Development Chef

Salary: £55,000-£60,000
Location: London
Focus: 70% Food Development & R&D | 30% Events

Love creating food as much as cooking it?

I'm recruiting a Food Development Chef for a premium London events business, taking the lead on new dishes, menus and culinary concepts across the operation.

This is a genuinely creative role, but it's not development for development's sake.You'll take ideas from initial concept and tasting through to costing, specification, training and live delivery – creating food that looks incredible, tastes brilliant and actually works at event scale.

Salary & Benefits

• £55,000-£60,000 salary
• 70% development and R&D focused
• Around 30% live events and delivery
• Company pension
• Holiday allowance
• Staff meals
• Training and development
• Excellent long-term progression

The Operation

• Premium London events and catering.
• Luxury private and corporate events.
• Canapés, bowl food and sharing menus.
• Fine dining, buffets and bespoke menus.
• Client tastings and venue-specific concepts.
• High-volume production alongside premium presentation.

The Role

• Lead food development and R&D across the business.
• Create new dishes, menus and event concepts.
• Respond creatively to client briefs and seasonal trends.
• Run tastings and develop ideas around client feedback.
• Test, cost and document new recipes.
• Develop plating and production specifications.
• Ensure dishes are commercially viable and scalable.
• Train chefs to deliver new menus consistently.
• Stay hands‑on with live events around 30% of the time.

About You

• Development Chef, Innovation Chef, Executive Chef or senior events chef.
• Premium events, luxury hospitality, banqueting or food development background.
• Strong menu and recipe development experience.
• Confident with food costing, GP and ingredient sourcing.
• Understands high-volume production without compromising quality.
• Creative, curious and genuinely excited by food.
• Commercially minded and highly organised.

We're looking for someone who can create an incredible canapé for 10 people - and understand exactly how to make it work just as brilliantly when you need 1,000 of them.

If you want a role where food development genuinely is the job , rather than something squeezed in around running service, this is a fantastic opportunity.

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