Hospitality and Catering

This is an exciting and varied role in the Food & Beverage team at Brodie Castle. Based in our Castle Café or Playful Café you’ll prepare food for a high-quality, sit-in café and grab-and-go takeaway menu, helping to generate the income that enables our charity to care for Brodie Castle and Estate.

You will ensure that visitors from across the globe have an enjoyable experience here through excellent service standards and menu availability. You will be responsible for the daily operation of the kitchen, and achieving targets through efficient, safe food production practices.

Key Responsibilities

Deliver a high-quality food offer for our high and low season, relevant to our Brodie customers (visitors, events and functions) and Visit Scotland’s Taste our Best principles.

Contribute to menu development, making creative, practical and cost-effective choices for food production and presentation.

Ensure high standards of kitchen hygiene, cleanliness and tidiness, adhering to Food Safety Management Systems and keeping up-to-date compliance documentation (HACCP, COSHH checklists and temperature records).

Work alongside the management team to ensure all food and non-food items are ordered, and stock is controlled to the highest standard

Ensure food production adheres to allergen guidelines, in particular Natasha’s Law, and support the implementation of upcoming laws, eg. displaying nutritional value & calorie counts.

Minimise wastage and identify potential savings to achieve targets for cost of sales, gross profit and environmental sustainability.

Ensure the upkeep and safety of equipment and utensils used within the catering outlets.

Share in the common responsibility of implementing the Trust’s “Health & Safety Policy”, being mindful at all times of the health and safety of self, staff, volunteers, and visitors.

You will be an enthusiastic team player who can supervise, coach and motivate your team. You will also be part of a broader duty management team responsible for promoting good communication across the site and a joined-up visitor services provision.

This role requires weekend working and at times may require working evenings to cover events.

Key Responsibilities

Catering Operation

Support the F&B manager with menu development and the preparation and presentation of a high-quality food and drink offer relevant to our Brodie visitors.

Ensure compliance with health and safety, food hygiene, food allergens, licensing and environmental health standards, completing all related record-keeping.

Support the F&B manager with stock management, ordering, storage and wastage control.

Ensure the upkeep and safety of equipment and utensils used within the catering outlets.

Assist with food led events throughout the year to support over all business goals.

Visitor Experience

Offer excellent customer service and ensure all members of the catering team do the same.

Support property-wide targets for completion of visitor surveys to understand more about our visitors

Act as one of our duty management team, responsible for ensuring a safe and smooth visitor operation, opening/closing the visitor attraction, addressing issues, emergency procedure and providing relief cover, as required.

People Management

Assist the F&B Manager in Recruitment, induction, development and management of all Food and Beverage Visitor Services Assistants ensuring that they understand role responsibilities and are equipped to fulfil the role to the required standards.

Supervise the activities of a team of permanent and seasonal Visitor Service Assistants (VSAs), achieving excellent staff performance and motivation through effective training, task-setting and coaching on front and back-of-house routines.

Ensure the team feel valued, respected, motivated and supported.

Support the F&B Manager in preparing catering rotas and holiday allocation to meet business needs.

Work closely with specialist advisory colleagues, i.e. our Trust-wide Catering Development team.

Finance management

Share responsibility for achieving an F&B budget of around £300,000 a year

Monitor commercial performance and adjust activities to capitalize on sales opportunities and run a cost-effective catering operation

Supervise daily cafés till operations and perform end-of-day income reconciliation

Support the F&B Manager with menu costing and stock-taking.

JOB PURPOSE

Working alongside the Mackintosh at the Willow kitchen team preparing high quality dishes according to established recipes and standards. To oversee a designated section of the kitchen, ensuring smooth operations during service.

Overseeing daily kitchen activities including supervising kitchen staff, aiding with menu preparation, ensuring food quality and freshness and monitoring and ordering stock levels. To assist in the daily running of the kitchen, following Head Chef’s specific guidelines and maintaining hight standards and quality in both co-operative teamwork and dishes.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES AND ACCOUNTABILITIES
• Provide excellent food Preparation and presentation:
o Execute culinary techniques to prepare and present high-quality dishes according to established recipes and standards.
o Ensure consistency and excellence in the taste, presentation, and portioning of all dishes. Ensure the team delivers consistently and to a high standard in the absence of the Head Chef
• Maintain the highest standards of cleanliness, safety, and compliance.
• Section Management:
o Oversee a designated section of the kitchen, delegating tasks effectively and ensuring smooth operations during service. On occasion over see running of kitchen in Head chef or Sous Chef Absence.
o Help train, mentor, and supervise junior kitchen staff, fostering a positive and collaborative work environment.
• Ensure that the required standards are adhered to in the production and preparation of food.
• Monitor and maintain inventory levels for ingredients and supplies, complete ordering in line with the instructions of the Head Chef.
• Maintain a lean and orderly cooking station and adhere to health and safety standards.
• Collaborate with the head chef and senior team to contribute ideas for menu development, seasonal specials, and creative presentations.
• Contribute to controlling costs, improving gross profit margins, and other departmental and financial targets.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS, SKILLS, EXPERIENCE & KNOWLEDGE

Qualifications

Essential
• A degree or diploma in culinary arts or equivalent experience

Desirable
• Advanced Food Hygiene and Safety Level 3 certification
• Level 3 HACCP Certification
• First Aid Certification

Experience

Essential
 Have 1+ year experience at Senior Chef de Partie level or 3+ years’ experience at Chef de Partie level.
 Track record of working effectively alongside Head Chef in the running of the kitchen.
 Experience in working in a high-volume restaurant or food-outlet.
 A track record of high levels of cleanliness and compliance (knowledge of HACCP).
 Effective communication skills.
Desirable
 Previous experience of cheffing within the tourism industry.

