We invite you to join the world of luxury hospitality at Fairmont Southampton as our new Sous Chef. The Sous Chef plays a vital leadership role within our culinary team, supporting the Executive Sous Chef and Executive Chef in overseeing food preparation, team development, operational excellence, and ensuring quality and consistency across assigned kitchens or outlets. This hands-on leader inspires colleagues, drives culinary innovation, and ensures that every dish reflects Fairmont and Accor brand standards.
Success in this role requires strong culinary expertise, leadership ability, and a passion for delivering memorable dining experiences in a high-volume, fast-paced environment.
What you will be doing:
Culinary Operations & Quality Assurance
- Assist the Executive Sous Chef in managing daily kitchen operations or independently oversee your assigned outlet鈥檚 culinary functions.
- Provide operational support across multiple outlets, banquets, and special events as required by business needs.
- Ensure the highest standards of food quality, consistency, creativity, and presentation across your area of responsibility.
- Maintain full knowledge of all menus, seasonal features, specials, and promotional offerings.
- Support smooth kitchen service during peak periods, ensuring timely and efficient food production.
- Uphold all brand standards, LQA standards, and guest experience expectations.
- Ensure allergen awareness, dietary requirements, and special menu requests are correctly managed and communicated.
- Support service recovery by addressing culinary-related guest concerns promptly and professionally.
Menu Development & Innovation
- Contribute to the development, testing, and rollout of new recipes, menu items, and culinary concepts.
- Analyse trends, guest feedback, and product availability to support menu enhancements.
- Recommend improvements to food offerings that elevate the guest experience while aligning with resort positioning.
- Ensure standardized recipes, plating guides, and specifications are documented and followed consistently.
Team Leadership, Training & Development
- Train, mentor, and supervise culinary colleagues, ensuring skill development and professional growth.
- Support recruitment, onboarding, scheduling, and performance evaluation processes.
- Communicate expectations, standards, and procedures clearly to the team.
- Foster a positive, respectful, and inclusive culture built on teamwork and collaboration.
- Identify high-potential team members and support succession planning and internal promotion.
- Lead by example, reinforcing Fairmont values of Respect, Belonging, Integrity, Empowerment, and Excellence.
- Provide real-time coaching and corrective feedback during service periods.
- Address performance or conduct issues in line with company procedures and escalate when required.
Financial Management & Inventory Control
- Assist with monitoring food cost, labour planning, and productivity targets.
- Manage inventory levels, ordering, receiving, and storage of food and supplies.
- Ensure proper rotation, labelling, waste tracking, and portion control to maximize efficiency and minimize losses.
- Utilize kitchen systems and tools, including recipe costing, inventory management, ordering platforms, and internal reporting systems, to drive efficiency and accuracy.
- Demonstrate accountability for food cost variances, waste trends, and corrective action planning.
- Support annual budgeting and forecasting processes as required.
Safety, Compliance & Maintenance
- Ensure full compliance with health and safety protocols, food-handling guidelines, and HACCP requirements.
- Maintain cleanliness, organization, and proper sanitation of all work areas, equipment, and utensils.
- Report maintenance concerns and participate in preventative maintenance programs.
- Ensure completion and accuracy of temperature logs, cleaning schedules, and compliance documentation.
- Enforce safe equipment use and workplace safety practices across the kitchen team.
Sustainability & Responsible Sourcing
- Support sustainability initiatives aligned with Fairmont and Accor commitments, including responsible sourcing, local purchasing where possible, food waste reduction, and sustainability reporting.
- Actively participate in waste tracking, recycling programs, and initiatives that reduce environmental impact while maintaining culinary excellence.
Guest & Stakeholder Engagement
- Interact with guests, clients, and event partners as required to support special events and culinary presentations.
- Collaborate with Food & Beverage, Stewarding, Procurement, Banquets, and Events teams to ensure seamless service execution.
- Respond promptly and professionally to guest concerns and feedback. Maintain discretion and professionalism during all guest-facing or stakeholder interactions.
Other Responsibilities
- Support culinary leadership with departmental initiatives and resort-wide programming.
- Perform additional duties as requested by the Executive Sous Chef or Executive Chef.
- Flexibly support other outlets or kitchen operations at management discretion to meet business demands.