Hospital Chef Jobs

Make a difference with your culinary skills! Blue Arrow provides Hospital Chef opportunities where you can help prepare nourishing meals for patients, staff, and visitors. Explore flexible roles that support healthcare environments while advancing your career in hospital catering.

Search 115 vacancies
Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire
Up to £15.29 per hour + Holiday payFull TimeTemporaryHospitality and CateringCustomer Success Hub
We are currently recruiting for a Chef to support our well established client in Milton Keynes. Site Locations & Hours: Thursday and Friday 12.00pm -19.30pm at Brinklow site Saturday & Sunday 06.30am-15:30pm at NDC, Magna Park site Please note you will be required to support across 2...
Ashford, Kent
£15.00 - £18.00 per hourTemporaryHospitality and CateringFull Time The Recruitment CoSchool FriendlyMaidstone
‍ Agency Chefs - Ashford & Canterbury | £15-£18/hour Are you a skilled and flexible Chef looking for varied work across Ashford and Canterbury ? We're recruiting Agency Chefs to join our team, working in a range of exciting environments including schools, care homes, and corporate...
Canterbury, Kent
£15.00 - £18.00 per hourMaidstoneSchool FriendlyHospitality and CateringContract The Recruitment CoFull Time
‍ School Chef - Canterbury | £15-£18/hour | School Hours | Immediate Start We're looking for an experienced and enthusiastic School Chef to join a vibrant school kitchen in Canterbury , starting as soon as possible and working through to Christmas . If you're passionate about preparing...
Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear
£16.00 - £19.00 per annumTemporaryHospitality and CateringNewcastle
Chef Roles Available - Newcastle & Gateshead £16.00 - £19.00 per hour Flexible Shifts Work-Life Balance Are you a talented, passionate chef ready to step away from the high-pressure restaurant grind and into a role that offers stability, purpose, and flexibility? Join our team and bring...
Aberdeen
Up to £15.00 per hourTemporaryHospitality and Catering
We at Blue Arrow can offer our casual workers: * Weekly Pay * Temp to Perm opportunities * Competitive Hourly Rate * Flexible Working - You choose your own shifts * Paid Holiday * Career Guidance What we need from you: * Previous experience in a similar role * Food & Hygiene Certificate (Can...
Edinburgh
£15.00 - £19.50 per annumEdinburghHospitality and CateringTemporary
Temporary Chefs Wanted Across Edinburgh and the Lothians £15 to £19.50 per hour | Flexible Shifts | Weekly Pay Blue Arrow is currently recruiting experienced Temporary Chefs to work across a variety of client sites in Edinburgh and the Lothians . This is a great opportunity for chefs who...
Salisbury, Wiltshire
Up to £16.00 per hour + Work Life BalancePermanentSpecialist Catering PermsHospitality and Catering
️ Chef Wanted - Care Home (Salisbury) Hours: Monday to Friday, 8:00am - 2:00pm Contract: 30 hours per week Pay: £16 per hour Location: Salisbury, Wiltshire We're seeking a dedicated and skilled Chef to join our welcoming care home team, preparing wholesome and tasty meals for our residents. ‍...
Fareham, Hampshire
Up to £15.31 per hour + No evenings or Weekends Hospitality and CateringPermanentSpecialist Catering Perms
Chef - Contract Catering - Fareham - Monday to Friday - £15.31 per hour, 40 hours per week Our client is a leading global provider of contract catering and facilities services across the UK. They are currently seeking an experienced Chef to join their team at a site near Fareham. This is a...
Glasgow
£15.00 - £18.00 per hourHospitality and CateringTemporary
I am currently looking to recruit for Blue Arrow's established team of Chefs in and around the Glasgow and the West of Scotland area. As this role involves temporary assignments you must be flexible with travel and start times. Ideally you have experience in working within contract caterer units...
Inverness, Highlands
£0.00 - £16.00 per hourHospitality and CateringTemporaryInvernessFull Time
Blue Arrow Inverness are currently recruiting for a Chef de Partie, for an ongoing position in Ardersier: * Monday to Friday * £16 p/h * Available To Work 1 Weekend Per Month * Starting Monday 16th October We at Blue Arrow can offer our casual workers: * Weekly Pay * Temp to Perm opportunities...

Working in a hospital kitchen is quite different from working in a high street restaurant, but a Hospital Chef job is a rewarding experience in its own way. Providing nutritious meals for people who are ill or recovering from an operation is an important role for a Hospital Chef or Cook and working in healthcare is a good place to learn more about special dietary needs.

What Does a Hospital Chef Do?

Being a Chef in a hospital requires you to prepare nutritious, appetising food for the patients. There are usually set menus each day but in a hospital setting there will be many people with individual requirements so you need to understand the necessary medical and cultural diets that have to be catered for. There will be patients requiring soft food, others on a low fat or gluten free diet and then there could be vegetarian, kosher and halal meals. You need to know and understand how to prepare and cook all of these.

Most NHS hospitals have quite large commercial kitchens with a catering team of Chefs, Cooks and Assistants, often with a Head Chef overseeing them. As a Hospital Chef you won’t have any contact with the patients but you need to plan the meals and menus according to their needs, which will change each day as patients come and go. Storing food, preparing and cooking meals and plating food, ensuring it stays hot until delivery to the patient, are all part of the everyday tasks in a hospital kitchen environment.

What Are the Requirements for a Hospital Chef?

Most hospitals, whether private or NHS, will require Chefs to have catering experience and a catering qualification. To enter the NHS as a Chef you need to have at least a level 2 catering NVQ. As a step onto the Chef career ladder, there are opportunities within the NHS to begin as a catering assistant and study for qualifications while you work.

Any Hospital Chef or cook needs to enjoy cooking and be physically fit in order to cope with the demands of standing, lifting and working in an often hot and noisy environment. 

Hospital catering staff are required to have a valid DBS dated within the last 12 months and most positions will need you to have a Level 2 Food Hygiene Certificate dated within the last 3 years. 

Working in a hospital environment means you have to be even more vigilant about food hygiene and safety. The people you are cooking for are at higher risk of developing a foodbourne illness if exposed to contaminated food. The most recent case was a listeria outbreak in 2019, affecting patients in hospitals across the UK. Although linked to outside caterers, it is a reminder that hospital catering staff must be extremely attentive to good food hygiene and safety practices. 

Who is a Hospital Chef Job Best Suited for?

Working as a Hospital Chef is suitable for anyone wanting to work in the catering industry with standard hours. You may have to work shifts which can involve early starts, evenings and weekends, but the hours are set and are less likely to overrun as they can in a restaurant or hotel setting. If you are keen to learn more about catering for special diets then being a Hospital Chef is a good job for acquiring that knowledge. There is no other place where you will find such a concentration of people with specific dietary requirements. 

What Are the Advantages of Working in a Hospital Kitchen Environment?

There are private and NHS hospitals in most towns throughout the UK so there will always be a need for Hospital Chefs. The hours are reasonably sociable and although you may have to work different shifts, this flexibility can sometimes be an advantage if you have other commitments. As a Hospital Chef, you will work as part of a cohesive team and there are opportunities to advance your career by taking on a supervisory or management role.