Head Chef

United Nations Development Programme

København Ø

Office/Unit/Project Description

UN City Copenhagen Campus 1 opened in 2013 and houses 1,600 employees from over 100 countries working in 10 different agencies.

The UN City Common Services (CS) delivers operational support services within UN City including canteen, cafe and catering services, building maintenance, cleaning, communications, driving, fitness center management, IT helpdesk, mail services, medical support, meetings and events services, and reception.

The kitchen is dedicated to delivering a premier culinary experience, with a primary focus on plant-based offers, throughout the in-house canteen, café, and catering service. The aim is to spearhead a culinary journey which necessitates effective communication, close teamwork and robust engagement with both internal staff and visitors.

The canteen offers a daily menu of two main dishes and one side dish (for an average of 430 people per day) - personally plated/served by our chefs.

The Café serves a freshly baked selection of breakfast and lunch items with special consideration for organic, seasonal, and regional produce.

For the event and catering section, seasonal Menus are offered during the year, structurally different and custom-made to satisfy customers' needs and requests.

UN City canteen, café and catering services are operated as one unit under the Un City Common Services.

Scope of Work

UN City is looking for an innovative and experienced Head Chef that can support the Kitchen Operation and Sustainability Manager leading a team of 11 members (1 Sous Chef, 5 Chefs, 2 Kitchen Assistants and 3 Dishwashers). A chef that is passionate and energized to implement a strong and ambitious concept. A position that will ensure quality daily operation and at the same time lead toward the implementation of culinary and sustainability standards, social events and customer’s satisfaction.

Under overall guidance and leadership of Kitchen Operations and Sustainability Manager (who leads the kitchen team) – the Head chef is responsible for the daily operations of the kitchen team in the three outlets Canteen, Café and Meetings and Events.

Together with a dynamic, exciting, and international work environment, we offer:

A five-day working week (Monday to Friday) of 40 hours per week (½ hour lunch break not included), mainly between 7:00-15:30, with occasional evening shifts required to meet business needs
Full-time contract with a competitive tax-free salary
6 weeks holiday per year + 10 days UN holiday
Health insurance

Key Responsibilities

Lead the daily kitchen operations, including food preparation, cooking and presentation for all three stations: Canteen, Café and Event.
Engage in daily planning and preparing food with the team, assisting when needed and coordinating rotations and scheduling. Ensure that all dishes offered meet quality standards and are in line with the concept and ambitions.
Support the team on the Menu development: create and plan menus that reflect UN City culinary and sustainability standards where seasonal, locally sourced and organic produces play a significant role.
Follow the sustainability principles but also contribute to new standards for a sustainable canteen and continuous seek a higher level together with the Kitchen Operation and Sustainability Manager.
Supervise kitchen staff, providing guidance to ensure a productive and harmonious work environment: train new kitchen employees to kitchen standards, SOP, and introducing kitchen framework.
Ensure that the kitchen adheres to health, safety, and sanitation regulations. Maintain cleanliness and organization in the kitchen.
Keep detailed records and minimizing waste, while working with existing systems to improve food waste/loss reduction.
Work on planning and implementing social dinner events with guests from different UN agencies, and external actors.
Be a team player that takes pride in making sure the team delivers the best possible outcome with high wellbeing standards.
Be open to communicate and focus on customer’s needs.
Any other tasks as required.

Core Competencies

Achieve Results: LEVEL 2: Scale up solutions and simplifies processes, balances speed and accuracy in doing work

Think Innovatively: LEVEL 1: Open to creative ideas/known risks, is pragmatic problem solver, makes improvements

Learn Continuously: LEVEL 1: Open minded and curious, shares knowledge, learns from mistakes, asks for feedback

Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 2: Adapt processes/approaches to new situations, involve others in change process

Act with Determination: LEVEL 1: Shows drive and motivation, able to deliver calmly in face of adversity, confident

Engage and Partner: LEVEL 2: Is facilitator/integrator, bring people together, build/maintain coalitions/partnerships

Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 1: Appreciate/respect differences, aware of unconscious bias, confront discrimination

Cross-Functional & Technical competencies

Business Management - Communication

Ability to communicate in a clear, concise and unambiguous manner both through written and verbal communication; to tailor messages and choose communication methods depending on the audience.
Ability to manage communications internally and externally, through media, social media and other appropriate channels.

Shared Services - Customer Satisfaction/Client Management

Ability to respond timely and appropriately with a sense of urgency, provide consistent solutions, and deliver timely and quality results and/or solutions to fulfil and understand the real customers' needs.
Provide inputs to the development of customer service strategy.
Look for ways to add value beyond clients' immediate requests.
Ability to anticipate client's upcoming needs and concerns.

Minimum Qualifications of the Successful candidate

Min. Education requirements

High School Diploma or Secondary Education.
Any certification in the related area is an asset.

Min. years of relevant work experience

A minimum of nine (9) years of relevant work experience in kitchen operations is required.
Minimum 3 years’ experience in same or higher position.

Required skills

High culinary skills and standards from restaurants, canteens and/or hotels.
Proven track record of good people management.
Proven knowledge and interest on sustainable and responsible cooking.

Desired skills in addition to the competencies covered in the Competencies section·

Ability to work in teams and effectively interact with all groups of personnel and staff in the organization.
Previous experience in an international environment an asset.
Being service minded with proven ability to instill confidence.
Solution oriented with a good portion of creativity.

Required Language(s) ·