Marie Curie UK
Head Chef
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Experienced and Passionate Chef Wanted for Leadership Role
At Marie Curie Edinburgh Hospice, we're seeking an exceptional Head Chef to lead our dedicated catering team and deliver high-quality, nutritious meals that bring comfort, enjoyment, and dignity to patients, families, visitors, volunteers, and colleagues.
This is a unique opportunity to combine your culinary expertise with inspiring leadership, helping to create a welcoming and supportive environment for everyone who comes through our doors.
Why Join Marie Curie?
Food plays a vital role in the comfort and wellbeing of those receiving hospice care. As our Head Chef, you'll have the opportunity to make a meaningful impact every day, using your skills to create meals that truly matter.
In return, you'll join a caring and supportive team within a respected national charity, where your contribution will be valued, and your work will make a real difference to patients and their families. If you're ready to lead a talented team and use your culinary skills to make every meal count, we'd love to hear from you.
What You Will Be Doing
- Leading the day-to-day operation of the catering department, ensuring the delivery of a high-quality food service for patients, visitors, volunteers, and staff.
- Creating and developing varied, nutritious, and seasonal menus, ensuring all dietary, nutritional, and allergen requirements are met.
- Managing and inspiring a team of catering staff and volunteers, overseeing recruitment, training, development, rota planning, and performance management.
- Ensuring the highest standards of food safety, hygiene, and compliance, including HACCP, COSHH, Natasha's Law, allergen management, and preparation for internal and external audits.
- Managing the catering budget, stock control, procurement, and supplier relationships to deliver an efficient and cost-effective service.
- Building strong relationships with patients, clinical teams, and colleagues to ensure individual dietary needs are understood and catered for, while acting on feedback to continually improve the service.
- Planning and delivering catering for functions, events, and special occasions, while maintaining a safe, welcoming, and professional dining experience across the hospice.
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What We’re Looking For
- Proven experience leading and motivating a catering team within a busy hospitality, healthcare, or catering environment.
- Strong knowledge of current food hygiene legislation, HACCP principles, COSHH regulations, and allergen management requirements.
- Experience managing and developing teams, including staff supervision, training, rota planning, and performance management.
- A recognised catering qualification, such as City & Guilds 706/1 and 706/2 or an equivalent Professional Cookery qualification (SCQF Level 5 or 6).
- A minimum Level 3 Food Handling qualification, along with Basic and Intermediate Food Hygiene certifications.
- Experience delivering high-quality catering services and maintaining exceptional standards of food quality, safety, and customer service.
- A positive, flexible, and proactive approach, with excellent organisational skills and the ability to adapt to changing priorities.
- A collaborative team player who can build strong relationships with colleagues, patients, volunteers, and visitors.
- A commitment to continuous professional development and a willingness to work towards higher-level catering and management qualifications.
Please See the Full Job Description Here:
What’s in it for me?
- Salary: Marie Curie Clinical Pay Scale Band 5 £34,544 to £43,039 per annum plus enhancements
- Contract: Permanent 37.5 hours per week. Shift patterns which will include some weekends
- Based: Marie Curie Edinburgh Hospice, Frogston Road West EH10 7DR
Benefits You’ll Love
- Annual leave allowance 27 days plus 10 public holidays (pro rata)
- Competitive Policy for parental/sick Leave
- Continuous Professional Development
- Industry-leading training programs
- Season ticket loan for travelling to and from work
- Defined contribution schemes for Pension
- Marie Curie Group Personal Pension Scheme
- Loan schemes for bikes; computers and satellite navigation systems
- Introduce a friend scheme
- Help with eyecare cost
- Entitled to Marie Curie Blue Light Card
- Entitled to Benefit-Hub Discount Scheme
- 15% staff discount in all Marie Curie Shops
- Life assurance – for all employees
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Application Process
- Close date for applications: 23rd August 2026
- Interview Dates: W/C 31st August 2026
- As part of your online application, you will be asked for a CV. Please review both the advert and job description and outline your most relevant skills, experience, and knowledge for the role.
We reserve the right to close this advert early should we receive a sufficient number of applications.
At Marie Curie
Our values are central to everything we do. They guide how we care for people, how we work together, and how we make decisions every day. We are committed to creating a workplace that is safe for everyone — staff and volunteers alike — supportive, inclusive, and rewarding. We take stringent steps to ensure that anyone who joins our organisation is suitable for their roles and is committed to safeguarding all our people from harm. We actively consider our impact on the planet, embedding sustainability into everyday decisions to create a lasting, positive difference for the individuals we care for and the world we share.
We believe everyone should have the opportunity to thrive and fulfil their potential. Marie Curie is deeply committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion, recognising both the social justice imperative and the strength a diverse workforce brings. We actively encourage applications from people of all cultures, perspectives, and lived experiences.
We are happy to make reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process. If you require any support, please contact us at recruitment@mariecurie.org.uk.
Every application we receive is personally reviewed by a member of our Talent Acquisition team, and in return, we ask that your application authentically reflects you — your experience, perspective, and voice.
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