Quick answer: A chef job description sets out the role’s duties, who it reports to, and what the person needs in order to do it. UK law does not require you to write one, and does not require you to advertise the vacancy at all. The one document you must provide is the written statement of employment particulars, given on or before the first day. The mistakes that cost operators sit in the advert rather than the duties: wording that carries discrimination risk, a missing pay line, and compliance requirements copied from a template written for a different kind of kitchen.
Search any kitchen job title alongside “job description” and page one hands you a stale document. Workable’s head chef description, third on the term and cited in Google’s AI summary, was first published in September 2013 and last refreshed in May 2020. Betterteam’s chef template ranks on Google UK while talking about “patrons” and printing a US phone number. Randstad’s catering assistant page quotes £13,000 to £20,000 a year, attributed to ONS data from 2021.
Several of those figures are now illegal to offer. Indeed’s kitchen assistant page gives an average of £12.53 an hour, then reproduces example adverts at £9.30 to £10.30, £7.00 to £9.00 and £5.00 to £9.68 without flagging any of them. The National Careers Service, the only gov.uk page in the top twelve, still shows a £17,000 starter for a kitchen assistant. That is about £8.17 an hour against a legal floor of £12.71.
We read all twelve pages ranking for this cluster in August 2026. Not one mentions the Equality Act, the written statement of particulars, or the rules binding an agency advert. Not one anchors pay to the wage in force. Not one changes the duties by venue, though a care home kitchen and a school kitchen are different jobs under the same title. This guide covers those three.
The four documents operators mix up
| Document | What it is | Legally required |
|---|---|---|
| Job description | The duties, the reporting line, the main responsibilities | No |
| Job advert | The public version, written to attract applicants | No |
| Person specification | The selection criteria, split into essential and desirable | No |
| Written statement of employment particulars | The statutory document setting out the terms | Yes, on or before the first day |
Acas is explicit that advertising is optional: “You’re not legally required to advertise a job, but it’s a good idea to.” It recommends applicants receive the job description, an application form, a person specification, information about the organisation, and an equality monitoring form.
The written statement is the compulsory one. Section 1 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 says it “must be given not later than the beginning of the employment”, and since April 2020 it has been owed to workers as well as employees. It covers pay, hours and which days, place of work, holiday, sick pay, notice, probation, and the job title or a brief description of the work. Note that wording: a job title or a brief description. The statute never asks for a full job description. A few particulars, pensions, collective agreements and non-compulsory training, may follow in a later document within two months rather than on day one.
That distinction has money attached to it. Acas’s own written statement template makes the job description contractual by attaching it, and offers optional wording for exactly that reason: “Your job description may be amended by us. You may be required to undertake additional or other reasonable duties as necessary to meet the needs of our business.” Leave that out and a long, specific job description becomes the complete list of things you can ask that person to do.
Nor does a flexibility clause solve everything. Acas is blunt that “employers must only use flexibility clauses to make changes that are reasonable”. In Land Securities Trillium Ltd v Thornley [2005] IRLR 765 the Employment Appeal Tribunal held that imposing a rewritten job description which de-skilled an architect into a managerial role was a fundamental breach justifying constructive dismissal, and a clause requiring any other duties reasonably required did not rescue it. In a kitchen, the same logic covers moving a chef de partie permanently onto wash-up.
What UK law says about the wording
Discriminatory wording in an advert is unlawful under the Equality Act 2010. The Equality and Human Rights Commission gives “young and dynamic” and “mature person” as examples; Acas’s own list runs to gender-specific titles like “barmaid” and “handyman”, age-related terms such as “recent graduate”, and naming a nationality where you mean a language skill. Acas also warns that demanding ten years of experience can indirectly discriminate on age, because it screens out younger applicants who have the skills. Justifying any of these needs a legitimate aim pursued by proportionate means, and where the criterion is a protected characteristic itself the only defence is the occupational requirement exception in Schedule 9.
Section 60 adds a rule most kitchen adverts break without noticing: an employer must not ask about an applicant’s health before offering work. The useful exception is establishing whether someone can carry out a function intrinsic to the job, so “the role involves standing through service and moving deliveries” belongs in the duties. A blanket “must be physically fit” is a health question wearing a requirement’s clothes. Enforcement sits with the EHRC, and where disability discrimination is alleged the burden of proof shifts to the employer.
