Pizza & Wood Fire Cook — Billie, Aldinga Beach Days: Thursday (day), Friday & Saturday (night) — three days a week at this stage | Location: 105–107 Esplanade, Aldinga Beach The wood oven is the heartbeat of this whole place. Everything radiates from it — the heat, the rhythm, the reason people walk in. (They may also come for the coffee, which is amazing — our own blend.) We need someone to stand in front of that oven who understands what it is, and who can make it sing. Billie has opened, but not all of it. We're a wood-fired restaurant, daytime café, bar and providore on the Esplanade, and we're rolling the parts out in stages because we want each one right rather than rushed. This role is part of getting it right. The role This is a lead position on the oven from day one, and one of the most important hires we'll make. It sets the business up to fly, not to survive. We need a cook whose understanding goes well beyond the basics of stone, fire and flour — someone who knows what a wood oven can really do, who has the depth of experience to coax everything out of it, and who can hold that standard service after service. Pizza is the centrepiece, but the fire is the point. We want a cook who can carry it across the whole offering: vegetables pulled from the ash, fish under the dome, slow-cooked shoulders, things charred and smoked and finished in the embers. If it can be made better by fire, it should be. You'll set the pace, run the prep, and own what comes off the peel and out of the oven. The menu is a changing feast — tight, creative, imagined — and we expect you to drive it. Bring your influences, your obsessions, your half-formed ideas at 2am. If a dish could be better, change it. If something we're not doing should be on there, put it on. You'll need to read a coolroom and see tonight's service — or tomorrow's. To read ingredients rather than wait on a recipe. To understand that great wood-fired cooking is mostly restraint: a few good things, done properly, with confidence. What the week looks like Three days to start — Thursday across the day, Friday and Saturday into the night — with room to grow as we do. You'll own the wood oven: dough, fire, embers, and the timing that only comes from reading the flame rather than watching the clock. There's room across the wider kitchen too for anyone who wants it. What we're after A genuine love of food and the industry — non-negotiable. Quality first, always: a good base, the right cheese, produce at its peak. On a pizza, and over a fire, there's nowhere to hide — so we need a cook who can taste the difference and build to it. The relationship behind the produce matters just as much. We're at the beginning of this, and many of the suppliers we'll work with long-term we're yet to discover. We want a cook who'll help us find them — go out and meet growers, makers, fishers; build the relationships; push for better, ask the right questions, help them lift their game alongside ours. Some of the best things on the menu will start with a conversation at a farm gate. You'll be working alongside other hospitality professionals from diverse backgrounds, each adding their voice to the story we're telling. We want someone who can lead the section while still being a team player — initiative without ego, ambition without friction. Contribution, not noise. What you get A seat at the table early, when there's still room to define how things are done. A proper wood oven, real autonomy on what comes off it, the best produce we can get our hands on, and the coast at the end of your shift. To apply This is a senior role at the centre of the business, and we're looking accordingly. Your experience should put everything on the table — a current CV with the full picture of your wood-fired and section-leadership work, a short note on your cooking philosophy and how you'd approach the role here, and two professional references we can speak to. We've set ourselves a high bar across food, service and standards. The right person will recognise that bar, expect to be held to it, and want to push it higher.
