Reliable Kitchen Staff.
When You Need Them.
Delivered.

Both, within the back-of-house scope. Chefs Bay is a UK hospitality recruitment agency for chef and kitchen roles, and we operate as a catering agency for contract catering sites supplying Compass Group, Sodexo Live, Aramark and similar buyers. The unifying thread is that every role we place is in the kitchen rather than front-of-house: chefs at every tier, kitchen porters, kitchen assistants, and catering assistants. Operators looking for a single back-of-house supplier across all sectors use us as their primary agency.

Generalists supplying both FOH and BOH split bench depth between two very different recruitment problems. The kitchen-only scope at Chefs Bay means a deeper bench of vetted chefs in every region, faster placement on chef roles, and tighter compliance discipline on the items that matter in the kitchen: DBS, allergen awareness, food safety certification, IDDSI training for care, and right-to-work paperwork held current on every chef before they walk on site. Most clients keep one or two generalists on their PSL for FOH and use Chefs Bay for the kitchen line.

You don't have to switch. Most of our clients use us alongside their existing suppliers. Give us your toughest weekend — the one where your usual agencies struggle. If we deliver, you'll see why Compass Group and Sodexo Live keep us on their books. If we don't, you've lost nothing.

For central postcodes in London, Manchester, and Liverpool, we confirm a named chef within two hours of your call, 24/7 — see our 2-hour chef response commitment. For other locations, 24-48 hours is typical. Planned bookings always have better availability. Call us, we'll tell you straight away what's possible.

Yes. For Cornwall, Devon, the Lake District, the Scottish Highlands, North Wales, and other regions outside the driving radius of our Liverpool, Manchester, London, and Leicester hubs, we deploy live-in chefs from our national bench. They travel for the season with accommodation provided. Travel-inclusive day rates apply once distance pushes past roughly 30 miles each way; the full rate including mileage and accommodation is agreed at the moment of booking, not added after the chef arrives.

Every candidate goes through right-to-work verification, reference checks, and skills assessment. For education and healthcare settings, we provide DBS-checked staff with full safeguarding compliance. No one goes on site without being properly vetted.

Our fulfilment rate is 95%+, so it's rare. But when it happens, we find a replacement or you don't pay for that shift. Simple. We also monitor every booking in real-time so we can react before it becomes your problem.

Rates depend on the role, location, and notice period. We work with client rate cards for contract caterers and offer competitive standard rates for direct clients. Contact us for a quote — we're transparent about pricing and won't waste your time.