In the fast-paced and ever-changing world of professional kitchens, a unique breed of chef is making their mark: the freelance temporary chef. These intrepid culinary professionals choose to forego the stability and routine of a permanent position in favor of the flexibility, variety, and work-life balance that comes with freelancing. By working in 10-20 different kitchens each year, they gain exposure to a wide range of cuisines, techniques, and management styles, accelerating their professional development and honing their adaptability.
However, the life of a temporary chef is not without its challenges. With little job security and a constantly changing work environment, these chefs must be resilient, organised, and adept at building relationships quickly. Balancing the demands of work with personal life can also be a juggling act, requiring careful planning and boundary-setting.
To shed light on this fascinating and growing segment of the culinary industry, we interviewed an anonymous temporary chef, whom we’ll call Jon, about his experiences, strategies for success, and advice for aspiring freelancers. Join us as we explore the rewards and challenges of building a career as a freelance temporary chef in today’s dynamic hospitality landscape
The Insight from Temp Chef ‘Jon’
Q. Tell me about your background and how you decided to leave full time kitchen employment:
At this point in time I’ve been cooking for over 25years and I’ve been a Freelance chef for about 6 of them.
My background is in rosette and Michelin starred kitchens, I did my formative years under a two Michelin star chef who offered to open doors for me to help with my career. Unfortunately, I decided that I wanted a break from the pressure and took a job at a luxury hotel near Manchester. As with quite a lot of job offers in Hospitality, all that glitters isn’t gold, and I left after 10 weeks.
I was offered my old job back by my previous employer, but I decided that I had to take the consequence of my actions and moved on with my career. Having that chef’s name on CV (& a reference from them) opened so many doors for me, and by the age of 23 I was a Senior Sous in a 3 rosette / Red Star property in the Cotswolds.
I was there for 2 years, we had a great team & despite of the owner being a bit of a knob, we were generally left to get on with it – obviously we had to make the margins & GP etc, but as long as the food was at the required expectation he was happy.
I left and went to work in another 3rosette who, like anyone at that level says, wanted a Michelin star. We were regularly inspected, multiple visits a year, and at one point we had an AA and a Michelin inspector on adjacent tables. Sadly it never arrived, and after 2+years I moved on.
It was a turbulent time in the job market during this period, so decided to explore abroad. Again, highly rated Restaurants / Hotels in Michelin & Gault & Milau guides were on my shopping list. Again I had a couple of jobs during this period but it was becoming less satisfying working 90-100hrs a week for 40 hrs pay, I needed more of a work life balance. So I returned back to the UK.
Just to get some quick cash in my bank I decided to take on some agency temp chef work; which eventually led to a permanent job and the obvious drop in wages. And that’s where I decided to cash in on my experience to where I am today.
Q. So how does a typical day look for you?
To be honest It very much depends where I am, but normally it’s the same as every other chef in the kitchen that I work with. The object of the exercise is to integrate into the team. You are already in a difficult situation, for whatever reason, you aren’t there to start dishing out orders and radically changing systems etc – you are there to support current staff.
So one minute you can be making a foie gras terrine & the next wash up. It doesn’t overly bother me, and you can get some staff taking the Mickey out of you, then you remind them what I make in a week they take home in a month.
That said, because I can do all sections in the kitchen I often get put in the pastry and left to my own devices. Then it becomes really obvious as to my background and I’ll often get members of the team asking me about dishes or techniques etc. That’s really gratifying, helping others and investing in them – I don’t know, maybe inspiring them.
Then there are the perks. Depending on the client, but there’s a very good chance they put you up in one of their hotel rooms.
Q. How much are you away from home, and what are the costs involved?
So when I speak to a prospective client I have to assess whether the job is worth the reward; travel, potentially find my own accommodation, food etc. It sounds pretty blunt, but it’s all about the ‘Green’ at the end of the day. You do meet some really solid people, & you stay in touch with them – most you’ll forget by the time you leave the job.
I usually do 20-28,000 miles a year, so motoring costs are an important consideration especially when driving a German sports car. I have a particular range from my home, which is about 2-2½hours away, so I can go home for days off, & clients are normally pretty good in giving you them together.
What’s important to remember about the costs incurred is that they are tax deductible; mileage, accommodation, food, laundering your whites, website & email etc – getting a decent accountant is important.
