Chef de Partie | Commis Chef | Kitchen Hand

Help build one of Melbourne's most exciting new hospitality businesses from the ground up.

AGNII opens on Chapel Street, Windsor this spring.

Created by Gayan Pieris, Founder | Director | Executive Chef, AGNII is a contemporary expression of the Sri Lankan village life that shaped him.

Its beginnings are personal.

The hearth. Food prepared over fire. The rhythm of the paddy fields. Fish caught from the lake. Ingredients grown and cooked close to home. Recipes, rituals and ways of cooking carried from one generation to the next.

This is where Gayan first learnt to understand food.

AGNII carries those memories into Melbourne without trying to recreate them.

The kitchen will draw on Sri Lankan flavour, ritual and technique alongside exceptional Australian produce. Fire will be central, but never for theatre. It is part of a way of cooking grounded in patience, instinct and respect for the ingredient.

We are now building the founding kitchen team who will cook alongside Gayan and bring that food to life.

The Opportunity

There is a difference between learning a menu and understanding why it exists.

At AGNII, we want our chefs to understand both.

You'll learn ingredients and techniques that carry generations of history alongside the precision and discipline of a contemporary Melbourne kitchen.

You'll learn how flavour is built.

How spice changes through roasting, grinding and cooking.

How fire transforms an ingredient.

How fermentation, preservation, texture and restraint create depth.

And how exceptional produce should still taste unmistakably of itself.

This will be a kitchen of high standards, repetition and detail.

But also one of curiosity.

You'll be expected to ask questions, understand what you're cooking and care about getting it right.

From the Farm

Part of that understanding begins before an ingredient reaches the kitchen.

For the past eight years, Gayan has been part of the team at Polperro Farm in Red Hill, working hand in hand with Farm Manager Nick to build a relationship between what is grown and what is cooked.

That foundation now extends to AGNII.

Polperro Farm grows exclusively for the kitchens of Polperro, Many Little and AGNII, creating the opportunity to plan crops with our chefs, follow ingredients through their seasons and cook with what the land gives us at its best.

For our kitchen team,



it creates something increasingly rare in Melbourne: a genuine working relationship between farm and kitchen, grower and chef.

You'll have the chance to understand produce from the ground up. What was planted and why. When it is at its best. How it changes through the season and what to do when the farm gives us abundance.

The farm isn't a provenance story added to the menu.

It's part of how we cook.

The Kitchen Team

We're recruiting:

• Chef de Partie
• Commis Chef
• Kitchen Hand

All positions are full-time and form part of AGNII's permanent opening brigade.

Chef de Partie

You'll take ownership of your section and the standard that leaves it.

You'll be responsible for preparation, mise en place, organisation and execution through service while working closely with Gayan and the Sous Chefs to deliver consistency every day.

But section ownership at AGNII means more than executing a recipe.

We want chefs who understand the ingredients, techniques and cultural context behind the food they're cooking and who can pass that knowledge through the brigade.

You'll help develop younger chefs, protect standards when service is under pressure and contribute to a kitchen where precision and generosity coexist.

Commis Chef

This is a place to build your craft.

You'll work across preparation and service, learning from Gayan, the Sous Chefs and senior brigade while developing the discipline, speed and technical foundations required in a serious kitchen.

You'll learn the food properly.

Not just the recipe, but the ingredient.

Not just the method, but why it matters.

You'll be expected to arrive curious, work with purpose and leave each service knowing something you didn't know before.

For the right young chef, AGNII should become an important kitchen in which to grow.

Kitchen Hand

A great kitchen cannot function without a great kitchen hand.

You'll be part of the brigade, not outside it.

You'll help keep the kitchen clean, organised,



stocked and moving through preparation and service while supporting prep, deliveries, storage and the standards of hygiene the entire team relies upon.

We value reliability, awareness and pride in the role.

If you're interested in food and want to learn more, there will be opportunities to develop.

About You

We aren't looking for one type of chef.

But we are looking for a particular attitude.

You care about ingredients.

You respect technique.

You understand that consistency comes from doing small things properly, every time.

You're calm enough to think under pressure and disciplined enough to prepare before it arrives.

You want to work with people who care about their craft.

And you're still curious.

Depending on the position, you'll ideally bring:

• Professional kitchen experience appropriate to the level you're applying for.
• Strong preparation, organisation and service discipline.
• Genuine interest in Sri Lankan food, ingredients and culinary traditions.
• An understanding of produce, seasonality and flavour.
• Pride in cleanliness, food safety and the organisation of your section.
• Reliability, humility and respect for the wider brigade.
• Full Australian working rights.

Experience working with Sri Lankan, South Asian or South East Asian cuisines, ingredients or techniques will be highly regarded, but is not essential.

What matters is that you arrive ready to learn Gayan's food on its own terms.

Why AGNII?

There is something rare about joining a kitchen before its first service.

The sections haven't found their rhythm.

The dishes haven't been cooked a thousand times.

The brigade hasn't developed its shorthand.

You get to be there when it begins.

You'll work within the kitchen of Gayan Pieris, who also owns and leads Many Little in Red Hill, proudly awarded a Chef Hat for the past four consecutive years.

At AGNII, you'll have the opportunity to learn a body of food grounded in Gayan's Sri Lankan heritage, work with produce grown specifically for our kitchens and help build a restaurant with its own identity and place in Melbourne.

This is not about copying the past.

It's about understanding it deeply enough to carry something meaningful forward.

If you're serious about becoming a better cook and want to be part of a kitchen with something genuine to say, we'd love to meet you.

📌 Kitchen Team | AGNII Chef de Partie | Commis Chef | Kitchen Hand (Windsor)
🏢 Agnii eatery bar
📍 Windsor