Catering Manager

About us

Great Catering and Hospitality is at the heart of brilliant Residential Outdoor Activity programmes. We are looking for an experienced caterer to lead our catering team, and to ensure that our customers are well fed so that they can enjoy active days outdoors.

Portland Outdoor Centre provides residential outdoor experiences to school and youth groups and can accommodate approximate 130 visitors at a time. We want to provide tasty and nutritious meals that our fuel our groups through their stay.

The successful applicant will enjoy interacting with people, young and old and provide welcoming hospitality for all. They will also be able to run and organise a commercial catering operation maintaining high food quality and hygiene standards as well as managing costs.

The Catering Manager may also be called to assist with some housekeeping, particularly on change over days when the whole staff team reset the accommodation for the next group.

Job Role

Position: Permanent

Different contract formats could be available:

Predominantly term time only with limited requirement to work in school holidays.

Annualised hours contract averaging 35 hours a week with more hours required Term time March to end October and less at other times.

Salary: £31,000 pro rata based on average of 35 hours a week

The successful candidate will:

Look after our Customers

• Help us provide excellent hospitality at all times to our customers
• Prepare, cook and present food and drinks quickly and efficiently, establishing and meeting in house standards.
• Manage dietary requirements.

Look after the team and be part of the bigger team

• Contribute to the development of the catering provision including evening and community events.
• Lead, manage, recruit and train the catering team, maintain optimal staffing levels and quality standards.
• Support the work of Portland Outdoor Centre with catering and be a key part of the overall success and development of the centre.
• Have a flexible approach to working hours.

Manage the kitchen

• Manage all kitchen related office administration.
• Maintain accurate food ordering, stocking levels & monitoring, including all kitchen materials.
• Manage pricing and costs.
• Maintain and develop meal options that fit with the customer base.
• Ensure that the kitchen operations comply with all the company's and statutory requirements including Health and Safety at Work Act and Food Hygiene Regulations.
• Work and manage others to work, safely around kitchen equipment.
• Monitor and deal with any maintenance issues.

Qualifications and Experience

The ideal candidate will have a strong background in catering, will hold a relevant catering qualification and be passionate about food, standards and results.

You will have at least a years experience in a senior position and have a proven ability to motivate, manage and develop the team around you. You will be able demonstrate a history of providing high quality food under time pressure.

Hours

Key for this role is to ensure the catering for our residential groups (predominantly) between March and October. We are willing to shape an annual work pattern with the successful candidate that works for all. Holidays are likely to be restricted to predominantly school holiday periods and the winter months.

We serve a cooked breakfast, packed lunch and cooked evening meal. We aim to organise shifts each day for the catering team so that people are either working the morning shift approx 06:30am to 12:00 am or the evening shift approx. 3:30pm to 8:00pm with some hours each week assisting with the general housekeeping as well. As the manager we would expect that you would lead some of the shifts and provide the continuity between shifts.

Most of the work is Monday to Friday with a few Saturdays and Sunday mornings in the peak season.

Job Type: Full-time

Pay: £31,000.00 per year

Experience:

• Catering management: 1 year (required)

Work Location: In person