| Common wording | The problem | Write instead |
|---|---|---|
| ”Young, energetic team” | Age proxy under the Equality Act | Describe the pace of service, not the age of the team |
| ”Must be physically fit” | Pre-offer health question under s.60 | ”The role involves standing through service and moving deliveries. Tell us about any adjustments you need." |
| "10 years in a professional kitchen” | Possible indirect age discrimination, on Acas’s own example | Name the skill: “can run a section unsupervised on a 200-cover service" |
| "No sponsorship, British applicants only” | Nationality discrimination risk | ”You will need the right to work in the UK. We check this for every hire." |
| "Barmaid”, “handyman” | Gender-specific job titles, Acas’s own examples | ”Bar staff”, “maintenance assistant" |
| "Competitive rates” | Lawful, and the line most associated with fewer applications | The real hourly range |
| ”Enhanced DBS required” on a restaurant role | The role may not be eligible, and an ineligible check is unlawful | Check eligibility for the setting first |
| ”Must be willing to sign a 48-hour opt-out” | Opting out has to be voluntary, and refusing it is protected under ERA 1996 s.45A and s.101A | State the hours honestly and raise the opt-out after an offer |
The hours line has law behind it too. The Working Time Regulations 1998 cap average working time at 48 hours a week over a 17-week reference period. A worker can opt out, but only voluntarily and in writing, and refusing is protected, so “willing to sign a 48-hour opt-out” as an essential criterion invites a claim rather than filtering applicants. Anyone working more than six hours a day gets an uninterrupted 20-minute break away from their station, and the shift-work derogations hospitality relies on relax daily and weekly rest without touching it. Sixteen and 17 year olds sit under a separate regime, eight hours a day and 40 a week with no opt-out, which matters because they are the workers on the £8.00 rate.
A further rule catches anyone advertising through an agency. Under regulation 27 of the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003, an agency advert must carry the agency’s full name and say whether the work is temporary or permanent, and an agency may only advertise a position it holds details of and has authority to fill, which makes speculative “phantom” chef adverts unlawful rather than merely irritating. Where the advert mentions rates of pay it must also state the nature of the work, the location, and the minimum experience, training or qualifications needed to earn those rates. Those duties bind the agency, not a venue advertising its own vacancy, which is one reason agency adverts often carry more detail than the operator’s own.
There is no general UK duty to publish pay in an advert. The EU rules do not apply here, and the government’s 2026 work concerns voluntary action plans alongside gender pay gap reporting for employers with 250 or more staff. Indeed’s Hiring Lab notes a consultation on mandating disclosure, but nothing binds today.
What to write for each kitchen grade
England’s apprenticeship standards are the most useful source, because employer groups write them and they describe what each grade is accountable for. Where a standard exists, use its scope rather than inventing one. Where none exists, say so.
| Grade | Where the duty set comes from | The line that belongs in the description |
|---|---|---|
| Head chef | Senior Culinary Chef, Level 4, which lists head chef and executive chef among its job titles | Menu, food cost and gross margin, team, rotas, and the kitchen’s food safety management system |
| Sous chef | No dedicated standard. The National Careers Service covers head chef, sous chef, commis chef and cook under a single “Chef” profile | Running service and the pass, deputising, ordering and stock, supervising the sections |
| Chef de partie | Chef de Partie, Level 3: preparing, cooking and finishing complex dishes while overseeing “the pastry, larder, butchery, fish, sauce or vegetable section” | Which named section, who they report to, and whether they run it unsupervised |
| Commis chef | Commis Chef, Level 2: preparing food and basic cooking under supervision, “typically directly managed by a Chef de Partie, a Sous chef, or a Head Chef” | Prep, basic cookery, rotation across sections, and the named supervisor |
| Kitchen porter, kitchen assistant, catering assistant | ONS puts all three in one occupation, SOC 9263, with one task list | Wash-up, the written cleaning schedule, waste, deliveries and stores, plus any food service duties |
| Kitchen manager, second chef | Senior Production Chef, Level 3, which names head chef, second chef, kitchen manager and cook as its job roles | Budget, ordering, rota, compliance records, and how many staff report in |
That the government’s own careers service files head chef, sous chef and commis chef under one profile tells you how little official help exists for writing per-grade specs. It also explains why so many operators reach for someone else’s document.
Two warnings on titles. Kitchen porter, kitchen assistant and catering assistant are one occupation, and the ONS is the body that says so: unit group 9263 lists all three against a single task list. The difference is setting. Institutional catering uses catering assistant and loads more service and till work onto it; commercial hospitality uses kitchen porter and weights it towards wash-up and deliveries. Advertise under one title and you miss the candidates searching the other. The intermediate grades, demi chef de partie, junior sous, senior chef de partie, are employer conventions rather than national ranks, so say what the person actually runs. The full ladder is in our kitchen brigade guide.
