NPD Chef

You will be working for an innovative and highly respected business which supplies products to major UK retailers and large foodservice groups. Importing products from all over the globe plus British suppliers, they design and develop delicious products, keeping up to date with ever changing market trends.

About the NPD Chef job

Heading into the Senior Culinary Development Chef and working customers and suppliers, you will help take concepts from inception through to launch.

Key tasks

• Mentor kitchen and culinary support staff; help build innovation processes and best practices.
• Present concepts and tastings to leadership and cross-functional stakeholders.
• Support the end-to-end development of new products and recipes, from concept generation and kitchen prototyping through to factory pilot trials and full-scale manufacturing.
• Aid with customer product presentations.
• Collaborate closely with ingredient suppliers and factory process teams to understand scalability of recipes while maintaining product feasibility.
• Keep abreast of emerging culinary, flavour, and ingredient trends across retail, foodservice, and other developing market sectors.

About You

• 4+ years of professional culinary experience, including experience in food manufacturing, product development - retail and foodservice exposure is a must.
• Culinary degree or equivalent professional training preferred.
• Strong understanding of how recipes scale from small batch to industrial production.
• Understanding of functional ingredients.
• Working knowledge of food safety, shelf-life, and regulatory considerations, usual customer requirements (HFSS, FSA recommendations). HACCP knowledge also beneficial.
• Strong communication skills; able to translate technical / culinary detail for non-culinary stakeholders.
• Project management skills — able to juggle multiple concepts at different development stages.
• Passion for food trends, ingredients, and pushing category boundaries.
• Able to travel for days at a time, and sometimes at short notice.
• Full driving licence.

More details

The NPD Chef job is based in Hertfordshire and is paying £50,000 to £55,000 plus car / car allowance according to your experience.

The package includes pension, performance bonus, car allowance or company car and 25 days holiday + bank holidays.

The working hours are Monday to Friday, office hours with flexibility to travel.

Alternate job titles
Senior Development Chef | Development Chef | New Product Development Chef | Business Chef | Innovation Chef | Menu Development Chef | Food Manufacturing NPD Jobs

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