in working weeks and holiday. The final pay level will be determined based on the experience and skills of the successful candidate.
Who We Are
We are an award-winning school residential provider offering 3-day, 2-night residential courses for 711-year-olds. We focus on making a really positive difference developing children through adventurous and themed activities and have been doing so, very successfully, for over 30 years. Always looking to the future and striving to improve in whatever way we can for both our customers and our staff, we are proud to announce that we became an employee-owned company in November 2024, a Living Wage Employer in 2023 and were last awarded Investors in People Gold in 2025.
The Role
As a Lead Cook you will be at the heart of the kitchen, reporting to the Catering Manager and supporting them to deliver high quality meals and a smooth-running kitchen. Youll lead by example and motivate a small, friendly catering team and ensure our visiting children and teachers enjoy nutritious, tasty meals throughout their stay.
Key responsibilities:
Supporting the Catering Manager in all aspects of kitchen operations
Leading and motivating the kitchen team during shifts
Positively interacting with customers and providing them an excellent service
Preparing a variety of meals suitable for children and adults
Maintaining excellent standards of food hygiene, safety, and cleanliness
Ensuring special dietary requirements are catered for appropriately
Your Working Week
This is a part-time position with a contract of 20 hours per week. Lead Cooks receive 6 weeks of paid holiday and accrue a further 6 weeks of holiday during their working weeks. This allows for 12 weeks holiday a year, closely following the school holiday dates. These accrued holiday hours means the average working week to be around 30 hours per week.
Monday Friday, no late nights or weekend work
Breakfast shifts start no earlier than 6am
Evening shifts finish no later than 8pm
Friday finish no later than 5pm, but usually 3pm
Timetable is on a 4 week pattern, an example of a two working weeks could be:
Week 1
o Monday 6am 3pm
o Tuesday 6am 3pm
o Wednesday 9am 8pm
o Thursday off
o Friday off
Week 2
o Monday 9.30am 8pm
o Tuesday 7am 8pm
o Wednesday 7am 3pm
o Thursday off
o Friday off
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