Tirohana Estate Looking for Sous Chef at Martinborough, Wellington Full Time

About the Business

Tirohana Estate is an award-winning boutique vineyard restaurant serving premium homegrown wines from its own block to accompany country cuisine made from locally sourced produce.

The methodology is artisan of the highest quality (though not pretentious or fine dining in the true sense of the word) with great emphasis on service in a stunningly beautiful location resulting in Tirohana’s growing reputation as being a truly unique wine and food location. 

This is a rarely available opportunity to join a dedicated and loyal team who truly have fun in a work environment and obtain job satisfaction and pride through endeavour.

With great career prospects including being trained in all aspects of viticulture and other areas of hospitality.

Martinborough is world famous as a niche award-winning wine region and the Wairarapa in general offers a varied lifestyle with great boutique shops, cinema, sports clubs and an active social life within a photogenic semi rural setting (just an hour away from Wellington).

The client base drives the business and is generally New Zealand based but Tirohana serves clients from all over the world.

The restaurant accounts for the majority of the catering element but there are many events and functions throughout the year such as Toast Martinborough every November.

Tirohana has many themed events as well including the Roaring Twenties theme night and New Years Eve Grand Dinner Dance and also features challenging menus during its season of focusing on international food – like a Taste of Italy for instance.

The candidate will enjoy a diverse range of duties with the possibility of adding viticultural and other hospitality skills to their range and there is genuine opportunity for career growth and development in line with the expansion plans in place for the business.

Job tasks and responsibilities

The candidate will be inducted to assist and maintain all areas of food preparation, menu selection, supply sourcing and hands-on service in both the restaurant and Grand Marquee special events calendar.

Core duties revolve around a fixed price menu featuring entree, main, dessert preparation, cooking and service as well as amuse bouche, petit fours, staff meals, kitchen tidy up, light dishwashing, taking phone calls and bookings on occasion.

Sole charge of kitchen for many shifts with the ability to prepare, cook and serve entrees, mains and desserts (i.e. this role is not part of a ‘line’ of chefs).

Lunch and dinner service (no breakfast).

On occasion the candidate will be exposed to front of house for table side service, client greetings and guest queries.

Skills and experience

This role is ideally suited to a competent chef (ideally trained to at least sous chef level) who is keen and willing, flexible and confident with sole charge to join a small dedicated team who are passionate about their work in a relaxed and fun environment. 

A team player attitude is vital and ideally a degree of interpersonal skills would be evident as well as Tirohana has some high profile clients who on occasion like to meet the chef.

Loyalty, punctuality and a high level of professional and personal hygiene is obviously important.

But overall at the core a unique ‘can-do’ attitude will ensure that the candidate has a rewarding and fulfilling experience working at Tirohana, which will be challenging and informative (and at times hopefully even inspiring).

Under the tutelage of a very nurturing and supportive executive team of award-winning professionals.

What you would be doing

The main things that you would be doing include:

• Food preparation and cooking, plating, presentation
• Maintaining and ordering stocks and supplies

Who we’re looking for

We’re looking for candidates with the following attributes:

• Able to work a flexible schedule including days, evenings, weekends and public holidays
• Experience in a similar role
• Creative, and passionate about food and providing high standards of food service
• Positive attitude and ability to thrive under pressure