Head Chef Job Description for a Japanese Restaurant

Senior Japanese chefs read job ads the way investors read a term sheet. They skip the adjectives and look for authority, numbers and exit risk: how much of the menu is theirs, what they are measured on, who they answer to, and what happens to them if the owner changes direction. An ad that answers those questions attracts people who have run kitchens. An ad that does not attracts people who hope to.

This template is for the top kitchen role in a Japanese restaurant of any format. For sushi-specific wording see the sushi chef job description; for an operations role that sits beside the head chef, see the kitchen manager job description.

1. Five decisions to make before you write

1. Menu authority. Does the head chef write the menu, adapt yours, or execute a group menu? Pick one.
2. Budget authority. Which numbers do they own: food cost, labour cost, both? What is the target?
3. People authority. Do they hire, set rotas, discipline and dismiss, or recommend to you?
4. Reporting line. Owner, general manager, or an executive chef at group level?
5. Time on the line. Will they cook most services, or run the pass and the office?

Write these down and make sure the owner agrees with them. A disagreement on any of these is much harder to fix after the chef has moved country than before you post the ad.

2. Head chef job description template

Job title

Head Chef, [Restaurant name], [City]

About the restaurant

[Restaurant name] is a [seat count]-seat [kaiseki / sushi / izakaya / modern Japanese] restaurant in [area], open [days and services]. Annual food sales are around [amount] and the kitchen team is [x] people. [One sentence on what makes the food distinctive.]

The role

You will lead the kitchen and own the food. You report to [title]. [The general manager / kitchen manager] handles [front of house / admin tasks], so your time goes into the menu, the team and the standard of every plate.

What you will own

• The menu: [writing seasonal menus / developing dishes within the group menu], with [x] changes a year
• Food cost, with a target of [x]% of food sales, reported [weekly / monthly]
• Kitchen labour within [x]% of sales, including rotas for [x] staff
• Hiring, training and performance of the kitchen team [final decisions with / subject to approval by (title)]
• Supplier selection and quality control for [fish / beef / imported Japanese goods]
• Food safety and inspection results for the whole kitchen
• Training [x] local cooks to cover each station, with a written plan

What we are looking for

• [x] years in Japanese kitchens, including [x] years as head chef, sous chef or section head
• Proven cost control: tell us the food cost you ran and how
• Experience training cooks who did not start with Japanese technique
• [Language requirement, stated honestly]
• [Certifications, for example a Japanese 調理師免許 (cook's licence) or local food safety manager certification]

Hours

[x] hours a week, [x] days off. [Salaried; how extra hours are handled.]

Pay and benefits

[Currency][range] per year, plus [bonus: tied to food cost, sales or reviews]. [Paid leave, health insurance, meals, housing or relocation support, annual flight home.]

Visa and relocation

[Sponsorship position, what you pay for, and the expected timeline.]

How to apply

Send [CV, sample menus you wrote, and photos of dishes] to [contact]. Shortlisted candidates will [cook a tasting / present a menu proposal]. We reply to every applicant within [x] days.

3. Training and succession: write it in

A restaurant that depends entirely on one chef is fragile, and some immigration systems ask employers to show a plan for transferring skills. Malaysia's revised expatriate salary policy, for example, makes a succession plan mandatory for Employment Pass Category II and III from 1 January 2027.

Even where it is not required, put training in the job: name the stations local cooks should be able to cover within a set period, and make it part of how the head chef is reviewed. It also signals to good candidates that you plan to keep the restaurant running well beyond their contract. For more on this, see succession planning in a Japanese kitchen and training local staff in Japanese cuisine.

4. Setting the pay band

Start from official data for your location. For the US, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports these annual wages for chefs and head cooks (May 2025):

That category mixes head chefs with head cooks in all kinds of kitchens. A head chef who owns the menu, the budget and a team, in a city with high living costs, belongs in the upper part of the range. In Singapore, the Ministry of Manpower's June 2024 wage tables give a median gross monthly wage of S$3,850 for chefs; again, a head chef with full responsibility should be well above the median.

If you are sponsoring a visa, the pay band may also need to meet a legal minimum. See US prevailing wage for chefs and visa sponsorship for Japanese chefs, and our guide to structuring chef offers.

5. Recruiting a head chef from Japan

If you want candidates from Japan, publish a Japanese version, give pay as an annual figure with any bonus shown separately, and describe your kitchen in terms a Japanese chef recognises: how many people, which sections, who does the fish. Say whether the role is 料理長 in the full Japanese sense (owning the menu and the team) or closer to a senior cook running a set menu. Our guide to writing a job ad for chefs in Japan covers the wording.

6. Pre-publish checklist

• Are menu, budget and people authority stated plainly?
• Is the reporting line named?
• Are food cost and labour targets given as numbers?
• Is there a written training or succession expectation?
• Is there a pay range, with bonus terms?
• Is the visa and relocation position stated, with what you cover?

General information, not legal or immigration advice. Pay floors, visa conditions and employment rules vary by country and change over time; check the current rules before publishing.