Head Chef

KAF Café is looking for an experienced, creative, and highly skilled Head Chef to lead our kitchen operations and drive culinary excellence. The ideal candidate will have strong leadership abilities, a passion for innovative cuisine, and proven experience in managing kitchen teams, developing menus, controlling food costs, and maintaining consistently high food quality standards.

The successful candidate must have solid UAE kitchen experience and a strong background in Japanese-Korean cuisine with European fusion, along with expertise in breakfast and brunch menu development.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and manage all daily kitchen operations, ensuring smooth workflow and efficient service during peak hours.
• Develop, design, and continuously improve menus in line with KAF Café’s concept, brand identity, and customer preferences.
• Create innovative dishes combining Japanese and Korean culinary techniques and flavours with European cuisine.
• Lead breakfast and brunch menu development, ensuring creativity, quality, and consistency.
• Establish and maintain standardized recipes, portion sizes, plating techniques, and food presentation standards.
• Recruit, train, supervise, and motivate kitchen team members to maintain high performance and productivity.
• Plan kitchen staff schedules, allocate responsibilities, and ensure adequate staffing during all operating hours.
• Manage food costs, portion control, wastage, and overall kitchen profitability.
• Oversee food purchasing, supplier coordination, stock levels, inventory management, and storage procedures.
• Ensure strict compliance with UAE food safety regulations, HACCP requirements, kitchen hygiene standards, and safe food-handling practices.
• Conduct regular quality checks to ensure consistency in taste, freshness, temperature, and presentation.
• Maintain kitchen equipment, cleanliness, organization, and operational standards.
• Coordinate closely with management and the front-of-house team to ensure excellent guest satisfaction.
• Monitor customer feedback and introduce improvements to menu quality and kitchen performance.
• Take full responsibility for kitchen standards, team discipline, operational efficiency, and culinary quality.

Requirements

• Mandatory UAE experience as a Head Chef or in a comparable senior kitchen leadership position.
• Strong experience in Japanese-Korean cuisine with European fusion is mandatory.
• Proven experience leading and managing a professional kitchen team.
• Strong background in breakfast and brunch menu development.
• Excellent knowledge of menu planning, food costing, recipe development, portion control, and inventory management.
• In-depth understanding of HACCP, food safety, hygiene, and UAE food-handling requirements.
• Strong leadership, communication, organizational, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to work under pressure and maintain high standards in a fast-paced café environment.
• Creative approach to menu innovation, food presentation, and current culinary trends.
• Ability to manage kitchen budgets, minimize wastage, and maintain cost efficiency.
• Flexibility to work shifts, weekends, and public holidays as required.

Preferred Experience

• Experience in specialty cafés, premium cafés, or casual dining concepts.
• Expertise in modern café cuisine, Japanese-Korean flavours, and European fusion techniques.
• Experience developing creative breakfast and brunch menus.
• Experience creating seasonal menus and introducing new dishes based on customer preferences and market trends.
• Proven ability to balance culinary creativity with food cost control and commercial performance.

Important Application Note

Only candidates with relevant UAE kitchen experience and a strong background in Japanese-Korean cuisine with European fusion will be considered. Applications that do not meet these mandatory requirements will not be reviewed.

Application Question(s):

• Do you have UAE experience as a Head Chef or in a comparable senior kitchen leadership role, with strong expertise in Japanese-Korean cuisine with European fusion and breakfast/brunch menu development?

Work Location: In person