Water Margin Restaurants jobs

Llyn Gwynant Campsite, Eryri (Snowdonia) | £20 per hour | Permanent – see section 5 below | Staff accommodation available

Could you see yourself running a food operation beside one of the most beautiful lakes in Wales?

We’re looking for an experienced and energetic Catering Manager to take the lead on food and catering at Gwynant, an unusual and rapidly developing outdoor hospitality business in the heart of Eryri.

Our campsite and Llyn Gwynant Barns wedding venue sit directly on the shores of Llyn Gwynant. Guests come here to camp, explore the mountains, enjoy the lake and take part in water-based activities. Our wedding couples and their guests often stay for the whole weekend, making food and hospitality a big part of their experience.

Our Cegin catering outlet serves many guests throughout the season. Between March and October, we prepare approximately 20,000 pizzas and 8,000 breakfasts. Keeping an operation of this scale running smoothly calls for excellent organisation, clear communication and the ability to stay calm and effective when things get busy.

And there’s plenty happening behind the scenes, too. Established in 2025, Y Bragdy (The Brewery) produces around 24,000 pints of beer each season, while our own farm provides the foundations for an increasingly ambitious food operation. We’re now embarking on an exciting new chapter, with a remote preparation kitchen designed to help us produce 10,000 gourmet burgers and a growing commitment to wholesome, locally sourced ingredients and food made in-house.

This is an opportunity to lead a busy catering operation, inspire a team and help shape the next chapter of an evolving business with a strong focus on quality, provenance and doing things differently.

1. The role

You’ll take responsibility for the day-to-day catering operation across our campsite, including our:

• Pizza outlet
• Gourmet burger outlet
• Breakfast operation
• Remote preparation kitchen

This is a hands-on management role. You’ll work alongside the team during busy periods, making sure food is produced consistently to a high standard and that our guests receive the excellent experience we want Gwynant to be known for.

You’ll also have an important role in developing the operation over the coming seasons.

We want to make much more of the food we produce and source. Our plans include using lamb and beef from our own farm, increasing the amount of food prepared in-house and making better use of our new remote prep kitchen.

So this isn’t simply a role where you’ll inherit an established operation and keep it ticking over. We want you to help us improve it and make it your own.

2. What you’ll be responsible for

You’ll lead the catering team and be responsible for maintaining high standards across the operation, including:

• Ensuring consistently good food and an excellent customer experience
• Managing food service during busy periods and keeping waiting times under control
• Leading, training and developing catering staff
• Maintaining excellent food hygiene, allergen management and food safety standards
• Managing stock, deliveries, labelling and stock rotation
• Monitoring food costs, margins and wastage
• Completing regular stocktakes and product costings
• Working with suppliers to obtain good quality products at competitive prices
• Keeping the catering outlets and preparation kitchen clean, organised and customer-ready
• Working with the wider management team to make sure site policies and procedures are followed
• Helping develop our new food offer and making better use of produce from our own farm
• Supporting the wider Gwynant team when required

You’ll report to the General Manager, Operations Manager and Site Manager, and will work closely with our suppliers, farm manager and wider team.

3. Who we’re looking for

We’re looking for someone who knows how to run a food operation and lead people.

You could be an experienced Catering Manager, Head Chef, Kitchen Manager or food-service professional. Your previous experience might be in a restaurant, school, visitor attraction, museum, workplace catering, the military or another busy hospitality environment.

You don’t need to have worked in a campsite before.

We’re more interested in someone who:

• Has solid experience in catering or food service
• Is confident leading and developing a team
• Understands food costs, margins and stock control
• Takes food hygiene and allergen management seriously
• Can maintain standards when things get very busy
• Is organised and commercially aware
• Is happy being hands-on rather than managing from an office
• Has the energy and initiative to improve things
• Takes pride in creating a great experience for customers
• Enjoys working as part of a small, energetic team
• Likes the outdoors and genuinely wants to live and work in a beautiful rural environment

Most importantly, we’re looking for someone who will take ownership.

We want someone who sees something that could work better and thinks, “I can improve that.”

4. Why work at Gwynant?

This is a chance to become an important part of a small management team in a business that is going somewhere.

You’ll be working in the heart of Eryri National Park, alongside Llyn Gwynant, with mountains, woodland and the lake literally on the doorstep.

You’ll also be joining a business with a strong sense of place and a desire to do things differently.

Over the coming years we’re looking to develop a more wholesome, local and circular food operation, making better use of our own farm, producing more food ourselves and working closely with the other parts of our business.

There is genuine scope here for ideas, innovation and personal responsibility.

5. Pay, hours and accommodation

£20 per hour

The main operating season runs from the beginning of March until the end of October.

During the main season, the team typically works around 41 hours per week over five days, depending on business demands. Working hours may vary from week to week, with busier periods requiring greater flexibility to meet the needs of the business. On occasion, split shifts may also be required.

We are a long-standing Living Wage employer and believe the £19 hourly rate represents a competitive package for the role.

Although this is a seasonal role, we can offer an annualised-hours arrangement. This allows you to spread some of your earnings from the months you work across the year, providing an income during the winter rather than receiving all your earnings during the main season.

There may also be opportunities for part-time work during the winter, depending on your other skills and interests and the needs of the business.

Accommodation may be available in a shared staff house within walking distance of the site.

6. A hands-on team

Gwynant is a small business, and we all pitch in when necessary.

As a member of the management team, there may be occasions when you’ll help elsewhere on site — for example in reception, the shop or housekeeping — particularly when the business is exceptionally busy.

We’re looking for someone who enjoys that variety and understands that running a successful outdoor hospitality business is a team effort.

7. What will make you successful here?

We’d like you to finish your first season having:

• Built a confident and capable catering team
• Maintained excellent food safety and customer standards
• Improved consistency across our catering outlets
• Got a strong grip on food costs, stock and margins
• Helped establish and develop our new prep kitchen
• Started moving our food offer towards more in-house and farm-sourced production
• And, most importantly, helped make sure our guests leave Gwynant having had a fantastic experience

8. Interested?

If the idea of running a food operation beside a mountain lake, working with a great team and helping us build something a little different sounds like your kind of job, we’d love to hear from you.

To apply, please email your CV and a brief covering letter to our Operations Manager, Simon, at simonc@gwynant.com, explaining why you’d be a great fit for the role and what interests you about joining the Gwynant catering team.

Alternatively, if you’d like an informal conversation about the role, the business or what it’s like to work at Gwynant, please get in touch using the email address above.

Pay: £20.00 per hour

Expected hours: 41.0 per week

Benefits:

• Company pension
• Discounted or free food
• Employee discount
• Free parking
• On-site parking

Work Location: In person