the ideal candidate:

• A passion for Asian food and an obsessed foodie
• Experience working in a professional kitchen, restaurant or development kitchen
• Be able to work in a small team and individually
• Highly organised and self-motivated individual 

about us: 

itsu is the healthy eating, Asian inspired quick service retail & grocery brand with over 70 stores in the UK and a leading grocery business across Europe and beyond. Renowned for its best-in-class food made fresh in every shop every day, itsu has huge global ambitions with a commitment to continue to open many more stores and intensify the growth of its already thriving grocery arm. With its best-is-class healthy food, latest technology, innovation, and talented workforce, itsu is the future of fast food.

D&I statement: 

itsu [grocery] is committed to building a diverse, equitable and inclusive organisation. We encourage applicants from a wide range of backgrounds to apply for all of our opportunities.

When applying for a role with us, please remove your: full name, name of University/School, address, email address and any photos of you on your CV and covering letter. non-anonymised CVs may not be reviewed. 

Scope of the role:

Itsu [grocery] are looking for a Kitchen Developer to be responsible for recipe innovation and supporting the Senior NPD Manager on delivering products from ideation to sign off at Gate 2. The successful candidate will have day to day management of the kitchen and ingredient store and be responsible for cooking up the product range and samples as per requests.

Product innovation

• Makes up recipes to meet the brief from the Senior NPD Manager and pro-actively considers how to approach, providing alternative ideas that are commercially viable and scalable. 
• Accurately documents kitchen recipes, methods and briefs out to suppliers.
• Works with the Senior NPD Mangers and suppliers to review sample submissions and provides feedback.
• Pro-actively arranges tasting of samples developed or samples requested.
• Keeps up to date with food trends related to the category and new products that emerge within retail and restaurants. 

Kitchen management 

• Maintains a tidy, organised and clean kitchen.
• Ensures all ingredients required to produce kitchen samples for live NPD projects are maintained in stock.
• Supports with the general NPD shopping list, keeping the rest of the team pro-actively updated on ability to source required ingredients / samples. 
• Cooks up products and dishes as per requests for business meetings
• Organises and supports products for external customer meetings 

what we offer:

• Competitive salary
• Competitive bonus scheme
• 25 days holiday + bank holidays  (two bank holidays are interchangeable for other religious holidays)
• Health insurance
• Company pension scheme
• 50% employee discount in itsu shops
• Free itsu lunch 
• Discounts at major retailers
• A sizeable training budget to support your ongoing development