Sous Chef Hiring Agency for Restaurants, Hotels and Catering
Hire a sous chef who can run a pass without the head chef in the building. Alliance recruits sous chefs on permanent, contract and temporary terms, with a minimum assignment of one month. Every shortlisted candidate cooks before you meet them. Sourced from India, the Philippines, Nepal and the Gulf, and placed across 36+ countries. We do not supply single shifts, day-rate or weekend cover.
Our recruitment team assesses each sous chef against practical cooking ability, kitchen leadership, menu execution, food safety, team management, and service pressure. This helps restaurants, hotels, and catering businesses interview candidates who are ready to step into a working kitchen and maintain standards from day one.
16+ Years Of Experience
550,000+ Placements Delivered
36+ Countries Served
350+ Expert Teams
50+ Top Level Positions
What Does a Sous Chef Hiring Agency Do?
A sous chef recruitment agency finds, tests and places the second-in-command of your kitchen: the person who runs service when the head chef is off, manages the line, controls prep and ordering, and holds the standard when nobody senior is watching.
That last part is why sous chef hiring fails more often than any other kitchen role. A CV shows brigade size and cuisine. It does not show whether someone can hold a pass at 8pm on a Saturday with two covers down and a walk-in delivery late. You find that out in week three, in service, at your customers’ expense.
Alliance recruits sous chefs on permanent, contract and temporary terms. Contract and temporary placements run for a minimum of one month, for example to cover busy seasons, holidays or staff absences. We do not provide day-rate staff, single shifts or kitchen cover for less than one month, and if that is what you need, we are the wrong supplier.
Scope covers sourcing, practical trade testing, reference checks with previous head chefs, offer management and, for overseas placements, preparing candidate documents for the employer’s work-visa application.
Sous chef hiring with Alliance at a glance: Alliance Recruitment Agency recruits sous chefs for restaurants, hotels and catering businesses on permanent, contract and temporary terms, with contract and temporary placements for a minimum of one month. It shares a shortlist within 24–48 hours of an agreed brief, offers a 90-day replacement guarantee on permanent placements, and brings 16+ years of recruitment experience, 9,000+ organisations served across 36+ countries and a 4.8 average client rating.
For the wider kitchen practice, see our chef recruitment agency page.
Weighing up which senior role to fill first? Our guide to head chef vs sous chef hiring explains how the two roles differ.
What to Look For When You Hire a Sous Chef
A strong sous chef combines cooking ability with the management skills to run the kitchen when the head chef is away. When you hire a sous chef, look for:
- Experience at chef de partie level or above in a kitchen of similar volume and cuisine
- A record of running service, managing the line and leading a brigade
- Working knowledge of food safety, allergen control and the hygiene rules that apply in your country
- Stock control, ordering, prep planning and food cost awareness
- Rota planning and the ability to train and develop junior chefs
Every Sous Chef Cooks Before You Meet Them
Most sous chef recruitment agencies send you a CV and a phone-screen summary. A sous chef is hired on judgement under pressure, and no interview tests that. We put shortlisted candidates in a kitchen with a brief, a time limit, and a real service scenario, and you get the result before you spend an hour of your head chef’s time.
How Long Does It Take to Hire a Sous Chef?
Shortlist: within 24–48 hours of an agreed brief. The time from shortlist to start date then depends on your interviews and the candidate’s notice period.
Overseas placements: allow extra time between offer and arrival for the employer’s work-visa process, medicals and travel.
Notice periods in senior kitchen roles are commonly four weeks, so plan the start date accordingly.
How Much Does It Cost to Hire a Sous Chef?
The cost of hiring a sous chef depends on the role, the market and whether you hire on a permanent, contract or temporary basis. Book a free 30-minute consultation and we will talk you through the options for your kitchen.
What We Offer on Every Sous Chef Mandate
A practical trade test before shortlist, not after
A live brief, a time limit, a real service scenario. Candidates who interview brilliantly and cook adequately are eliminated here, which is the entire point.
References taken from the previous head chef, not from HR
The question that matters is “would you put them on the pass alone” and only one person can answer it.
