What is a Chef de Partie?
Chef de Partie is a French brigade term. It translates as "chef of the party" or more accurately "chef in charge of a section". In a working UK kitchen the CDP runs one station of the line, cooking to the menu set above them and holding the standard for that station across service.
The brigade de cuisine system was codified by Auguste Escoffier in the early 20th century and is still the backbone of how restaurants, hotels, and large-contract kitchens organise their lines. Above the CDP sits the sous chef, then the head chef. Below sit the commis chefs. The CDP is the mid-tier operator. They are the first rank of the brigade expected to run their own station, order their own prep, and hold their own plates to the pass.
The role is sometimes abbreviated to "CDP" in booking notes and on rotas. Americans sometimes use "line cook" as an analogue, but the expectation of autonomy on a UK CDP is typically higher than the entry-level US line cook.
When do you need to hire a CDP?
Most agency calls for CDP cover fall into one of a few patterns.
Short-notice sickness or no-show. A CDP rings in sick at 14:00 for a 17:00 dinner service. The head chef can cover their own station plus the CDP's, but standards will slip and tickets will back up. A single relief CDP slotted in before service starts keeps the line running.
Holiday cover. Your permanent CDP takes their statutory 5.6 weeks across the year. Those shifts need someone in them. A temp CDP booked on rolling weekly blocks is cheaper, faster, and more predictable than leaving the section short.
Volume spikes. Saturday weddings, summer service in a hotel, conference season in a B&I canteen, term-time in a school kitchen. You need an extra CDP on the section for a known period, then you stand them down.
Temp-to-perm. You want to hire a CDP permanently but you want to work with them across 4-6 weeks first. A temp placement with a transfer option lets you do that without the risk of a bad permanent hire.
Permanent search. You want a CDP for a salaried seat on your brigade and you want an agency to do the shortlisting. We run this alongside our temp work, not as a separate service.
What does a CDP actually do?
The work differs by section. Below is a snapshot of the five most common CDP sections in UK kitchens, what each one covers, and where the pressure points sit during service.
| Section | French brigade term | What the CDP runs | Typical pressure point |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fish | Poissonnier | Fish and shellfish prep and cookery, often including associated sauces | Hold temps on delicate proteins through a busy service window |
| Meat / grill | Rotisseur / Grillardin | Roasts, grilled meats, gravy and jus work | Timing multiple covers to different finishes simultaneously |
| Sauce | Saucier | Stocks, reductions, sauces, often the most senior CDP role | Upstream of every plate; a bottleneck here stalls the whole pass |
| Pastry | Patissier | Desserts, breads, sometimes breakfast pastry in hotels | Separate prep cycle from the main line, often out-of-sync demand |
| Garde manger / larder | Garde manger | Cold section: salads, starters, canapes, charcuterie | Volume during starters rush, tight plating consistency |
Not every kitchen runs a full brigade. A 40-cover gastropub might have two CDPs and nothing else. A 200-cover hotel might have six CDPs covering fish, meat, sauce, pastry, larder, and breakfast separately. When you brief us, name the section. "I need a CDP" and "I need a pastry CDP with hot-kitchen breakfast experience" are different bookings with different shortlists.
How much does it cost to hire a CDP?
Two numbers to separate: the worker pay rate, and the client bill rate. They are not the same.
Worker pay for a CDP in 2026 sits at £15-£20 per hour, with London and premium venues at the top end (Indeed 2025 average: £28,115 annual; Glassdoor February 2026 average: £25,117 annual; cross-referenced with the Institute of Hospitality / Caterer.com 2025 salary survey at £28,900-£29,900 for CDPs). The Office for National Statistics ASHE going rate for SOC 5434 (chefs) is £15.88/hr or £30,960 annualised (ONS ASHE, May 2025).
Client bill rates are higher. They bundle holiday pay at 12.07%, employer pension at 3%, employer National Insurance at 15% (from April 2025 with the £5,000 secondary threshold), recruitment and compliance cost, and agency margin. Consensus across Chef Network, Select Recruitment, and cross-source research puts the agency premium at 33-50% above the permanent equivalent for CDP-tier work. A CDP on £16/hr pay becomes a client rate closer to £22-£24/hr once the statutory costs and margin are layered in.
