Sous Chef

Eat Ping is a London-based subscription business delivering freshly cooked Asian ready meals to customers' doors. We launched in early 2025 and have grown quickly on the strength of the food: everything is cooked from scratch in our own production kitchen at Karma Kitchen by a close-knit team of c. 11 people, then chilled and delivered to subscribers each week on a rotating menu. We relaunched the brand in August 2026 and are now sharpening the menu around a more distinctly Asian palate, while also beginning to cook for partner brands under contract.

The kitchen is the heart of the business. This hire is about raising the authenticity of what comes out of it.

The role

We are hiring a Sous Chef to be the kitchen's reference point for Chinese and Hong Kong taste. Our Head Chef and Deputy Head Chef run a disciplined, high-volume production kitchen. What they need alongside them is a chef who knows this cuisine from the inside and can bring that knowledge to every dish we make. You will cook on the line as a full member of the core team, and you will use that position to shape how the kitchen seasons, marinades, braises, stir-fries and finishes its Asian dishes, so that a customer who has eaten this food all their life recognises it immediately.

The second half of the role is new product development. You will partner the Head Chef on NPD, bringing a sharper Asian point of view to what goes on the menu next: which dishes, which regional styles, which sauces and techniques translate well to a chilled, reheated meal without losing their

This is a role for a chef who is confident enough in their cuisine to guide more senior colleagues, and generous enough to do it well. There is no line management. Your influence comes from your palate, your technique and your ability to explain both.

What you will do

• Cook on the production line five days a week as part of the core kitchen team, working to standardised recipes, batch sizes, yields and food-safety specifications.
• Act as the kitchen's authority on authentic Chinese and Hong Kong flavour, guiding the Head Chef and Deputy Head Chef on seasoning, sauce building, marinades, wok technique and ingredient selection.
• Own the flavour standard for the Chinese and Hong Kong range: taste dishes at bench and at scale, calibrate seasoning before batches go out, and be the person who confirms a dish tastes right.
• Partner the Head Chef on new product development: propose dishes, run bench trials, write and refine recipes, lead internal tastings, and support scale-up from a test batch to full production.
• Adapt restaurant technique to a ready-meal format: understand how flavour, texture and colour behave through blast-chilling, cold-chain storage and reheating, and adjust recipes so they hold up in the customer's kitchen, not just in ours.
• Advise on ingredient sourcing, identifying the sauces, pastes, dried goods and fresh produce that make the difference, and work with the operations team to secure them at production scale and sensible cost.
• Document recipes and techniques clearly so that authentic method becomes repeatable across the whole team rather than dependent on one person.
• Help assist with portioning of meals on Friday and oversee KA’s
• Uphold food safety and hygiene standards, including allergen control and HACCP, and support the kitchen as it works towards SALSA accreditation.

What we are looking for

• Several years of professional cooking experience in Chinese kitchens, with genuine depth in Cantonese and Hong Kong cuisine. This is the primary criterion and we will test it practically at interview.
• Command of the core techniques: wok cooking and wok hei, braising and master stocks, steaming, Cantonese roast meats, dumpling and dim sum work, sauce building, marinades and velveting.
• A discerning palate and the ability to explain, in plain terms, what makes a dish taste right or wrong and how to fix it.
• Comfort cooking at volume to a consistent standard, and the discipline to work to a written specification.
• The credibility and interpersonal skill to guide experienced colleagues respectfully and to be listened to.
• Level 2 Food Safety and Hygiene, or willingness to obtain it on joining.
• Right to work in the UK – we do not sponsor
• Breadth across other Chinese regional cuisines, for example Sichuan, Hunan, Shanghainese or northern dumpling and noodle traditions, and across other Asian cuisines such as Thai, Malaysian, Japanese or Korean.
• Experience in ready meals, meal kits, contract manufacturing or a central production kitchen, including an understanding of shelf life and chill-and-reheat behaviour.
• Previous menu or new product development experience, including writing recipes for others to execute.
• Level 3 Food Safety, HACCP training, and familiarity with recipe costing and yield management.

What success looks like in the first six months

In your first month you will have tasted the full menu, cooked every Chinese and Hong Kong dish on it, and given the Head Chef a clear view of what is already right and what needs work. By three months the kitchen's Chinese and Hong Kong dishes should taste noticeably more authentic and the reasons should be written down in recipes the whole team can follow. By six months you will have brought new dishes from idea through bench trial to the live menu alongside the Head Chef, and the Head Chef and Deputy Head Chef should be able to cook and adjust the Asian range with confidence because of the time they have spent working next to you.

Working pattern and practicalities

This is a full-time, permanent role based in our production kitchen in north London. You can work five days Monday to Friday. Note, work may also be shifted into a compressed pattern of four longer days Tuesday to Friday; we are happy to agree either with the right candidate. Production kitchen hours apply. Salary and benefits will be confirmed before the role is advertised.

Selection process

We will screen CVs against the Chinese and Hong Kong cuisine criterion described above. Shortlisted candidates will meet the Head Chef and the Founder and CEO for a conversation about their cooking and how they would approach the role, followed by a practical cooking assessment and tasting at our kitchen, where we will ask them to cook Chinese and Hong Kong dishes of their choosing and talk us through them. We will aim to move quickly for the right person.

Eat Ping is an equal opportunities employer. We welcome applications from everyone with the experience described above and will assess candidates on their cooking, their knowledge and their ability to bring others with them.

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