What does a kitchen porter do? Duties, job description and what to expect

Ask ten chefs what a kitchen porter does and most will say "the washing up." Ask them what happens when the porter does not turn up, and you get the truth: service falls apart. The kitchen porter is the quiet engine of a working kitchen — and if you are hiring one, the job description matters more than most people think.

The short answer: a kitchen porter keeps the kitchen clean, stocked and moving. They wash pots, pans and equipment, clean surfaces and floors, manage waste and deliveries, and take the low-skill load off the chefs so the cooks can cook. A good one quietly protects your hygiene rating and your service. A missing one costs you both.

What does a kitchen porter actually do?

The role is broader than the sink. Day to day, a kitchen porter typically handles:

• Pot-wash and dishwashing — pots, pans, utensils, service crockery, and running the pass-through dishwasher.
• Cleaning as you go — wiping down surfaces, sanitising stations, and keeping floors clear and safe through service.
• Equipment cleaning — degreasing cookline kit, cleaning fridges and prep tables, and stripping down at close.
• Waste and recycling — bins, cardboard, food waste and the bin store kept under control.
• Deliveries and stock — checking in deliveries, rotating stock, and putting things where they belong.
• Basic prep support — simple, unskilled prep when the section is under pressure.
• Deep-clean support — helping keep the kitchen to the standard an inspector expects.

In other words, the porter owns the hygiene and flow of the kitchen so the chefs can own the food.

Kitchen porter job description (a template you can use)

If you are writing a job ad, here is a clear, honest structure you can copy and adapt:

• Role summary: Keep the kitchen clean, stocked and running by managing wash-up, cleaning, waste and deliveries, and supporting the kitchen team through service.
• Key responsibilities: pot-wash and dishwashing; cleaning surfaces, equipment and floors; waste and recycling; checking in and rotating deliveries; basic prep support; following food-hygiene and health-and-safety procedures.
• What you will need: a strong work ethic, reliability, the stamina to stay fast under pressure, basic food-hygiene awareness, and the right to work in the UK. A Level 2 Food Hygiene certificate is a plus, not a must.
• Hours: shift-based, including evenings and weekends; shifts are typically a minimum of six hours.
• Reports to: Head Chef / Sous Chef / Kitchen Manager.

What skills and qualities make a good kitchen porter?

The best porters are not the ones who wash fastest for an hour — they are the ones who are still reliable at 11pm on a Saturday. Look for stamina, speed under pressure, genuine reliability, basic hygiene awareness, attention to detail, and the ability to work as part of a tight team. Attitude and consistency beat experience almost every time.

Why the kitchen porter role is more important than it looks

Two reasons. First, hygiene: a clean kitchen scores better with an inspector, and the porter is the person who keeps it that way — the role links directly to your food hygiene rating. Second, productivity: every minute a chef spends scrubbing a pot is a minute not spent on food. A good porter is one of the cheapest ways to make an expensive kitchen brigade more productive.

Should you employ your own porter or use a service?

There are two honest routes, and the right one depends on your rota. If you have steady, year-round demand of four or more shifts a week, employing your own porter usually works out cheaper and gives you a permanent team member — you just take on the recruiting, PAYE, holiday pay and the job of covering every gap yourself. If your need is spikier — peaks, emergencies, sickness and unfilled shifts — a kitchen porter service is the better safety net.

Cost matters here. Once you add employer NI, pension, statutory holiday pay and sick pay, a directly-hired porter on the National Living Wage (£12.71 an hour for over-21s from April 2026) costs closer to £14.80 an hour fully loaded — before you have covered a single no-show. Our kitchen porter hourly rate guide breaks the numbers down, and our agency vs in-house comparison helps you decide which route fits.

How Mr Kitchen Porter fills the gap

Here is what sets us apart: every Mr Kitchen Porter is directly employed by us on PAYE — not an umbrella arrangement, not a gig worker, not a different face every shift. That means vetted, trained, accountable people you can rely on, whether you need a regular porter or emergency cover. You can book from a single six-hour shift, same-day cover is often possible when you call early, and if a temporary porter turns out to be the one, temp-to-perm is on the table.

If you would rather your chefs cooked and someone dependable owned the rest, that is exactly the gap our kitchen porter service and emergency cover are built to fill.