Experienced Chef -- Italian Aperitivo & Events

Experienced Chef / Kitchen Lead

Bar Nero — Collingwood, Melbourne
$75,000–$80,000 + super, depending on experience

Bar Nero is a new Italian aperitivo bar in Collingwood, built around the very good idea that a drink should rarely arrive alone.

Think spritz, negroni, amaro, vermouth and wine, alongside the food that naturally belongs with them: cicchetti, fritti, salumi, formaggi and a tight selection of small plates designed for sharing, grazing and ordering just one more thing.

Call it aperitivo, call it cena leggera, call it an excuse to stay for another round — we want the food to feel generous, relaxed and distinctly Italian.

Alongside the everyday bar menu, Bar Nero also caters private events, with canapés, grazing tables and Italian-inspired food for groups, parties and celebrations.

We are now looking for an experienced chef to help bring the kitchen into its final form and give the whole food offer a little more mestiere — craft, discipline and professional polish.

A young cook has already been working under direction to develop the beginnings of the menu, so this is not a completely blank sheet. The bones are there.

What we need now is someone who knows how to take a good idea and make it sing: refine it, simplify where needed, sharpen the execution, cost it properly and build a kitchen that runs with both sprezzatura and common sense.

This role would suit an experienced chef, senior chef de partie or sous chef who is ready to step into something of their own without necessarily wanting the hierarchy and theatre of a large restaurant brigade.

The role

You’ll help establish the kitchen properly from the outset, including:

• Refining and completing the existing menu
• Recipe development, testing and consistency
• Menu and recipe costing
• Food-cost and margin management
• Developing canapé menus and grazing tables for private events
• Helping build a catering offer that is both bello and profitable
• Supplier selection and ordering
• Prep systems, par levels and kitchen organisation
• Waste management and stock control
• Food safety and kitchen compliance
• Establishing practical kitchen systems and standards
• Training and supporting junior kitchen staff
• Working closely with the venue team as Bar Nero settles into trade
• Evolving the menu around seasonality, customer behaviour and what people actually want to order again

We are not interested in building an enormous restaurant menu or reinventing the wheel.

The ambition is much simpler: good ingredients, confident cooking, generosity and restraint.

A plate of fritti with a negroni. A beautiful board of salumi and cheese. A few excellent small plates. Canapés that disappear quickly at a party. A grazing table people gather around before anyone has officially told them to.

Poco, ma buono. Less, but better.

About you

You’ll ideally have:

• Several years' experience in quality restaurant, wine bar or hospitality kitchens
• A strong understanding of Italian or Mediterranean food
• Experience with menu costing and kitchen financials
• Experience with functions, catering or event food highly regarded
• Confidence producing canapés and grazing-style menus
• An instinct for simplicity rather than unnecessary complication
• Good organisation and a calm head during service
• The ability to work independently and take responsibility
• An understanding that delicious food also has to make commercial sense

Previous experience opening a venue, establishing a kitchen or developing a catering offer would be highly regarded.

Most importantly, we’re looking for someone who wants genuine ownership over the food and enjoys the idea of helping shape a venue while it is still young.

What we offer

• $75,000–$80,000 + super, depending on experience
• A new kitchen with the opportunity to establish systems properly
• Genuine influence over the menu, catering offer and kitchen direction
• A focused Italian aperitivo menu rather than an oversized restaurant beast
• The opportunity to help grow our private-events and catering arm
• A collaborative hospitality team
• The chance to put your stamp on a new Collingwood neighbourhood bar

Bar Nero wants to be the kind of place where someone comes in for un aperitivo and somehow leaves two hours later having eaten half the menu.

If that sounds like your kind of kitchen — parliamone.