Find your place in the field of good food

Our goal is to connect good people with good food. We advertise sustainable food jobs and training opportunities to help jobseekers and employers find each other.

Roots to Work is a project of Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming.

Job description

Join us for a new year in spring 2025!

We are looking for some bright sparks to join our small but perfectly formed team, starting in early March 2025.

Chef de parties

At Inver, chef de parties are responsible for dishes in their entirety so some experience with fish and meat prep, vegetable cooking and sauces is essential. Knowledge of cooking over fire or a willingness to learn would be a bonus! Pastry and sourdough bread baking experience is particularly welcome (a specialist pastry CdP or a full-blown pastry chef role is a possibility). Exemplary organisational and time management skills are essential, as is an ability get on with a small diverse team. Some people management and co-operation skills are necessary, as you will be sharing a section with at least one other chef de partie plus junior chefs or our frequent work experience visitors. You’ll have a strong senior management team of sous chefs and a head chef for support, training and inspiration.

Salary: £32,000 per annum, pro rata (plus tips on top)

FRONT OF HOUSE

Server

A waiter or waitress will have a genuine love for food, drink and gracious service. Some previous experience in restaurants is an advantage, notably an understanding of the importance of team work and great communication, especially during the busy services. A familiarity with excellent ingredients, wine (especially ‘natural’ or low-intervention wines) and the skills of service are of course desirable. Coffee and cocktail skills and knowledge are of interest, but we can offer training in both too. A bar specialist role is a possibility.

Above all, what is essential is an open, friendly personality and a love of people and of hospitality itself. We can teach much of the rest and Inver is a great place to learn.

Salary: £13.50 per hour (plus tips on top)

General assistant

We are also looking for a general assistant to help with both restaurant & housekeeping shifts.  Our senior long-term housekeeper Jo takes great pride in looking after our six beautiful boutique cabins and loves the excitement our guests share when she delivers their breakfast picnic baskets and check out after a dreamy stay. We need support for her and the front-of-house team during the working week. Experience is not essential, but some physical and mental energy and a willingness to learn fast are! This is an awesome opportunity to gain great restaurant experience and to learn a lot about fantastic food and drink. Some kitchen assistance is possible too.

Salary: £13 per hour (with tips on top)

Auxiliary Housekeeper (part time available)

We’re looking for a helper for the housekeeping team: someone to do the background organisation, sorting, polishing and cleaning. Experience is not essential, but some physical and mental energy and a willingness to learn fast are!

These shifts start mid-morning and finish mid/late afternoon, so they may suit someone looking after school aged children. Weekly working hours can be flexible, from 6 -30 hours per week.

Salary: £13 per hour (with tips on top)

What sort of people are we looking for?

Inver is a personal project by owners Pam and Rob - we share the same rota with you daily. We are a small, close team and we recruit for whole people, not just job titles. We'll give you what you need to flourish.

In return we need some rock-solid hospitality skills. From our senior managers especially, we need people who share our values: community, compassion, craft, and climate. We want people ready to contribute to - and lead- a proper Team; to put the wellbeing of everyone else on a par with their own personal needs. Compassionate, self-motivated and creative individuals do well at Inver. It’s worth remembering that we are a restaurant: service is often fast-paced, and always requires juggling constantly competing deadlines and dealing with people with competing demands. Working days are energetic. If you thrive in this kind of environment, we can offer you so much more besides.

We are located 1.5 hours drive from the nearest city (Glasgow) so some appreciation for countryside activities and an ability to enjoy your own company are helpful! (That said we are good at entertaining each other too.) A car and driver's license is useful but not essential.

Permission to work in the UK is essential. 

About Inver

Inver is located right on the shore of Loch Fyne on Scotland’s beautiful west coast. (The water is closer than some kitchens' dry stores!) The quality of the produce we use is unparalleled; shellfish and mackerel are straight from the waters outside; two local gardeners produce herbs, flowers soft fruit and vegetables for us; wild game is shot on the surrounding estates and wild berries and herbs picked from the hedge- rows. Rare breed pork, lamb and Highland beef come from nearby farms. We make our own soft cheeses and yoghurt; kojis and misos; charcuterie and ferments.

Our craft skills ethos extends to the bar and restaurant, which makes its own tonic syrup, shrubs and bitters. There’s a short creative cocktail menu. Produce from the gardens and hedgerows informs the drinks menu. We brew innovative beers in collaboration with a nearby brewery, and previously staff have led on their production. The wine list is almost 100% from low-intervention production with a focus on small producers. Talented friends make the stoneware plates, weave the wool cushions, carve the wooden spoons, and design the pictures and prints. We have six luxury cabins providing sleeping accommodation for guests adjacent to the restaurant.

Most importantly we value our people as highly as the produce. We take great pleasure in investing in our people- staff, small suppliers and guests- and watching them and our relationship grow. We have three qualified mental health first aiders on staff and do mental health awareness training for all staff with Kelly's Cause. Other skills training we’ve invested in includes chocolate-making with former Inver employee Chloe at her own business Chocolatia, whose chocolates we now serve in the restaurant.  Previously we've made butter and soft cheeses with Robert at micro-creamery Wee Dalry Dairy; plus food growing, wine tastings, coffee training and more. Former employee-turned-herbalist, Ciara, is now supplying us with kombuchas and collaborating on cosmetics for the rooms. We've had team trips out to remote islands with the seaweed diver; to fish for mackerel with our neighbours; to the local coffee roastery; to picnic on beaches accessible only by boat; and to the pub! You'll meet most of the suppliers and enjoy being part of a small friendly community who know each others' names and families, blurring the lines between life and work. We provide healthy and tasty staff meals, daily coffee and beers at the weekend!  In a response to our Countertalk Culture workplace review (which we undertook voluntarily), one member of staff stated: “For the first time in my working life, I feel like nothing needs improving. We’re valued, the philosophy is bang on, the pay is good, the people are nice, meals, snacks and heaps of support are available”.

There's LOTS more info on our website, including pay, perks, and accommodation! 

Application information

Please send you CV and a covering letter to Pam, pam@inverrestaurant.co.uk

There isn’t a closing date for applications: we’ll commit when we have found the right person. However, we do close for Christmas (and this year’s winter break) from Sunday 15th December, so if you'd like to visit us while the restaurant is open, then that is your deadline! 

Please mention Roots to Work when applying for these jobs