Head Chef Small Restaurant jobs

Head Chef – East Village Coffee

Clondalkin, Dublin | €45,000–€50,000 DOE | Full-time | Predominantly Daytime Hours

East Village Coffee is looking for an experienced and creative Head Chef to lead our kitchen from January 2027.

We’re a busy, vibrant suburban café with a strong reputation for great food and speciality coffee. This is an opportunity to lead a small, experienced kitchen team and take real ownership of an exciting, modern daytime food offering.

We’re looking for someone who loves food, follows what’s happening in the industry and gets genuine satisfaction from creating dishes that customers come back for.

The Role

You’ll take responsibility for the kitchen and our food offering, including:

• Creating and developing seasonal, on-trend menus
• Costing dishes and managing food margins, stock and wastage
• Leading a busy, fast-paced service
• Cooking and baking to a consistently high standard
• Organising prep, ordering and day-to-day kitchen operations
• Leading, motivating and getting the best from a small kitchen team
• Maintaining excellent food safety and kitchen standards

We also run a monthly evening wine night, giving our chefs the opportunity to move beyond the daytime menu and get creative with seasonal small plates and evening dishes.

About You

You’ll have:

• A minimum of 3 years' experience in a senior kitchen role
• Experience in a busy restaurant, café or other fast-paced, food-led kitchen
• Strong menu development and food-costing skills
• A good understanding of seasonality and current food trends
• Strong cooking and baking skills
• The ability to lead from the front and develop a positive kitchen team

This is a hands-on, creative role and is best suited to someone from a quality independent restaurant, café, bakery or similar food-led business rather than a large-scale contract or volume catering background.

What We Offer

€45,000–€50,000 per annum DOE, predominantly daytime hours, creative freedom and the opportunity to put your own stamp on the food offering of an established and busy café.

Most importantly, you’ll be joining a great crew with a genuinely positive working atmosphere and a team that cares about the food and experience we give our customers.

Start date: 2 January 2027.

If you’re an experienced chef who wants to lead a kitchen, create great food and have the freedom to keep developing the menu, we’d love to hear from you.

Please apply with your CV and a short introduction telling us about your current role and the kind of food you enjoy creating.

Pay: €45,000.00-€50,000.00 per year

Work Location: In person