Head Chef - Production | Catering, Venues & Major Events Some kitchens cook for one dining room. Ours cooks for the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix, the Spring Racing Carnival, weddings, corporate events for some of the country's best-known brands, and our venues Carousel, Half Acre and Sunnyside Estate.

We're looking for a Head Production Chef to run our South Melbourne production kitchen - the engine room behind everything Food & Desire puts on a plate.

Reporting to our Executive Chef, you'll run the production kitchen day to day and lead a capable team of chefs. You'll have real input into menus alongside the Executive Chef, full ownership of how the kitchen runs, and responsibility for what leaves it. If you're a solid Head Chef looking for real scale and profile, this is it.

Food & Desire - South Melbourne Some kitchens cook for one dining room. Ours cooks for the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix, the Spring Racing Carnival, weddings, corporate events for some of the country's best-known brands, and our venues Carousel, Half Acre and Sunnyside Estate.

We're looking for a Head Production Chef to run our South Melbourne production kitchen - the engine room behind everything Food & Desire puts on a plate.

Reporting to our Executive Chef, you'll run the production kitchen day to day and lead a capable team of chefs. You'll have real input into menus alongside the Executive Chef, full ownership of how the kitchen runs, and responsibility for what leaves it. If you're a strong Head Chef looking for real scale and profile, this is it.

Why this role Your food, at scale.

You'll work with the Executive Chef on menus for everything from intimate private dinners to tens of thousands of covers at major events.



Your ideas don't stay on a whiteboard - they get cooked, served and seen.

Some of Melbourne's biggest stages.

The Grand Prix and Spring Racing Carnival are high-pressure, high-profile and genuinely exciting. Few chefs get to lead food at this level.

A team already in place.

You'll step in alongside an experienced, settled brigade. Your job is to lead them, lift them and grow the next generation of chefs in the business, not to start from scratch.

Real variety.

No two weeks are the same - weddings, corporate, venue, racing, motorsport. The work stays interesting.

A business that backs its kitchen.

Food & Desire has been part of Melbourne hospitality for 25 years. You'll work closely with our Executive Chef and have a real say in where our food offering goes next.

What you'll be doing

Running the South Melbourne production kitchen day to day, reporting to the Executive Chef, and owning its output, standards and culture

Working with the Executive Chef on menu development, tastings and new dishes across events, catering, venues and major events

Leading, training and mentoring a team of chefs, sous chefs and apprentices

Setting and holding clear standards for cooking, presentation, organisation and kitchen discipline

Planning production,



rostering and workflow so the kitchen delivers consistently at volume, including leading kitchen delivery for major events

Owning recipe standardisation and production systems so quality holds from prep to dispatch

Managing food cost, margins, yield, ordering, supplier relationships and wastage

Working closely with the events, sales and operations teams to deliver every function successfully

Making sure food safety, hygiene and compliance are run to a high standard

About you

Proven experience as a Head Chef, Executive Sous Chef or Senior Sous Chef ready to step up

Strong hands-on cooking and deep culinary knowledge

Experience in events, catering, production kitchens or similar environments

A genuine passion for contemporary food, produce and where dining is heading

A leader people want to work for - calm under pressure, clear, fair and invested in developing others

Commercial sense: you understand food cost, margins, labour, yield and portion control, and you can balance quality with the realities of large-scale production

Highly organised, with strong planning and systems thinking

Flexibility to lead around events and major event periods

Full working rights in Australia

What we offer

A senior leadership role with full ownership of how the kitchen runs and real input into the menu

$100,000 - $120,000 + super

A home base in our established South Melbourne production kitchen

Predominantly Monday to Friday, daytime hours, with flexibility needed around major events like the Grand Prix and Spring Carnival

Leadership of food at the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix and the Spring Racing Carnival

A supportive Executiv

📌 Head Chef (Melbourne)
🏢 Food & Desire
📍 Melbourne