Development Chef
Location: Surrey
Salary: £40,000 to £45,000
Hours: Monday to Friday
Found Food & Drink is partnering with a highly creative food innovation business to appoint an experienced Development Chef.
This is a genuinely exciting opportunity for someone with an exceptional culinary background who wants to apply their knowledge, creativity and technical understanding within a commercial product development environment.
We are particularly interested in speaking with chefs who have developed their foundations within high-quality kitchens. This could include Michelin-starred restaurants, AA Rosette establishments, luxury hotels, premium contract catering or other demanding culinary environments where quality, consistency, discipline and attention to detail are fundamental.
However, this is not a traditional kitchen-based position.
The successful person will use their culinary experience to develop innovative products for a varied customer base, taking ideas from the earliest concept through recipe development, customer presentation, factory trials and ultimately commercial launch.
Reporting to the Culinary Lead, you will take responsibility for the day-to-day delivery of culinary development projects. You will work closely with colleagues across the business, customers and a network of specialist co-manufacturing partners to ensure that products can be successfully transferred from the development kitchen into commercial production.
The business does not operate as a traditional food manufacturer. It is an innovation-led organisation that creates, develops and commercialises products in partnership with external manufacturing specialists.
This means the Development Chef must be capable of creating excellent food, but also understand how to adapt recipes, ingredients and processes to suit different manufacturing environments.
The role
- You will take ownership of customer briefs and translate them into creative, commercially realistic food concepts.
- This will involve researching the market, exploring cuisines and ingredients, developing initial recipes and considering how each product will perform when produced consistently and at scale.
- You will create and refine recipes within the development kitchen, assessing every element of the product including flavour, aroma, texture, appearance, portion size, nutritional requirements, ingredient availability and manufacturing suitability.
- You will prepare high-quality samples for customer presentations, internal reviews and product evaluations. Presentation standards will be extremely important, as you will be responsible for demonstrating both the quality of the product and the thinking behind the concept.
- Once a product has been approved, you will support its transition into commercial production. You will work directly with co-manufacturing partners, attending factory trials, observing product performance and helping to resolve any culinary or process-related challenges.
- This may include adjusting recipes to suit equipment capabilities, reviewing ingredients, modifying cooking methods, improving product consistency or finding solutions where the factory result does not initially reflect the development kitchen standard.
- You will need to protect the quality and integrity of the original concept while remaining realistic about commercial production, cost, available equipment and manufacturing efficiency.
Your responsibilities will include
- Developing innovative food concepts and recipes in response to customer and internal briefs.
- Transforming broad ideas into clearly defined, commercially viable products.
- Creating, testing, refining and documenting recipes throughout the development process.
- Preparing professional product samples for customer presentations, tastings and internal reviews.
- Presenting products confidently and explaining the culinary thinking, ingredients and inspiration behind each concept.
- Evaluating products against flavour, texture, appearance, nutritional profile, consistency and commercial suitability.
- Working with co-manufacturing partners to assess whether products can be successfully produced at scale.
- Planning and supporting factory trials across different manufacturing sites and production environments.
- Identifying and resolving product, ingredient or process challenges during scale-up.
- Adapting recipes without compromising the core product proposition or customer expectations.
- Building strong and productive relationships with external manufacturing partners.
- Working collaboratively with culinary, commercial, technical and operational colleagues.
- Managing several development projects at different stages while maintaining clear priorities and agreed deadlines.
- Maintaining accurate recipes, development records, trial notes and supporting documentation.
- Continually reviewing existing products and identifying opportunities to improve quality, consistency, sustainability or manufacturing performance.
- Researching new ingredients, cuisines, food trends, formats and consumer preferences.
- Maintaining a highly organised, professional and food-safe development kitchen.
- Managing ingredients, stock, equipment and other resources required for ongoing development activity.
The culinary background
We are looking for someone with strong culinary credibility and a genuine depth of food knowledge. You may have built your career within Michelin-starred restaurants, AA Rosette kitchens, premium hotels, high-end hospitality or another environment where technical standards and product quality are consistently high.
You will understand ingredients, flavour development, cooking techniques, seasonality, texture, balance and presentation. You should be capable of developing recipes independently rather than relying solely on existing specifications or established menus. You will also need the confidence to challenge ideas, improve concepts and bring your own culinary identity into the development process.
A classical culinary foundation would be valuable, but the business is also interested in chefs who can demonstrate knowledge of different cuisines, contemporary food trends and modern product formats.
The product development experience
While culinary pedigree is extremely important, the successful candidate must also understand commercial product development.
- You will ideally already be working as a Development Chef, NPD Chef, Innovation Chef, Product Development Chef or within a closely related role.
- You should have experience of moving products from an initial brief through kitchen development, customer approval, factory trial and commercial launch.
- You will understand that a recipe which performs perfectly in a development kitchen may need to change when transferred into a larger-scale production environment.
- You should be comfortable working through those challenges, collaborating with technical and manufacturing specialists and finding practical solutions that maintain product quality.
- Experience working with external manufacturers or co-manufacturing partners would be particularly relevant.
- You must be able to balance culinary ambition with commercial reality, considering cost, ingredient availability, production capability, consistency and customer expectations throughout the project.
About you
- You will be passionate about food and take real pride in the quality of everything you create.
- You will be naturally curious, regularly exploring new ingredients, cuisines, techniques and emerging trends.
- You will have high personal standards and a strong attention to detail, but you will also understand when flexibility and practical problem solving are required.
- You will be comfortable working independently and taking ownership of projects, while also recognising that successful product development is highly collaborative.
- You will communicate confidently with customers, internal colleagues and external manufacturing partners.
- You will be organised and capable of managing several projects at different stages without losing control of detail, documentation or deadlines.
- You will be comfortable receiving feedback, refining products repeatedly and responding positively when a concept needs to change.
- You will bring energy, ideas and professionalism into the development kitchen while remaining commercially aware and focused on delivery.
- A recognised culinary qualification would be beneficial, although candidates with substantial and relevant industry experience will also be considered.
The opportunity
- This role offers the chance to join a creative, progressive and commercially successful food innovation business.
- You will be given genuine ownership of development projects and the opportunity to influence products from the earliest customer conversation through to commercial launch.
- The role provides variety across customer briefs, ingredients, cuisines, product formats and manufacturing partners.
- It is ideally suited to a chef who still wants food and culinary creativity to remain at the centre of their career, but who is motivated by the challenge of developing products that can be produced consistently and enjoyed at scale.
- You will work alongside an experienced Culinary Lead, collaborate with a wider team of food professionals and build relationships with specialist co-manufacturing partners.
- For someone with the right combination of culinary excellence, product development knowledge and commercial awareness, this is an opportunity to make a meaningful contribution within a genuinely innovation-led business.
To learn more, apply directly or contact the Found Food & Drink team for a confidential conversation.