Senior Development Chef
Cranswick Country Foods Poultry is a specialty producer of delicious, cooked poultry ingredients and leading innovators in our industry. We create exciting, original products that meet the needs of today’s busy consumers.
An exciting new opportunity has arisen at Cranswick Added Value Poultry to join the Development Team. This is a fantastic opportunity for a creative culinary professional to influence food trends, collaborate with key customers and develop innovative products that make a real impact in the marketplace. You'll combine your culinary expertise with commercial awareness to bring exciting new ideas to life from concept to launch.
The key elements of the role are:
- Create exciting new added value poultry products for leading retail, food service & B2B customers, developing a proactive Innovation pipeline, covering NPD, EPD and new concepts, aligned to business strategy, food trends, category insight and growth plans.
- Support category development through market awareness and trend identification, showing a passion and curiosity for food, with enthusiasm for new ideas, emerging trends and product innovation.
- To innovate and inspire through paper recipe ideas and develop brief led concepts into entire products in line with critical timings.
- Lead the culinary culture at site and be the custodian of product quality.
- Develop products that deliver excellent eating quality, operational capability, food safety compliance and commercial viability.
- Build strong customer relationships, leading innovation sessions, product presentations and culinary showcases.
- Work closely with Operations, Technical, Process Development, Procurement and Planning teams to develop efficient and effective Ways of Working.
- Work closely with suppliers and external businesses to support development plans and bring ideas to life.
- Championing food safety, quality and best practice throughout the development process.
Who We're Looking For
We're looking for a creative and commercially minded chef who is passionate about food innovation and bringing new ideas to market.
- A strong culinary knowledge and experience in a Development Chef role ideally provided from experience (min 3 years) from chilled/within a similar field.
- Strong understanding of food trends, flavour development and the NPD process.
- A proven ability to create successful products and recipes.
- Understanding of food science principles and ingredient functionality.
- Knowledge of manufacturing processes and product scalability.
- Understanding of retailer launch processes and customer requirements.
- Experience with building customer relationships within major retail accounts.
- Strong organisational and prioritisation skills.
- Ability to work effectively under pressure and manage multiple priorities.
- Strong problem solving and decision making capability.
- Commercially minded.
- Competent in Microsoft Office.
- Food Safety qualification (Level 3 or above).
- Full UK driving licence.
This position is Monday to Friday, dual site role requiring to travel between Poultry and Prepared Poultry Cranswick sites in Hull.