Restaurant Jobs jobs in Surrey, BC

Job Posting — Head Chef

Position: Head Chef
Location: South Delta, BC
Employment Type: Full-Time
Compensation: Competitive salary based on experience

We are looking for a passionate, organized, and people-focused Head Chef to lead a busy restaurant kitchen in South Delta. This role is ideal for a chef who values strong leadership, thoughtful food, clear systems, financial accountability, and team culture.

Our restaurant is built around the belief that people come first. Great food, strong service, profitability, and a healthy work environment all start with the team. We are looking for someone who understands that leadership is not just about running service — it is about setting standards, developing people, creating consistency, and leading by example every day.

The right candidate will bring strong culinary skill, calm leadership, and the ability to manage both the creative and operational sides of the kitchen. Managing food cost and labour cost is imperative to success in this position. The Head Chef must understand that strong culinary leadership also means making smart business decisions that protect quality, support the team, and contribute to the overall health of the restaurant.

About the Role

The Head Chef is responsible for leading daily kitchen operations, supporting menu execution, maintaining food quality, coaching the team, and ensuring the kitchen operates with consistency, cleanliness, accountability, and professionalism.

This role requires someone who can balance hands-on cooking with leadership, communication, training, ordering, food cost control, labour cost awareness, and team development. You should be comfortable leading from the front while also creating structure behind the scenes.

You will work closely with restaurant leadership to ensure the kitchen supports the overall guest experience, team culture, financial goals, and operational standards.

Key ResponsibilitiesCulinary Leadership

• Lead the kitchen team with professionalism, consistency, and care.
• Set the tone for quality, pace, cleanliness, and teamwork during prep and service.
• Ensure all menu items are prepared and presented according to established recipes, standards, and expectations.
• Maintain a strong presence on the line during key services.
• Support seasonal menu development, feature creation, recipe testing, and product improvement.
• Ensure food is thoughtful, consistent, well-executed, and aligned with the restaurant’s identity.

Team Development

• Train, coach, and support cooks, prep cooks, dish team members, and kitchen leads.
• Create an environment where team members understand expectations and feel supported in meeting them.
• Use a clear training approach: demonstrate the standard, work alongside the team, then hold people accountable to executing it.
• Help build confidence, skill, speed, cleanliness, and professionalism within the kitchen.
• Provide regular feedback in a direct but respectful way.
• Support onboarding of new team members and help create a strong first impression of the kitchen culture.

Daily Kitchen Operations

• Oversee prep, service, station setup, ordering, receiving, storage, and closing standards.
• Ensure daily line checks are completed properly and on time.
• Maintain high standards for food safety, sanitation, temperature logs, labeling, rotation, and storage.
• Keep the kitchen organized, clean, and ready for service.
• Support scheduling, labour planning, and daily deployment of the team.
• Ensure equipment, smallwares, and workspaces are cared for and maintained.

Food Cost & Labour Cost Management

• Manage food cost through proper ordering, portioning, prep planning, waste control, inventory practices, and recipe adherence.
• Manage labour cost through effective scheduling, service planning, training, deployment, and productivity.
• Understand that food quality, team culture, and profitability must work together.
• Review sales, labour, purchasing, waste, and inventory information to make informed decisions.
• Control waste while maintaining quality and guest satisfaction.
• Ensure prep levels are aligned with business volumes.
• Work with leadership to improve systems, protect margins, and support long-term success.
• Take ownership of kitchen financial performance, including food cost, labour cost, and controllable expenses.

Culture & Communication

• Lead with humility, accountability, and consistency.
• Communicate clearly with both kitchen and front-of-house leadership.
• Support a respectful and inclusive work environment.
• Create strong connection between culinary execution and the overall guest experience.
• Represent the kitchen with pride, professionalism, and ownership.

What We’re Looking For

The ideal candidate has:

• 3–5+ years of kitchen leadership experience, preferably as a Head Chef, Chef de Cuisine, Sous Chef, or strong senior kitchen leader.
• Strong cooking fundamentals and a genuine passion for quality food.
• Experience leading a high-volume restaurant kitchen.
• Proven ability to manage food cost, labour cost, ordering, inventory, waste, and kitchen productivity.
• A calm, organized, and steady presence during busy services.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to develop people.
• Understanding of food cost, labour cost, inventory, ordering, scheduling, and kitchen systems.
• High standards for cleanliness, food safety, and organization.
• Ability to hold standards while still creating a positive team environment.
• A hands-on leadership style.
• A desire to build something strong, not just maintain the status quo.

Our Values

We are looking for someone who naturally aligns with the following values:

Excellence
A commitment to doing things properly, improving constantly, and caring about the details.

Inclusiveness
A belief that strong teams are built through respect, support, and shared purpose.

Growth
A desire to develop yourself, your team, and the business around you.

People First
An understanding that the guest experience begins with the team experience.

Quality Product
Pride in serving food that is consistent, thoughtful, and worth coming back for.

Profitability
Respect for the business side of hospitality, including food cost, labour cost, waste, productivity, and efficiency.

Environment
A commitment to creating a workplace that is clean, safe, organized, positive, and professional.

You’ll Be a Great Fit If You

• Care deeply about food and people.
• Believe consistency is just as important as creativity.
• Can lead a busy service without panic or ego.
• Know how to coach people without tearing people down.
• Take ownership when things go wrong.
• Can balance high standards with a healthy team culture.
• Understand that food cost and labour cost are essential parts of running a successful kitchen.
• Know how to make business-minded decisions without compromising the guest experience.
• Want to be part of a restaurant that is growing, evolving, and working toward something meaningful.

How to Apply

Please submit your resume and a brief note outlining why you would be a good fit for the role.

Pay: $70,000.00-$85,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• Discounted or free food
• On-site parking
• Store discount
• Vision care

Ability to commute/relocate:

• Delta, BC: reliably commute or plan to relocate before starting work (preferred)

Experience:

• Kitchen Leadership: 3 years (required)

Language:

• English (required)

Work Location: In person