Screening for the specific kitchen, not the job title
A sous chef from a 200-cover brasserie and a sous chef from a 40-cover tasting menu are not interchangeable, and treating them as such is the most common cause of a failed kitchen hire.
Volume, cuisine and section experience verified
Covers per service, brigade size, sections owned and cuisines actually worked, checked rather than accepted.
Permanent, contract or temporary (minimum one month)
Permanent hires join your payroll. Contract and temporary sous chefs are placed for a minimum of one month, never for single shifts or day-rate cover.
90-day replacement guarantee on permanent placements
If a permanent sous chef you hire through us leaves within 90 days, we find a replacement.
Our Sous Chef Recruitment Process
Kitchen Brief
Covers per service, brigade size, cuisine, sections, who they report to, and what the head chef actually needs delegated. We also discuss the salary on offer and tell you at the start if it is likely to limit the search.
Sourcing, Screening and Shortlist
Sourced against the kitchen rather than the title. Volume, cuisine, and section experience verified before anything reaches you.
Practical Trade Test
Candidates cook to a brief under time pressure. Expect this stage to eliminate people who read well on paper. You receive the result with the profile.
Head Chef Interview
Interview with the head chef they will report to, plus a paid trial service where practical. A sous chef appointed without meeting their head chef rarely lasts six months.
Offer, Notice and Start
Offer, counter-offer management and notice navigation. For overseas placements, we prepare candidate documents for the employer’s work-visa application and keep you updated through to arrival.
Post-Placement Follow-Up (Ongoing)
We stay in touch after the sous chef joins to ensure the transition is smooth, gather feedback from the kitchen team, and address any early concerns before they affect retention.
Need a Sous Chef Fast?
Share your kitchen requirements and get a realistic hiring timeline, salary guidance, and relevant candidates from our specialist recruitment team.
Kitchens and Roles We Recruit For
Hotel kitchens
Sous chefs for multi-outlet properties, banqueting and room service operations, where the role carries rota and cost responsibility as well as service. See our hotel recruitment agencies practice.
Restaurants and standalone dining
Independent, group and fine dining, where the sous chef is the head chef’s only senior support.
Fine dining and tasting menu kitchens
Where precision and consistency matter more than volume, and the assessment is different.
High-volume and casual dining
150 covers and up, where throughput, section discipline and prep control decide whether service holds.
Contract catering and institutional
Corporate dining, education, healthcare and industrial catering.
Cloud kitchens and delivery operations
Where the sous chef often runs the site outright.
Adjacent kitchen roles we also place
Head chef, chef de partie, commis chef, pastry chef, kitchen manager and executive chef.
Cuisines
Indian, Continental, Pan-Asian, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, Chinese and Japanese, with cuisine experience verified rather than claimed.
Markets
India, the Gulf, Europe, the UK, Africa and Asia-Pacific across 36+ countries.
Who We Serve
Head chefs covering the sous chef gap themselves
where the cost is not the fee; it is the head chef working eighty hours and heading for burnout.
Operators opening a new site
needing a sous chef in place before the kitchen is signed off, on a date that cannot move.
Hotels running multiple outlets
where one weak sous chef in one outlet shows up in the property’s review scores.
Businesses whose last sous chef left within six months
usually hired on a CV and an interview, and now wanting to see someone cook first.
Employers who have relied on agency cover for too long
where the temporary spend has quietly exceeded what a permanent hire would have cost, and consistency has suffered.
Operators hiring internationally
recruiting from India, the Philippines or Nepal into Gulf or European kitchens, with candidate documents prepared for the employer’s work-visa application.
The Alliance Advantage in Kitchen Recruitment
Every candidate cooks before you meet them. Not a portfolio, not a phone screen. A brief, a time limit, and a result.
References from the previous head chef. The only person who can tell you whether they could be left on the pass.
Screened for your kitchen, not the job title. Covers, brigade, cuisine, and sections verified.
Straight advice on salary, and we say so at the start if the role is unlikely to fill at your number.
Permanent, contract or temporary. Contract and temporary sous chefs are placed for a minimum of one month. No day rates and no single shifts: if you need someone for a fortnight, we are not the right supplier and will say so immediately.