The pay line
Start from the floor. From 1 April 2026 the National Living Wage is £12.71 an hour at 21 and over, £10.85 at 18 to 20, and £8.00 for under-18s and for apprentices in their first year. A full-time role advertised at 40 hours a week cannot lawfully pay less than £26,436.80 a year, which is why kitchen assistant averages now cluster just above that number and why so many published salary guides for the grade are quietly out of date. Advertising those lower age-banded and apprentice rates is not age discrimination; Schedule 9 of the Equality Act puts it beyond argument, so do not over-correct by hiding them.
For the market rather than the minimum, the Office for National Statistics is the source of record. In the 2025 provisional Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, full-time median gross annual pay was £30,010 for chefs and £22,886 for kitchen and catering assistants. Handle those with care. They describe the pay period including 30 April 2025, so they predate the April 2026 uprating entirely and are not a 2026 pay level. ONS also codes every chef grade from commis to head chef into one occupation, so it cannot tell you what a sous chef earns. And many chef salary figures circulating online are ONS weekly pay multiplied by 52 and presented as annual pay, which is not an ONS figure at all.
Publish a band, not false precision. “£15 to £18 an hour depending on section and experience” reads as honest; a figure to the penny reads as a payroll export. The by-rank comparison across two independent sources is in the kitchen brigade guide, and what the same person costs the business once employer National Insurance, pension and holiday are counted is in our chef cost calculator and the UK chef hire rate benchmark.
Compliance lines that belong, and three myths that do not
Food hygiene. No chef is legally required to hold a certificate. GOV.UK states it plainly: “Food handlers do not have to hold a food hygiene certificate.” The law requires that food handlers are “supervised and instructed and/or trained in food hygiene matters commensurate with their work activity”, and that the operator can evidence it. The familiar “Level 2 for food handlers, Level 3 for supervisors” formula is an enforcement expectation repeated by councils and training providers, not a statutory rule. So describe the training the role needs. One exception matters: early years settings must give food hygiene training to staff handling food under the EYFS framework, which is why our nursery cook hiring checklist puts Level 2 in the essential list and this guide does not.
HACCP. The duty to put in place and maintain HACCP-based procedures sits with the food business operator, not with whoever writes the temperature records. A chef can be accountable for running the system day to day, and the description should say that rather than appearing to transfer a duty that cannot be transferred.
DBS. Eligibility comes from the setting, the duties, the opportunity for contact and how often the person is there, never from the job title. In a care home, work that is not regulated activity but carries the opportunity for contact with residents on more than three days in a 30-day period, once overnight between 2am and 6am, or at least once a week on an ongoing basis, is eligible for an Enhanced check without an Adults’ Barred List check; less frequent work can be eligible for a Standard check. The barred list is added where the chef assists residents to eat or drink, because that is personal care. In schools and nurseries the regulated activity tests turn on specified establishments and the same three-day frequency, and attract an Enhanced check with a Children’s Barred List check. The DBS leaflets give cleaning, administration and maintenance as their examples of auxiliary work rather than catering, so kitchen roles are read across rather than listed. That is exactly why a blanket “Enhanced DBS required” on every kitchen advert is wrong in both directions, and submitting a Standard or Enhanced check for an ineligible role is unlawful.
DBS is also the wrong name in two of the four nations. Scotland runs the Protection of Vulnerable Groups scheme through Disclosure Scotland, and Northern Ireland runs checks through AccessNI. An advert for a Glasgow school kitchen asking for an “Enhanced DBS with Children’s Barred List check” is asking for a document that does not exist in that jurisdiction. Name the scheme for the country the kitchen is in. The working rules are in DBS checks for kitchen staff, and we run them as standard on education and healthcare placements.
Sponsorship. Do not offer it for a chef role. SOC code 5434, chefs, now appears in the Immigration Rules only in the table covering applicants granted permission before 22 July 2025 who have held it continuously since. New Skilled Worker sponsorship for chefs is not available under the current rules, so “sponsorship available” in a 2026 chef advert promises something you cannot deliver. What you can say is that the successful candidate needs the right to work in the UK, checked the same way for everyone: the method is in our right to work checks guide.
The lines that cost you applications
Pay disclosure in UK adverts is recovering but still weak. Indeed’s Hiring Lab put 58% of UK postings as showing pay in the three months to June 2026, up from recent lows but below the 64% peak of September 2024. Adzuna, which indexes vacancies across more than a thousand sources rather than one board, had it at 40.96% in May 2026. The two disagree because they count different populations, and both point the same way.
Reed’s analysis of its own postings between January and May 2024 found adverts stating a salary drew 60% more applications. That is a job board reading its own platform rather than independent research, and no UK study isolates the effect for chef roles. Take it as directional.
Some phrases actively repel the chefs you want. Around a quarter of job seekers say “fast-paced environment” makes them reconsider a role, and “wear many hats” and “rockstar” rank near the top of phrases that put candidates off, according to analysis reported by Entrepreneur and CBS News. In a chef advert the worst offender is “competitive rates”, because a chef reads it as a rate you are unwilling to name.