The comparison below shows how the same pay tier translates into permanent salary versus client bill rate at three city benchmarks.
| City | Typical worker pay | Approx client bill rate | Permanent salary equivalent |
|---|---|---|---|
| London | £17-£20/hr | £23-£27/hr | £28,000-£36,000 |
| Manchester | £15-£18/hr | £21-£25/hr | £25,000-£32,000 |
| Liverpool | £15-£17/hr | £20-£23/hr | £24,000-£30,000 |
For the full cross-role rate table, including kitchen porter, commis, sous, and head chef, see our 2026 temp chef rates guide. For the cost logic of agency versus direct hire at CDP level, see chef agency vs direct hire.
The CDP is our most-placed role
Of every relief and temp chef booking Chefs Bay has fulfilled in the last 12 months, more were Chef de Partie than any other role tier. The CDP seat is the one most likely to be short at short notice. It is the seat that absorbs most of the sickness, most of the holiday, and most of the volume spikes.
That is why our bench density is strongest at this tier. In central London, Manchester, and Liverpool we hold a named, vetted CDP roster ready to be called. Our 2-hour response commitment applies to CDP placements in those central postcodes, 24 hours a day, every day. On in-scope CDP calls between April 2025 and April 2026 we confirmed a named chef inside the window on 90-95% of placements.
Outside the central zones we still place CDPs quickly, but the realistic window is 4-24 hours depending on distance, notice, and the section being covered. A pastry CDP at 06:00 in rural Cheshire is a harder shortlist than a sauce CDP at 14:00 in Soho. We say so at the point of booking.
How to brief us for a CDP booking
The faster and more specific the brief, the faster we shortlist. Six data points cover 95% of CDP bookings.
1. Venue and postcode. City, site name if we have worked with you before, full postcode. This determines which bench we draw from and how travel is planned.
2. Shift times. Start, finish, and any break pattern. If it is a double or a split, say so. If the shift extends past midnight, flag it so we can confirm the chef's travel home.
3. Section. Fish, meat, sauce, pastry, garde manger, or all-round line support. If the section is niche (Josper grill, tandoor, hot breakfast pastry) name it. Vague briefs get vague shortlists.
4. Cuisine. British, French, Italian, Indian, Pan-Asian, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, contemporary. CDPs have cuisine preferences and strengths; a French-classical CDP thrown onto a Pan-Asian wok station will underperform.
5. Allergen and dietary constraints. Any IDDSI requirement (care homes), any school allergen policy, any kosher or halal adjacency, any strong vegan focus. These affect the shortlist.
6. Rate. Tell us the rate you want to work to. We will tell you if it is realistic for the section and the notice period, not after we shortlist.
A WhatsApp message with those six lines is typically enough for us to shortlist within 30 minutes and confirm within the hour on in-scope work.
What three typical CDP placements look like
Illustrative scenarios drawn from common CDP bookings across our three city benches. Details are anonymised and framed as typical; Chefs Bay does not publish named client case studies.
London W1: restaurant short-notice sickness
A 70-cover Soho restaurant. Friday 13:45. The meat-section CDP has called in sick for 18:00 service. The head chef cannot run pass and meat simultaneously during the 19:30 rush.
We confirmed a named meat CDP from our central London bench at 14:50. The chef arrived on-site at 16:30 for prep and section handover. Service covered 110 covers, no re-fires flagged.
Manchester M3: hotel holiday cover
A 120-room city-centre hotel. The pastry CDP is taking two weeks of annual leave in August. The booking is placed three weeks in advance for a rolling 14-day block, breakfast and dinner pastry.
We shortlisted a pastry CDP with prior hotel-breakfast experience, briefed them on the menu, and placed them on a Monday-to-Sunday rolling rota. The permanent CDP returned to their section with nothing to catch up on.
Liverpool L2: B&I contract, extended cover
A city-centre contract canteen serving 300 lunch covers per day. The incumbent CDP has given four weeks' notice. The contract catering provider needs rolling cover while they recruit a permanent replacement.
We placed a temp CDP on a five-day-a-week rolling booking across six weeks, with the client retaining the option to convert to permanent if the fit worked. It did. The temp-to-perm transfer was completed in week six.