Overseas hires supported, with candidate documents prepared for the employer’s work-visa application and regular updates through to arrival.
16+ years, 9,000+ organisations served across 36+ countries, with a 4.8 average client rating and 95% repeat business.
Why Choose Alliance to Hire Your Sous Chef?
Kitchen recruitment has one failure mode that dominates all the others. A candidate reads well, interviews well, and cannot hold a section under pressure. Nobody involved did anything obviously wrong. The assessment simply never tested the thing the job is actually made of.
That is why every shortlisted candidate cooks. It is slower, it costs us candidates who will not sit a test, and it is the only stage in the process that predicts anything.
We will also tell you when the brief, rather than the market, is the problem. If the salary or conditions on offer are unlikely to attract the sous chef you need, we would rather say so at the start than run a search that cannot succeed.
We are the wrong choice in two situations. If you need cover starting this weekend, or for less than a month, we do not provide it: our contract and temporary sous chefs are placed for a minimum of one month. And if your kitchen is losing sous chefs every six months, a new hire alone will not fix that, and we will tell you so before a search starts.
For a wider kitchen team build, see pastry chef hiring agency or hire a chef for a restaurant in India.
Our Client Reviews
We needed a sous chef who could actually handle service, not just someone with a strong CV. Alliance arranged a practical assessment before we interviewed the candidates, and the shortlist was much more relevant than what we had seen from other agencies.
Alliance understood that we needed someone who could support the head chef and take control of the kitchen when required. The candidates were well screened for kitchen leadership and service experience, which made the final decision much easier.
The recruitment process was straightforward from our side. Alliance managed sourcing, screening and references, and the candidate we hired fitted well into our brigade. We appreciated the focus on practical ability rather than simply matching keywords on a CV.
Awards
Meet Our Leadership Team
Molly Anderson
Franchise Lead | Recruitment Franchise
Alex George
General Manager | RPO & Enterprise Recruitment
Nikki Miller
Head of Recruitment | Recruitment & Staffing
Frequently Asked Questions
A sous chef hiring agency sources, trade-tests, and places the second-in-command of your kitchen, covering sourcing, practical assessment, reference checks with previous head chefs, offer management, and, for overseas placements, candidate documents for the employer’s work-visa application.
Make them cook. A CV shows brigade size and cuisine, not whether someone can hold a pass under pressure. Every shortlisted candidate should complete a practical trade test against a real service brief before you spend interview time on them.
We share a shortlist within 24–48 hours of an agreed brief. The time to a start date then depends on your interviews, the candidate’s notice period and, for overseas hires, the employer’s work-visa process.
It depends on the role, the market and whether you hire on a permanent, contract or temporary basis. Book a free 30-minute consultation and we will talk you through the options for your kitchen.
Yes. Alliance places sous chefs on permanent, contract and temporary terms, with a minimum assignment of one month. We do not supply day-rate cover, single shifts or event staff.
A live brief, a time limit and a real service scenario appropriate to your kitchen. You receive the result alongside the candidate profile before deciding whether to interview.
Yes. Covers per service, brigade size, sections owned, and cuisines actually worked are verified. A sous chef from a 200-cover brasserie and one from a 40-cover tasting menu are not interchangeable.
The previous head chef, wherever possible, because they are the only person who can say whether the candidate could be left on the pass alone.
Head chef, executive chef, chef de partie, commis chef, pastry chef, and kitchen manager.
Yes. We source and screen sous chefs in India, the Philippines, Nepal and other markets for kitchens in the Gulf, Europe and Asia, and prepare candidate documents for the employer’s work-visa application.
Yes. Permanent placements carry a 90-day replacement guarantee: if the sous chef leaves within 90 days, we find a replacement.
Send the kitchen brief: covers, brigade, cuisine, sections and salary. We will confirm whether it is fillable at that number before starting.
A sous chef is the second-in-command of a kitchen. They run service when the head chef is off, manage the line, control prep and ordering, supervise and train junior chefs, and keep food safety and quality standards in place.
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