Production Chef Apprentice

Sala Thai Kitchen
St. Albans (AL3 4ED)
Closes in 19 days (Sunday 25 October 2026 at 11:59pm)
Posted on 5 October 2026

Summary

Sala Thai Kitchen is an award-winning Thai restaurant and cooking school in the heart of St Albans, led by experienced cookery teacher Thippawan Rashleigh. We're looking for an enthusiastic and hardworking Production Chef Apprentice to join our kitchen team.

Wage
£16,926 a year

Training course
Production chef (level 2)

Hours
This role will be shift based, at least 30 hours a week, evening and weekends shifts are necessary.

Start date
Monday 26 October 2026

Duration
1 year

Positions available
1

Work

Most of your apprenticeship is spent working. You’ll learn on the job by getting hands-on experience.

What you'll do at work

This is an excellent opportunity for someone passionate about food to develop professional culinary skills while working in a busy restaurant environment, learning how to prepare, cook and present high-quality dishes while maintaining excellent food safety and hygiene standards.

Key Responsibilities:

• Preparing and cooking dishes to agreed specifications, including authentic Thai dishes and menu items
• Supporting daily food production and service
• Following recipes and portion control procedures to meet quality and budgetary requirements
• Adapting and producing dishes to meet special dietary, religious and allergenic requirements
• Ensuring food safety, personal and kitchen hygiene standards are always maintained
• Assisting with stock management, rotation and ordering
• Maintaining kitchen cleanliness and organisation
• Using specialist kitchen equipment safely and correctly
• Working collaboratively with the wider kitchen team, communicating clearly with colleagues and customers

Where you'll work

5A High Street
St. Albans AL3 4ED

Training

Apprenticeships include time away from working for specialist training. You’ll study to gain professional knowledge and skills.

Training provider
OAKLANDS COLLEGE

Training course
Production chef (level 2)

What you'll learn

• Prepare and cook pre-portioned fresh and frozen meat, fish, and poultry to business standards.
• Prepare and cook fresh and frozen fruit and vegetables to business standards.
• Prepare salad vegetables to business standards.
• Cook poached, simmered, steamed, boiled, braised, stewed, baked, grilled, and fried dishes.
• Regenerate dried and frozen ingredients and dishes.
• Undertake stock control, storage, and rotation.
• Communicate professionally with colleagues, line managers, stakeholders, and customers.
• Work as part of a team to support service delivery.
• Follow specifications to produce, portion, and present food.
• Manage own time to ensure allocated tasks are completed.
• Use techniques for maintaining good mental health and wellbeing to support self and others, including asking for and giving help with daily tasks.
• Use feedback to improve own performance.
• Prepare and close down an area for service.
• Use problem solving techniques to resolve routine and non-routine issues within scope of own role.
• Maintain prep and par levels according to business need.
• Clean and maintain manual and electrical food-preparation and cooking tools, equipment, and technology.
• Follow standard operating procedures to select and safely use appropriate knives and boards for the task, for example red handled knife and red board for raw meat.
• Monitor and record food temperatures and manage allergens during preparation, cooking, holding, and serving.
• Apply hygiene management techniques to maintain a safe clean work environment, for example COSHH, personal hygiene, and uniform.
• Reduce the waste of resources, acting to measure and reduce plate waste, exercise portion control, and maximise yield.
• Comply with health and safety legislation, regulations, guidelines and procedures, including stress management.
• Follow equity, diversity, and inclusion legislation and organisational policies.
• Deliver to key performance indicators to support the production, performance, and budget within own area of responsibility.
• Use manual and electrical food-preparation and cooking tools, equipment, machinery, and technology.