Cook

Cook

Location: University Hospital Southampton, SO16 6YD
Salary: £12.92per hour plus excellent benefits
Schedule: Fulltime 37.5 hours per week working shifts between 6am and 7pm shifts will include weekends.

Ready to impact a better future?

As a Cook in our Retail Catering Services team at University Hospital Southampton, you’ll play a vital role in preparing and serving food that supports patient recovery, colleague wellbeing and visitor experience. Your work will directly contribute to a safe, welcoming and nourishing environment across the hospital.

This is a hands-on, purposeful role where quality, care and consistency matter. From preparing daily menu items to supporting special dietary requirements and themed food events, you’ll help create a positive impact for everyone who relies on our catering service. Our work touches lives every day — and yours will too.

What you’ll do as a Cook

You’ll be entrusted to:

• Prepare, produce, present and serve daily menu items for patients, colleagues and visitors
• Maintain high standards of food hygiene, health and safety, and cleanliness across all food preparation and service areas
• Support the supervision of servery operations and service delivery
• Assist with stock control, monitoring wastage and ensuring economical use of ingredients
• Prepare therapeutic and special diets in line with nutritional and dietary requirements
• Contribute ideas for new menu lines, themed days and service improvements

Does this sound like you?

You’ll be a great fit for this role if you have:

• Proven experience working in a busy catering or food production environment
• A good working knowledge of food hygiene regulations and HACCP principles
• The ability to work confidently with kitchen equipment, recipes and standard procedures
• Strong teamwork and communication skills, with a customer‑focused approach
• A flexible, reliable attitude and pride in delivering quality service

Discover all you need to keep growing

We’re one of the top 1% of international employers, so you can have confidence you’ll be part of a highly supportive culture with leaders you can count on to help you achieve your goals. From mentoring and training to our focus on internal progression, we’re proud to offer clear development opportunities – and the support and tools to help you seize them.

What we offer

• Salary: Competitive salaries with annual reviews
• Pension: Up to 6% contributory pension scheme
• Holidays: 25 days' annual leave plus bank holidays
• Training and development: We offer a wide range of learning opportunities with over 1,100 internal courses available, funding for qualifications and apprenticeships, mentoring opportunities, and a focus on internal progression
• Wellbeing: 24/7 Employee Assistance Programme, BUPA Anytime Healthline, wellbeing app, simply health cash plans to claim back money towards healthcare costs, 30% off at Serco-managed leisure centres
• Discounts: Save across around 1,000 retailers, from food and clothing to days out, entertainment and travel
• Employee networks: Dedicated networks where colleagues can come together to find support, share challenges, discuss ideas, network and be part of a community
• Charity: Support a charity or organisation with a paid volunteering day each year. You can also choose to donate to your favourite charity tax-free, through our Payroll Giving Scheme

Let’s impact a better future, together. Apply today.

About Serco
At Serco, not only is the nature of the work we do important, everyone has an important role to play, from caring for vulnerable people to managing complex public services.  We are a team of 50,000 people responsible for delivering essential public services around the world in areas including defence, transport, justice, immigration, healthcare and citizen services. We are innovators, committed to redesigning and improving public services for the benefit of everyone.

By joining Serco you will have unlimited access to our Global Employee Networks – SercoInspire (Gender), SercoEmbrace (Multicultural), SercoUnlimited (Disability) and In@Serco (LGBT & Networks). Serco Employee Networks, led by colleagues who are passionate about diversity, inclusion and belonging. 

Apply
Please click on the apply button to complete your application. Occasionally we receive a large volume of applications for our roles and when that happens we sometimes bring the closing date forward, so please apply promptly to avoid disappointment. 

At Serco, we see people first and foremost for their performance and potential. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive organisation that supports the needs of all. As such we will make reasonable adjustments at interview through to employment for our candidates and strongly encourage applications from a diverse candidate pool. We are open to discussions around flexibility and flexible working. We operate a hybrid work structure in many of our business areas. We are proudly Disability Confident Leader employers and holder of the Gold Inclusive Employer Standard. Disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the job will be given the opportunity to demonstrate their abilities at an interview.  For help with your application please contact 0345 010 4000.
 

At Serco we support fair access to employment for those with unspent criminal convictions through the ‘Ban the Box’ pledge (some may be exempt due to the nature of the role and the security clearance required). Please contact our recruitment team directly on 0345 010 4000 to discuss.