Casual Chef

Bank Chef | Care Home Catering | 0-Hour Contract | Bethune Court, St Leonards-on-Sea

Ready to Cook with Purpose, On Your Own Terms?

If you're a skilled chef looking for flexible, rewarding work that fits around your life, this could be the opportunity you've been waiting for. At Bethune Court in St Leonards on Sea, and we're looking for passionate Bank Chefs to join our catering team on a casual, 0-hour basis, available to step in when shifts arise.

This isn't just cooking. It's crafting genuinely nourishing, home-quality meals and freshly baked goods for our residents who truly appreciate every plate.

What Does a Bank Chef Role Look Like?

As a casual bank chef, you'll be part of our wider catering support network, available to step in and keep our kitchen running smoothly whenever a need arises. This might be to cover annual leave, sickness absence, or to bridge the gap while we recruit into a permanent position. Shifts are not guaranteed but when they come up, you'll be first in line as a trusted, familiar face in our kitchen.

You won't be going it alone either. On every shift you'll be working alongside a Catering Assistant who will support you day to day, and on occasion you may overlap with an additional Chef or our Chef Manager too.

And before you cook your first shift, we'll make sure you know the kitchen, the residents' needs, and our ways of working, so you can hit the ground running with confidence.

Every shift you do take on will involve:

• Cooking from fresh daily, using quality seasonal ingredients to deliver nutritious, flavoursome meals
• Baking from scratch, bread, cakes, desserts and more, bringing real warmth to our residents' days
• Supporting the Chef Manager in maintaining the highest standards of food quality and presentation
• Stepping up when needed, confidently holding the kitchen together in the Chef Manager's absence
• Catering for diverse dietary needs, from texture-modified diets to cultural preferences, always with care and creativity

Why Bank Work Here Works for You

✔ Flexible to fit your life, shifts arise as cover is needed, making this ideal if you're looking to supplement existing work or commitments ✔ Sociable hours, no late nights, no split shifts; care home hours work around real life ✔ Meaningful work, cooking for people who truly value it, every single day ✔ Great perks from day one, big-brand retail and lifestyle discounts, Blue Light Card savings, and a £250 refer-a-friend bonus ✔ Career recognition, enter our annual Chef of the Year competition and showcase your talent on a wider stage ✔ A pathway to permanence, bank roles can be a great way to get your foot in the door; many of our permanent chefs started exactly this way

You're the Chef We're Looking For If You...

• Are happy to be on-call for shifts and can respond at short notice when cover is needed
• Have professional cookery experience (care home or healthcare catering a bonus, not essential)
• Are confident cooking from fresh and baking independently
• Take pride in food quality, presentation and hygiene standards
• Hold, or are working towards, a Food Hygiene qualification (Level 2 minimum)
• Hold the legal right to work in the UK

Hear From Our Chefs

Curious what it's really like to cook with us? Visit our dedicated Catering careers page to hear from the team: ???? anchor.org.uk/careers/where-you-fit/care/care-home-chef-and-catering-jobs-anchor (Viewing on Indeed? Copy and paste the link into your browser.)

Apply Today

Bank chef roles with real heart don't come around often. If you're ready to bring your skills to a kitchen where they truly make a difference, we'd love to hear from you.

Why Join Anchor?

At Anchor, we're united by a shared purpose: helping people create a home where they love living in later life. As England's largest not-for-profit provider of housing and care for older people, every pound we make or save is reinvested into our residents, services, and colleagues.

Our values of being Accountable, Respectful, Courageous and Honest shape everything we do. They guide how we work together, support our residents and customers, and create an environment where everyone can thrive.

We're committed to helping our colleagues succeed both professionally and personally. Through our dedicated Being Well programme, you'll have access to a wide range of wellbeing, financial and lifestyle benefits designed to support you at every stage of your career and life.

What you can expect from us

• Health and wellbeing support, including free eye tests and flu jabs and access to a digital gym, helping you look after your physical, mental and emotional wellbeing.
• Generous pension scheme, where you contribute between 4% and 8% and Anchor matches or exceeds your contribution, with employer contributions of up to 10%, plus a pension transfer service and retirement planning support.
• A free Blue Light Card, giving you access to shopping, travel, technology and lifestyle discounts.
• Ongoing learning and development, including access to Leadership Pathways resources and opportunities to develop your skills and experience.

Celebrating diversity, celebrating you

Anchor is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We aim to celebrate diversity and inclusion in all that we do, as we know that the more diverse our colleagues are, the better care and support we can give to our residents and each other.  

We are proud to have an inclusion group for our residents, as well as colleague networks for disability, LGBTQ+, race and ethnicity, and unpaid carers. These work to celebrate diversity, address concerns, review policy and practice and empower their members.  We also have an Inclusive Ambassador network to allow all colleagues to be part of promoting diversity and to be an ally to others.

We are a Gold Standard Inclusive Employer, a Stonewall Diversity Champion, signatory to the Care Leaver Covenant, LGBTQ+ Housing Pledge Pioneers and members of the Age Friendly Employer Pledge.