Swissport
Head Chef - Pre-Flight Hospitality - London City Airport
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Head Chef - London City Airport
Do you want to be at the forefront of one of the most exciting and fastest-growing sectors in Travel & Hospitality?
We are seeking candidates to launch our exclusively curated luxury pre-flight experience in the heart of the city. This is an exciting opportunity to lead and join a high-flying team of hospitality professionals and to continually improve the Airport offering to meet our ambition of being the best Travel & Hospitality provider globally.
If you have a passion for delivering world-class guest experience, leading hospitality teams, launching game-changing propositions, and enjoy meeting new faces every day, then this is the role for you.
Operating since 1987, Aspire Lounges are an award-winning hospitality experience, that has grown to become Europe’s largest brand of Pre-Flight Hospitality & second by scale globally. We serve over 6 million+ customers worldwide within 100+ lounges & over 18,000 guests per day. Over 1.2 million guests are within UKI.
We will offer luxurious, contemporary experiences in a comfortable & exclusive atmosphere, first-class personal hospitality & contemporary artisan. With beautifully considered zones for relaxing, refreshing, or working, guests' time will be well spent. Culinary offering and vibe within the space will evolve to suit the time of day or year, be influenced by London’s social calendar, and our guests' needs.
Job Summary
As a Head Chef, you will report to and support the General Manager by leading the daily F&B and kitchen operations. This role ensures the consistent delivery of high-quality food, compliance with food safety standards, and efficient kitchen performance, ensuring the consistent delivery of our People, Place, and Provender hallmarks.
As the dedicated F&B leader, this is a hands-on role, actively involved in food preparation, training, service delivery, order processes, menu development in partnership with Global/Regional F&B Managers, proactively managing the cost of sale, and maintaining a clean, safe, and organized kitchen environment.
Responsibilities
Key Responsibilities
Safety & Compliance
- Ensure full compliance with Food Safety, HACCP, COSHH, and hygiene regulations always.
- Conduct regular kitchen checks via our hygiene system, maintaining accurate records & up-to-date risk assessments to ensure audits are successful.
- Promote a strong food safety culture, addressing hazards, near misses, & maintaining high cleanliness standards across back-of-house disciplines.
- Ensure all team members follow allergen procedures and food handling best practices.
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F&B Proposition, Kitchen Leadership & Team Support
- Support recruitment, onboarding, and training of kitchen team members.
- Lead, motivate, and supervise the F&B / kitchen team to ensure smooth daily operations.
- Plan and allocate tasks effectively, ensuring productivity and adherence to service standards.
- Provide coaching, feedback, and ongoing support to develop team performance.
- Work closely with management to ensure alignment between kitchen & front-of-house operations.
Food Quality & Guest Experience
- Ensure consistent preparation & presentation of food in line with brand standards and positioning.
- Maintain high standards of food quality, freshness, and availability throughout service.
- Respond proactively to guest feedback related to food, making improvements where necessary.
- Take a hands-on approach during busy periods to support service delivery and maintain standards.
Operational Support
- Manage stock levels, including ordering, rotation, & waste control to ensure efficiency & minimize loss.
- Conduct stocktakes and maintain accurate inventory records.
- Ensure kitchen equipment is maintained, clean, and fully operational.
- Support the implementation of and menu innovation, processes, and operational procedures.
Cost & Efficiency Control
- Monitor food costs and wastage.
- Identify opportunities to improve efficiency and reduce unnecessary spend balancing guest experience and commercial objectives.
- Work with management to review performance metrics and drive continuous improvement.
The list is not exhaustive and is not intended to restrict the scope of the job but clearly define a starting point and may vary depending on location and local customer requirements.
Qualifications
Essential Skills
- A hands-on approach with the ability to lead by example in busy kitchen environments across multiple culinary disciplines.
- Proven experience in a culinary leadership role, ideally within premium hospitality, lounges, hotels, or restaurants.
- Strong communication, interpersonal, organizational, and time-management skills, with the ability to engage and influence others.
- Basic IT skills and familiarity with stock or ordering systems.
- Willingness to undertake iLead and Level 3 training qualification (if not already achieved).
- Strong understanding of food safety regulations and kitchen best practices.
- Can communicate clearly with teams to help them understand the company’s strategy & goals.
- Ability to build positive and trusting relationships across teams while working under pressure and manage multiple priorities.
- Embrace an ideas culture to enable teams to create an agile edge.
- Fluent spoken and written English.
- Provide constructive feedback to the culinary team on operational results to ensure service standards are always upheld.
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Desirable Skills
- Experience working in the aviation hospitality operational environment.
- Computer literate, including use of Microsoft Office & Learning Management Systems.
- Experience in training, coaching, or developing teams in a culinary environment.
- Additional languages.
Benefits
- Excellent salary package.
- Holiday purchase scheme.
- Free parking whilst on duty.
- Industry-recognized CPD opportunities and memberships (Institute of Hospitality, UK Hospitality, Aspire Training Academy).
- In-house and external training programs to further develop skills.
- Complimentary meals and soft drinks when on duty.
- Swissport pension scheme with the ability to self-contribute.
- 24-hour employee assistance program.
- Eye test vouchers.
- Death in service salary contribution.
- Discounted retail within the airport.
- Discounted access to Aspire’s network for family and friends.
- Full wardrobe provided.
- Saturday evenings off
To minimize the impact on local residents LCY operates between the following hours which gives Saturday evenings off.
Weekdays – 04:45 to 22:00
Saturday – 04:45 to 13:00
Sunday – 10:30 to 22:30
Public and Bank Holidays – 09:00-22:30
25th December – Closed
Hours worked will be on a roster basis across the week*
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