Chef

About the role

If you join us from 5th October 2025, in addition to your contractual pay, any time worked between 18:00 - 22:00 will attract an Evening Premium at a rate of £3.00 per hour, and any time worked between 22:00 - 06:00 will attract a Night Premium at a rate of £4.00 per hour for those enrolled onto Enhanced Hours Premium arrangements.

At a glance: 

Magna Park Campus is the heart of John Lewis Distribution based in Milton Keynes. It is key to our supply chain servicing our shops and ensuring our customer’s online orders are dealt with quickly and efficiently.

Our warehouse partners definitely work up an appetite!

We prepare a range of fresh food for breakfast lunch dinner one and night services and our team loves preparing mouth watering cakes and desserts just as much as our partners like to eat them

With 4 kitchens servicing 3 warehouses and catering for over 2000 partners a day in our Partners Dining Rooms, this is where the magic happens.

We are looking for TWO full time Chefs, to join our site here at Magna Park

 Working pattern

The working pattern will be both:

• Earlies 7:00-15:00  

• Lates - 11:30-19:30 

• These will be over 5 days, to include 1 weekend out of 4 to be worked

Salary range - The annual salary for this role is between £26,200-£38,000. This role comes with a shift premium subject to hours worked. This will be discussed at interview stage.

Contract type - 2 Permanent Position

Essential skills you’ll need:- 

• Food Safety Level 2

• Operational experience in Dining Room facilities and/or The Hospitality industry

• Stakeholder management or senior influencing skills

Desirable skills you could bring:-

• Food Safety Level 3

What will you do:

• Full Site & Department Induction training from day 1

• Experience in Industrial catering advantageous

• Knife skills

• Covering all aspects of cooking 

• Menu creation using fresh ingredients

• Fast hot environment

• Customer service daily 

• Understanding the food safety management system-Food safety policy & COSHH chemical handling

• Using our Food Monitoring systems to take food temperatures & delivery temperatures

• Supporting Hospitality Catering Asst & Apprentices

• The new starter will be put through online training Food Safety Level 2 within 3 months & Food safety level 3 straight after both of these will be mandatory once in role

• Hands on in all areas including cleaning ,stock control,putting deliveries away,counter service ,shift close down

• Supporting with ordering

Job Requirements:

• Apply the John Lewis food safety policies and procedures which include all legislation applicable to the Catering operation

• Ability to oversee the opening, closing and daily running of the operation

• Prepare, serve and present food to a high standard

Benefits of the Partnership and the role

We believe in rewarding our Partners for their time and energy. After all, they’re the ones that make the John Lewis Partnership special. Benefits include:

• 💚Full uniform supplied including safety shoes

• 💚Meals on Duty depending on hours worked

• 💚Free parking on site.

• 💚Once you’ve been with us for three months, you’ll get Partnership discount in store and online. That’s 25% off in John Lewis & Partners (12% electrical products, some exclusions apply) and 20% in Waitrose & Partners. You’ll also be able to nominate someone you live with to share your discount.

• 💚Discounted cinema tickets & VIP suites with discounted tickets at the O2 arena

• 💚Discounted rates on holidays at the John Lewis Partnerships hotels, where only Partners and their guests can stay

• Good work life balance, including focus on well being and flexible working and our marketing established equal parenthood leave Policy

And much more! Find out more about our benefits here: https://www.jlpjobs.com/about/benefits/

Important Information - Application and Interview Process

• The application form consists of a CV upload followed by application questions. Please ensure you refresh the page each time you complete a task to ensure you complete everything that you need to in time. (If internal, check your Workday notifications and see further guidance on the PDW under "Internal application process"). 

• Once you've submitted an application the next steps of the process, if successful, will include a one to one interview (and a technical cooking task)

• You'll be asked about any adjustments you might need to support the recruitment process. Let us know, and we'll be sure to discuss it with you.

• We occasionally close vacancies early in the event we receive a high volume of applications, therefore, we recommend you apply early.

For internal use only:

#LI-JLPGR = John Lewis Partnership

The Partnership

We’re the largest employee owned business in the UK and home of our cherished brands, John Lewis and Waitrose. We’re not just employees, we’re Partners, driven by our purpose to build a happier world. As we look to our future, there’s never been a more exciting time to join us.  

We’re ruthlessly focused on being brilliant at retail. We continue to innovate, adapt and diversify. Never Knowingly Undersold on price, quality and service in John Lewis and passionately serving food-lovers in Waitrose.   

As Partners we all share the responsibility of ownership and in its rewards. We use our voices to contribute to our success, working together through the good and challenging times, holding true to our behaviours and treating everyone with kindness and respect. 

We all own making the Partnership somewhere we belong. Embracing our differences and creating an environment where we’re free to be ourselves and can THRIVE. Growing ourselves individually, and as a collective. 

As Partners, we make all the difference. And, we all own it.  

Important points to note:  

It’s important to note that some of our roles are subject to pre-employment vetting (which may include DBS checks for successful candidates). If required, you’ll be informed and provided with information about vetting during the recruitment process and we encourage you to complete any vetting documents quickly to avoid delays. Any DBS checks required will be carried out by a third-party registered body and financial probity checks may also be required for some of our roles.  

We also recommend that you apply as soon as possible as vacancies can close early if we see a high number of applicants.  

We want all of our Partners to have a good work-life balance and we support flexible working. This might mean flexible or compressed hours, job sharing or shorter hour contracts, where possible. Please discuss this further with the hiring manager during your interview.