DIMENSIONS AND SCOPE OF JOB

People Management
• To supervise the kitchen team, and various seasonal kitchen roles
• To support the Head Chef in ensuring training is completed in line with the Trust training policy to meet the needs and requirements of the individual and legislation
• To work closely with the VSM F&B and VSS Events to ensure the smooth organisation and delivery of weddings, travel trade groups and private events
• To work closely with the Mackintosh at the Willow Management team to ensure that we provide an excellent visitor experience
• To ensure that all team members are knowledgeable and motivated within their roles and support the business through effective induction, accurate job descriptions and on the job training
• Develop & manage relationships with customers, key suppliers, staff and management within the property

Finance Management
• Support the Head Chef to achieve and maximise budget gross profit and labour costs
• To ensure that all standards of food preparation and service are established and achieved in line with budget.
• To support the Head Chef maintain budgetary records and ensure that all budgets are adhered to, unless exceptional circumstances arise.
• To order all necessary food, dry goods and equipment, obtaining best buys in line with budget objectives

Tools / equipment / systems
• Have a working knowledge of Word and excel
• A sound knowledge of stock control systems
• Knowledge of epos or similar
• Catering equipment including cooking equipment and dishwashers. 

Workplace context
• This role is primarily based at Mackintosh at the Willow but is required to travel occasionally to other locations on Trust business. Note that as the Trust’s properties are often in remote or rural locations where public transport may be limited, the ability and confidence to drive in the UK is desirable.

Visitor Operations Manager
Calanais Visitor Centre

£35,000-£39,000 per annum
Salary negotiable dependent on experience. 

Hours: 37.5pw

Location: Calanais Visitor Centre, Calanais, Isle of Lewis. HS2 9DY. 
The role will initially be home-based, with onsite working once the Visitor Centre is open from Spring 2026.

The Calanais Visitor Centre is looking for a passionate Visitor Operations Manager to lead the day-to-day delivery of an exceptional visitor experience at this internationally significant site. In this pivotal role you will oversee front-of-hose operations covering admissions, retail and catering.

The Calanais Visitor Centre is undergoing an ambitious £10.1 million redevelopment and will reopen in early 2026 as a world-class, 5-star visitor attraction and a thriving community hub. This is a unique and exciting opportunity for an experienced front-of-house manager to develop and lead the visitor services team at the Calanais Visitor Centre. You’ll inspire your team to exceed visitors’ expectations, meet sales targets, and provide a world-class visitor experience in a fast-paced environment.

This is a full-time role working 37.5 hours per week. Normal working days will be Tuesday-Saturday, however there will be a requirement to work flexibly when required, including evenings, early mornings and across the week (Monday-Saturday).

The salary for this post is £35,000-£39,000 per annum, which is negotiable dependent on experience.

Apply online at: https://careers.calanais.org/roles
Learn more about working at Calanais: https://careers.calanais.org/
For informal queries: careers@calanais.org

Head Chef
Calanais Visitor Centre

£43,000-£48,000 per annum.
Salary negotiable dependent on experience.

Hours: This is a full-time role, working hours will vary throughout the year, with an average of 37.5 hours per week across the year.

Location: Calanais Visitor Centre, Calanais, Isle of Lewis. HS2 9DY.

The Calanais Visitor Centre is looking for a passionate, experienced Head Chef to lead the development of a brand-new catering offer at this internationally significant site. This is a rare and exciting opportunity to join our team. Working in a brand-new kitchen, you’ll have the chance to build your team, design fresh and engaging menus, and create a food offer that reflects the cultural significance of the site while enriching the visitor experience.

The Calanais Visitor Centre is undergoing an ambitious £10.1 million redevelopment and will reopen in early 2026 as a world-class, 5-star visitor attraction and a thriving community hub. This is a unique opportunity for an experienced chef to develop and lead the catering offer at the Calanais Visitor Centre. You’ll be passionate about taking local seasonal ingredients and making high quality food prepared on-site, taking pride in ensuring every dish meets your high expectations.

Regular working hours will generally be in the daytime; however, there will occasionally be a requirement to work flexibly, including evenings, early mornings and throughout the week (Monday-Saturday).

How to Apply

Apply online at: https://careers.calanais.org/roles
Learn more about working at Calanais: https://careers.calanais.org/
For informal queries: careers@calanais.org