Chef - All-Day Café & Casual Dining

About the role

The Exile is a coffee-food-play venue in Al Ain looking for a Chef to lead its kitchen and run an all-day café and casual-dining menu: breakfast and brunch, gourmet burgers and fried chicken, sharing plates, pasta, pizza and desserts. You will own how every plate is made and how the kitchen performs, working closely with operations and Foodics.

Key responsibilities

• Prepare and plate every item to the recipes and plating standards, from breakfast through late-night service.
• Lead, schedule, train and coach the kitchen team and run clean shift handovers.
• Work to recipe and portion specs, track waste and help cost dishes against food-cost targets.
• Run HACCP-based practices: temperature logs, labelling, FIFO, allergens and cleaning schedules, keeping the kitchen inspection-ready.
• Manage daily prep levels, stock counts, ordering and receiving, and check supplier quality and invoices.
• Keep recipe cards and SOPs up to date so every dish tastes and looks the same on every shift.
• Propose new dishes, specials and seasonal items, and support catering and event orders alongside regular service.

Required profile

• Minimum 5 years of kitchen experience in a comparable concept such as an all-day café, brunch café, gourmet burger or casual-dining restaurant, or a hotel all-day dining.
• Proven experience with breakfast/brunch plus burgers, fried chicken and casual-dining dishes at volume.
• Experience leading a kitchen team (Sous Chef / Chef de Partie level or above).
• Willingness to work on-site in Al Ain, including weekends, evenings and peak nights.
• Preferred: currently in the UAE.

Required skills

• HACCP and food-cost control (recipe costing, portioning, waste tracking)
• Preferred: knowledge of UAE food safety rules (ADAFSA) and a HACCP certificate
• Preferred: Foodics or similar POS/inventory system experience
• Preferred: desserts/pastry skills, including Arabic desserts

What we offer

• A competitive package of AED 2,500 to 3,500 per month.
• The chance to lead the kitchen of a unique venue in Al Ain.
• Room to shape the menu and build your own team.
• A founder-led, hands-on business where good work is noticed.