What is outside the scope of a CDP booking
Being specific about what we do not do:
- We do not send a CDP into a seat that needs a sous chef. If your kitchen is running without a head or sous chef for the shift, say so at the brief. We will either book a senior CDP who has held sous responsibility before, or re-price at the sous tier.
- We do not send CDPs into head-chef roles. If you need someone to run the kitchen, menu, ordering, and team, book at the head chef tier. A strong CDP is not a cheap head chef.
- We do not send CDPs without a completed brief. Section, cuisine, and shift times are non-negotiable data points. "Send me a chef" is not a booking.
- We do not match Michelin-trained CDPs to pub kitchens or pub-kitchen CDPs to fine-dining restaurants. Fit matters. We will tell you if your spec and your venue do not match.
- We do not guarantee 2-hour response on CDP bookings outside the central London, Manchester, and Liverpool postcodes listed in our response commitment page. Outside those zones we give a realistic window at the point of call.
Frequently asked questions
What does Chef de Partie mean?
Chef de Partie (CDP) is a French brigade term meaning 'chef of the party' or 'chef in charge of a section'. In a UK kitchen, a CDP runs one station of the line: fish, meat, sauce, pastry, or garde manger, for example. They work to the menu set by the head or sous chef and are expected to prep, cook, and plate their section to service standard without constant supervision.
What is the difference between a Chef de Partie and a Sous Chef?
A CDP runs one section. A sous chef runs the kitchen in the head chef's absence and supervises the CDPs. CDP is a mid-level brigade role; sous chef is senior. Pay reflects this: CDPs sit at £15-£20/hr on agency, sous chefs at £17-£24/hr. A strong CDP is usually two to three years from stepping up to sous.
What CDP rates should we expect in 2026?
Worker pay rates for CDPs sit at £15-£20/hr, with London and premium venues at the top end. Agency bill rates run 33-50% above a permanent equivalent once holiday pay, employer NIC, pension, and margin are added. Full rate tables by role and region are in our 2026 rates guide.
Do you supply CDPs for short-notice cover?
Yes. CDP is the most common role tier we supply. For central postcodes in London (W1, EC1-EC4, SE1, WC1, WC2), Manchester (M1-M4), and Liverpool (L1-L3) we confirm a named CDP within two hours of your call, 24 hours a day, every day. For rural and outer postcodes the realistic window is 4-24 hours depending on distance.
Can a CDP run a section alone?
Yes. That is the baseline expectation of the role. A competent CDP will mise-en-place their section, hold prep standards, cook to ticket, and plate to the pass without hand-holding. They will not run the whole kitchen unsupervised. If you need someone who can cover a sous chef's absence, ask for a senior CDP with sous experience, or book the sous tier directly.
What experience level do CDPs have?
A CDP typically has three to five years of kitchen experience, usually at commis level first. The ones we supply have held at least one prior CDP position and have worked a full service on the section being booked. For agency relief, we prioritise CDPs who have cooked similar menus before so the first shift is not a learning curve.
Do CDPs have Enhanced DBS?
Some, not all. Every CDP on our roster holds Right to Work documentation and Level 2 Food Safety as a baseline. DBS status varies by the sector they work in. Our care-home and school benches hold Enhanced DBS with the relevant Barred List check; our hospitality and B&I benches typically do not, because the role does not require it. When you book, we confirm the DBS level of the chef being sent before they arrive.
How do we brief you for a CDP booking?
Six data points: venue postcode, shift start and finish times, section being covered (fish, meat, pastry, sauce, garde manger, or all-round), cuisine style, any allergen or dietary constraints, and the hourly rate you want to work to. A short WhatsApp message with these details is enough for us to shortlist within 30 minutes.
Further reading and sources
Data points on this page draw from the Institute of Hospitality / Caterer.com 2025 salary survey (instituteofhospitality.org), ONS ASHE occupational earnings data for SOC 5434 chefs (ons.gov.uk ASHE 2024), GOV.UK National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage guidance for April 2026 (gov.uk/national-minimum-wage-rates), and UKHospitality sector cost commentary (ukhospitality.org.uk). For the framework on choosing a staffing partner, see our how to choose the best chef agency guide.
