Assistant Catering Manager

Job Description

We are looking for an inspiring team member who has experience in catering and who understands the important connection between food and the environment. You will assist the Catering Manager in the day-to-day running of the café, maintaining the excellent quality of service and care expected by our customers, supervising and organising the team, preparing and cooking meals, making barista coffees and serving customers.

What's the role about?

Are you energetic and enthusiastic with a desire to help nature by delivering excellent customer service? Would you like to join a friendly team at one of Scotland’s busiest and most important nature reserves?

Our café is not just about serving great food and giving first-class service - it’s about saving wildlife too. We source menu ingredients that are as ethical, local, and nature friendly as possible. By becoming part of our team you’ll help to show our customers that visiting us is the best choice they could have made. If you are passionate about great food, excellent customer service and nature we’d love to hear from you!

About Loch Leven

RSPB Scotland Loch Leven forms part of the Loch Leven National Nature Reserve and is made up of important wetland and woodland habitats. Ospreys, marsh harriers, and swallows visit us in the summer, and up to 20,000 pink-footed geese fly in from Iceland each autumn to spend winter on the loch. Red squirrels are residents of our woodland. We offer a great day out for families, nature lovers, and wildlife watchers and can be easily accessed from the Loch Leven Heritage Trail which brings many walkers and cyclists to the site.

Our visitor centre, the busy hub of the reserve, looks out over our wetland and the loch to Kinross and the distant Ochil Hills. Last year, as part of our commitment to providing excellent, fully accessible facilities, we carried out extensive redevelopment works, including the refurbishment of our café.

About the Role

We are looking for an inspiring team member who has experience in catering and who understands the important connection between food and the environment. You will assist the Catering Manager in the day-to-day running of the café, in line with set RSPB procedures and routines, maintaining the excellent quality of service and care expected by our customers, supervising and organising the team, preparing and cooking meals, making barista coffees and serving customers. You will assist with office tasks, stock control, placing orders, and cleaning. You will also deputise for the Catering Manager when required.

Now, more than ever, hygiene and safety in customer service settings is paramount so we’ll expect you to undertake training in this area, including Food Hygiene training.

Essential skills, knowledge and experience:

• Proven track record of working in a busy and successful catering environment.
• Focussed on delivering an exemplar customer service experience.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to share knowledge with confidence and enthusiasm.
• Ability to plan and prioritise your workload
• Problem solving and ability to work on your own initiative.
• Sound understanding of systems and procedures necessary to run a commercial catering operation.
• Experience of working with stock management systems and stock controls.
• Ability to motivate, influence and inspire others, and be able to supervise and train staff and volunteers.
• Computer literate, including Excel spreadsheets.

This is a permanent role, for 30 or 37.5 hours per week (negotiable). We are looking to conduct interviews for this position from 16th January 2023. For further information please contact douglas.rutherford@rspb.org.uk

As part of this application process you will be asked to complete an application form including evidence on how you meet the skills, knowledge, and experience listed above.

This role will require completion of a PVG in addition to the standard pre-employment checks.

The RSPB is an equal opportunities employer. This role is covered by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. This role is not eligible for UK Visa Sponsorship - the successful applicant will need to have a pre-existing Right to Work in the UK in order to be offered an employment contract.

Before applying for this role, we recommend reading through the candidate guidance notes attached to the top of this advert.