Q. Do you have an tips for any aspiring Temp chefs?
Oh loads, I could probably write a top ten, if not more:
- Get admin systems set up: yes you are going to be paid a lot (certainly compared to those that are full time employees). So you’ll need to account for where that money goes. Get a business bank account, some of them come with discounts or include platforms like QuikBooks or Freeagent and this will help at Year-end.
- Put some money aside: generally speaking I do about 30%. This will pay my tax bill in January, car repairs/service etc and gives me a buffer if I have some time off.
- Get a decent Accountant: Don’t try and play the system for cash in hand etc. You will get caught maybe not now, but somewhere down the line & HMRC don’t mess about.
- As much as you are there for the money, be professional. This will stand you in good stead for the long game.
- Remember you are a business: So if you get work through an agency and you invoice direct to the client, make sure you have your own Terms of Business in place with the client, or you have something from the agency that should things go a bit wonky and you don’t get paid (and it happens occasionally) that they look after you.
- IR35 has restricted the bigger operators wanting to use people like me, so become au fait with current legislation, learn about IR35 exemptions and how that system works – record it so you have a paper trail.
- Be flexible: As I said earlier, you are going into a difficult situation so be accommodating. You are more likely to be asked back, or even have your assignment extended.
- Get insurance: Not just Public Liability, but also Indemnity. I’ve you use your car then make sure you change that to Business use as well.
- Keep up to date: It’s important, especially as time goes on, that you’ll become out of touch with more modern cooking techniques or ideas – do the occasional stage (short for faire un stage de formation professionnelle – working for free for personal development) in better kitchens. You’ll also be required to hold a valid hygiene certificate, which often gets over looked.
- Network: build up that contact list. What you’ll discover is that people with the same skill level & work ethics naturally gravitate to each other.
Q. What aspects of your current role would you change or improve?
I think the common misconception of because you’re a temp chef that in some way you “couldn’t hack” it in full time employment. If the people who said this type of thing actually thought about it for a milli-second then maybe there wouldn’t be so many chefs considering it as a career option.
Years working in some of the best restaurants, plus countless stages, proves I can ‘hack it’. But going out as Freelance chef also proves that I can stand on my own 2 feet and that I forsake the security of a monthly pay cheque for a better work life balance.
Q. You’ve mentioned money and work/life balance a couple of times, can you expand on this?
So there’s this big misconception that Temp chefs go to bed at night sleeping on a mattress stuffed with pound notes, I’m sure there’s 1 or 2 but in the main it’s not true. I’m comfortable at about £50,000+ approx. But what people need to bear in mind is; No worky, No money.
If I come off a particular hard job then I’ll take a couple of weeks off just to decompress, catch up with sleep etc. But also you can plan your year pretty much with the work peaks and troughs. January & February can be slow and hourly rates will drop, then opportunities start to pick up March and will peak around August, late October to mid November is always a bit of trough as well before picking up for Christmas.
When looking at my December/Christmas assignment I’m thinking ‘will it get me through January (even on reduced hours)’, where as quite a lot of chefs only look at the 3 bank holidays in 8days because of the double time. They aren’t thinking as a business, you might not work those bank holidays, so you should be thinking longer term – Plus; if a hotel takes on a temp chef over Christmas, it has to be viable for them. Paying a chef £40 an hour for a 12 hour day means they have to sell more just to pay for them, so some times it’s worth not charging extra for the bank holiday.
As for the work/life balance, I have about 8weeks holiday a year – give or take, and live a stone’s throw from a great beach. So when the tourists invade, I’m generally out working anyway and only back for days off – so that might be 3days off in 11.
Q. Would you recommend it?
Yes, but then it depends what you want from it. There’s loads of travelling, sometimes overseas and often in beautiful locations – I’ve done Isle of Wight, Cornwall, Isles of Scilly, rural Wales, Kilkenny (Eire) and so on
As you get older you realise that cheffing is young man’s game, do I still want to be doing this in my 50s – No. This is why building the network is so important, especially if you want to stay around Hospitality but not actually in it. The network opens all kinds of doors; Chef recruitment consultant, Supplier salesperson or even working for yourself in a consultancy role.
What you have to bare in mind is, once you’ve turned your back on building a career it’s incredibly hard to get back into it – plus the cut in wages etc is tricky to manage.
If you’d like to join the Saffron Vanilla temporary chef roster, feel free to contact the team:
Contact Saffron Vanilla
Want more tips? Check out these resources:
– Simply Business Guide to Chef Insurance
– Food Standards Agency
– HMRC Self-Employment Guide
Post written & researched by QED web design | WeAreQED