Taste Hospitality specialises in permanent hospitality recruitment for leadership and senior roles across Melbourne and Victoria.
We work with venues where hiring decisions carry real operational consequences — where leadership quality directly impacts standards, culture, and retention.
This is not high-volume recruitment.
It is considered, operator-led hiring.
PERMANENT HOSPITALITY RECRUITMENT
Permanent leadership roles for restaurants, pubs, and premium venues.Most recruitment processes focus on CVs, tenure, and interview performance.
Ours doesn’t.
We assess candidates based on how they operate in real hospitality environments: how they make decisions under pressure, lead teams through demanding services, and uphold standards when it matters most.
That judgement comes from lived operational experience, not recruitment theory.
HOW WE ASSESS LEADERS
WHAT THIS MEANS IN PRACTICE
When we work on a role, you can expect:
Shortlists built on behaviour, not presentation
Candidates assessed for leadership presence, accountability, and cultural fit
Consideration of how someone will function inside your existing team, not just whether they’ve done a similar role before
We don’t submit candidates to fill gaps.
We submit candidates we’re confident will perform over time.
Who We Recruit
Taste Hospitality recruits permanent leadership and senior roles including:
Executive & Head Chefs / Sous Chefs / CDPs
Restaurant, Venue & General Managers
Assistant Managers / Supervisors
Area & Operations Managers
FOH professionals with polish, pace, and presence
These are roles where judgement, consistency, and the ability to lead under pressure matter as much as experience.
ACCOUNTABILITY AND LONG-TERM OUTCOMES
A senior hire doesn’t succeed in the first two weeks.
They succeed over months and years.
Our focus is on long-term performance, retention, and team stability — not quick wins.
That’s why we’re selective about the searches we take on and deliberate in how we run them.
Tell us what you need — we’ll take it from here.Prefer to chat? 📞Call Us 0418 479 244We work with intent.
That means:
We don’t rush shortlists for the sake of speed
We don’t overload clients with marginal candidates
We don’t compromise standards to increase placement odds
Every shortlist is deliberate, focused, and defensible.
OUR APPROACH TO SHORTLISTS
SOURCING & MARKET REACH
Strong shortlists come from reach, not reliance on a single channel.
We draw on a deep, operator-led network built over years in hospitality, alongside targeted advertising and direct headhunting. This allows us to access both active and passive candidates — including people who aren’t actively applying but are open to the right opportunity.
Sourcing decisions are deliberate.
We don’t rely on inbound applications alone, and we don’t blanket the market.
Every search is designed to surface the strongest possible talent pool before assessment begins.
Understand our approach to how we recruitWhen you engage Taste Hospitality on a permanent leadership hire, the process is clear, deliberate, and hands-on.
We manage the search end-to-end, so you can focus on running your venue while decisions are made properly.
WHAT WORKING WITH US LOOKS LIKE
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You receive a considered shortlist of candidates we’re confident in.
Each shortlisted candidate is presented with:
A detailed candidate profile
Screening notes covering leadership style, decision-making under pressure, and cultural fit
Clear context around strengths, risks, and suitability for your environment
No volume. No maybes. Just candidates we would back.
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We coordinate interviews and, where appropriate, trials.
We handle:
Interview scheduling
Trial arrangements
Candidate and client feedback
We keep communication clear and timely, and we address concerns early rather than letting them linger.
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Before an offer is finalised, we conduct structured reference checks.
These focus on:
Leadership behaviour
Performance under pressure
Reliability, accountability, and team impact
References are summarised clearly, so you’re making decisions with real insight, not assumptions.
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The most critical period of any hire isn’t the interview process.
It’s the first 90 days.Most hiring breakdowns in hospitality don’t happen because someone can’t do the job. They happen when expectations drift, communication gaps form, or early pressure isn’t navigated well.
Because we’ve spent decades operating hospitality venues ourselves, we understand exactly where new leadership hires tend to come unstuck in the early stages and what helps prevent small misalignments from becoming bigger issues.
As part of every placement, we provide First 90 Days Alignment Support, which includes:
Operator-led insight into common early-stage risks in hospitality leadership roles
Practical guidance on what to clarify before day one to set expectations properly
A client-led 90-day checklist pack designed to support clear, informal check-ins and induction support
Ongoing availability as a sounding board where helpful, without inserting ourselves into day-to-day management
Check-in milestones
We support light-touch check-ins at key points across the first 90 days:
One week
One month
Three months
These aren’t performance reviews or formal sit-down meetings. They’re simple, practical conversations designed to sense-check how things are landing, keep communication open, and adjust early if needed.
This approach helps good people embed successfully, supports leaders through the most important settling-in period, and significantly reduces the risk of avoidable breakdowns later on.
Our goal isn’t just placement.
It’s a hire that holds up over time.
faq
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Yes — but only for permanent roles. We place chefs, kitchen leaders, managers, supervisors, and senior FOH professionals.
We don’t supply casuals or junior bar/floor staff. -
We focus exclusively on permanent hospitality roles — from chefs and managers to senior front-of-house leaders. Our goal is to help venues build teams that stay, grow, and strengthen culture over time.
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We take an operator’s approach — focusing on culture, values, and team fit, not just ticking boxes on a CV. We’d rather take an extra step to find someone who lasts.
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We recruit for hospitality venues across Melbourne and wider Victoria.
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We reach out the same day. Because we actively source and hand-screen candidates — not just post ads — most clients receive their first recommendations within a few days. Our process is built for hospitality pace, not agency timelines.
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We work on a percentage-based fee for permanent placements, aligned to the seniority of the role. Every placement includes a replacement guarantee and full support through onboarding. If you’d like a copy of our Terms & Pricing Pack, we’ll send it straight through.
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Yes — every role includes help shaping the brief, presenting only the right candidates, coordinating interviews and trials, and checking in after placement at week 1, month 1, and month 3.