What works is the opposite of a culture paragraph. Lead with the six facts a chef decides on: the real role title, the hourly range, the hours and shift pattern, the location and venue type, the kind of kitchen, and the start date. Everything about the team comes after. Our own head chef and kitchen porter listings carry the rate band on the page. Say the shift length as it will actually run, and say how tips work: the statutory code in force from 1 October 2024 requires all tips to be passed to workers without deductions.
One trap sits underneath that. Tips, gratuities, service charges and cover charges do not count towards minimum wage pay at all, under regulation 10 of the National Minimum Wage Regulations 2015. So “£11 an hour plus tips, £15 an hour on target” is unlawful however scrupulously the tips themselves are handled, because the wage on its own is below the floor. The same regulations treat deductions for things the job requires, chef whites and knives among them, as reducing minimum wage pay. HMRC penalties run to 200% of the arrears, capped at £20,000 per worker. Advertise the hourly rate that clears the floor on its own, then describe tips separately as what they are.
Where the duty set changes by venue
The same grade is a different job in different buildings, and in three of these the difference is statutory rather than stylistic.
A care home chef in England works to regulation 14 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, which requires residents’ nutritional and hydration needs to be met, and breach of it is a criminal offence rather than only an inspection finding. Texture-modified diets run to the IDDSI framework’s eight levels, which a care home description should name. A school cook in England works to the Requirements for School Food Regulations 2014, mandatory across maintained schools, academies and free schools; Scotland and Wales have their own instruments, so name the right one. A contract catering site adds the client’s audit regime on top of yours, and kitchen staff transfer with the contract under the TUPE service provision change rules when a school or care home re-tenders, which is why a contract caterer’s description has to survive changing employer. A London hotel with several outlets puts an extra reporting layer between the chef de partie and whoever sets the menu.
Write the description for the kitchen the person will stand in, not for the title. Doing that also shows you when the answer is not a permanent hire at all: one section uncovered for three weeks is a booking, not a recruitment campaign. We cover single grades, sous to KP, at 2-4 hours’ notice in Manchester and Liverpool and across the UK, with 95%+ fulfilment across more than 1,000 active staff. Got a gap this weekend? Get staff now.
Frequently asked questions
Is a job description a legal requirement in the UK?
No. There is no legal duty to write a job description, and Acas confirms there is no duty to advertise a vacancy either. What you must provide is the written statement of employment particulars, given to employees and workers on or before their first day. Section 1 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 asks it for the job title or a brief description of the work, not a full job description.
What is the difference between a job description and a written statement of employment particulars?
The job description describes duties and the reporting line, and it is optional. The written statement sets out the terms of the job and is compulsory from day one. Attaching a detailed job description to the contract without wording that allows amendment can limit the duties you are later able to ask that person to perform.
Do I have to put the pay rate in a chef job advert?
Not as a general legal duty in the UK. If an employment agency or employment business places the advert and it mentions rates of pay, regulation 27 of the Conduct Regulations 2003 requires it to also state the nature of the work, the location, and the minimum experience, training or qualifications needed to earn those rates. Commercially the case is strong anyway: Reed found adverts stating a salary drew 60% more applications across its own postings in 2024.
Can I ask for a DBS check in a kitchen job description?
Only where the role is eligible, and you should name the level rather than writing “DBS required”. Eligibility depends on the setting, the duties, the opportunity for contact with children or vulnerable adults, and how often the person is there, not on the job title. Applying for a Standard or Enhanced check on an ineligible role is unlawful, so establish eligibility before the advert goes out.
Does a chef legally need a Level 2 food hygiene certificate?
No. GOV.UK states that food handlers do not have to hold a food hygiene certificate. The requirement is that the operator ensures food handlers are supervised, instructed or trained commensurate with their work, and can evidence it. Some settings impose more: early years providers must give food hygiene training to staff handling food under the EYFS framework, and individual clients often specify a certificate as their own standard.
Can I still sponsor a chef from overseas?
Not for a new hire. SOC 5434, chefs, sits in the Immigration Rules only in the table for applicants granted Skilled Worker permission before 22 July 2025 who have held it continuously since. Advertising “sponsorship available” on a chef role in 2026 promises something the current rules do not allow.
What should a chef job description never say?
Anything standing in for a protected characteristic, such as “young and dynamic” or a gender-specific title like “barmaid”; a health or fitness demand going beyond the functions intrinsic to the job; a long service requirement that works as an age filter; a nationality requirement where the real requirement is right to work; a compliance line lifted from another sector, such as a barred list check on a restaurant role; and “competitive rates” in place of the number.