Chefs are responsible for the whole range of Navy's catering requirements from cooking three to four meals a day for hungry ships’ companies, to catering for official functions including cocktail parties, formal dinners, buffets, morning and afternoon teas, and many high profile international and diplomatic functions. A chef is expected to cook for anyone from the most junior sailor, to Presidents and members of the Royal Family.

You could be preparing a cocktail party to be held by the Commanding Officer while in a foreign country or preparing a high carbohydrate meal  for a new recruit involved in intense physical training. You will prepare meals at sea and ashore and may even cook 'in the field' on peacekeeping operations overseas.

Your career will start with initial and specialist training before posting to a shore based galley to practice your new skills.  Further postings will see you serving at sea and ashore with further training and courses available to help with your career development and progression. Those that make the grade are able to sit for written examinations for the City and Guilds of London Institute.

The lifestyle

You will work in galleys (kitchens) at sea and in shore establishments. You will work alongside fellow chefs who will be at various stages of their career. Your duties will include the preparation and cooking of regular meals for as few as 10 people to as many as 200. This means that you could be on watch anytime between 5am and 10pm on any day of the week or even be required to work through the night when at sea. As a shift worker your scheduled days off will sometimes occur on a normal working day rather than a weekend.

In addition, whilst serving on ship, you will take part in various functions as part of the ship’s communal effort. This can be as varied as carrying out damage control activities, being part of a boarding team, general seamanship activities, domestic cleanliness duties, storing, and ammunition handling – just to name a few.

Career progression

Your hard work, experience, and training accomplishments as a Chef are rewarded by promotions in rank and salary. Following your initial training and consolidation, you can reasonably be expected to have attained a basic level of competence within 18 months of joining. This will be supplemented by a sea posting and then further training to prepare you for promotion to a supervisory role.

Advanced training will involve both generic leadership skills and development as a chef. Successful completion of these will qualify you for a promotion to Leading Hand whereby you will be responsible for supervising a team of chefs, either at sea or ashore.

The minimum remuneration you will be paid from day one is $33,256. Your remuneration will increase upon graduation of recruit course to $40,500+ and will continue to increase on promotion and seniority.

• Be a minimum of 17 years of age.

• Be a NZ citizen or have permanent residency and have lived in NZ for five years.

• Be of good character – assessed by study of testimonials and a police record check.

• Be free of any criminal convictions for the previous two years.

• Have completed at least three years of secondary education.

• Have a minimum of 12 NCEA level 1 credits in English and Maths.

• Be medically fit for service.

Devonport, Auckland