Chefs from India for restaurants and kitchens in Germany
A trained chef for a restaurant kitchen, a specialty chef for Indian cuisine and a service employee are three different searches with different requirements. We assess with you which one fits your business.
On request, subject to role and feasibility assessment. No confirmed candidate availability or promised start dates. No temporary staffing or employee leasing.
Not every kitchen role is the same
The following areas are examples for assessing your requirement, not confirmed occupations we can supply. Training, experience and the actual duties are what count.
Chefs with vocational training
For restaurant, hotel or canteen kitchens. Indian culinary training or a hotel management degree is compared individually with the German vocational occupation of chef (Koch), including hygiene and food law.
Specialty chefs for Indian cuisine
German employment regulations contain a separate rule for specialty chefs in specialty restaurants. It applies only to full-time work in a genuine specialty restaurant and is time-limited.
Service and kitchen management
Front-of-house service with guest contact needs different language skills than the kitchen. A head chef or sous-chef role is a qualified leadership position and is clearly separated from assistant work.
An employer brief for a realistic assessment
Describe your business, kitchen and vacancy. Clear conditions make it easier to see early which immigration route might apply.
- Type of business and cuisine
- Restaurant, hotel, canteen or catering, cooking style and menu. For specialty chefs, what matters is whether your business is genuinely a specialty restaurant.
- Duties and qualification
- Tasks, responsibility, required training and experience. Clearly distinguish a qualified chef position from kitchen assistant or dishwashing work.
- Working hours and shifts
- Full-time, split shifts, weekend and evening work and rest days. Seasonal requests are not a promise of short-term placement.
- Pay and accommodation
- Gross salary, collective agreement, meals and transparent benefits. If accommodation is offered, state its location, cost and conditions separately.
- Language and onboarding
- Which kitchen communication, hygiene training and guest conversations must work in German? Who is the contact person in the first weeks?
Assess first, then agree a search
Recruitment for restaurants is offered on request. An enquiry is neither a statement of available candidates nor a promise of placement.
Understand the business and role
We discuss the kitchen, duties, working hours, salary and local conditions.
Assess the route and feasibility
Training, experience, language needs and the right route are checked. Enquiries that do not fit are not presented as a solvable placement.
Agree search and selection
After a positive assessment we agree the search. You run the interviews, ideally with a trial cook, and decide on the hire.
Prepare the contract and arrival
Contract terms, steps before the start date, any accommodation and onboarding into kitchen and hygiene routines are coordinated.
Responsibilities in your business and in recruitment
- Your business
- You are responsible for the role, employment contract, pay, rota, hygiene training and onboarding, and for the accuracy of any accommodation offer.
- IndoFachkraft
- We assess the requirement with you before agreeing what search and support may be possible. We do not promise particular profiles or the granting of permission.
- Applicants and competent authorities
- Applicants provide their documents. Recognition and immigration decisions rest with the competent authorities; recruitment does not replace their assessment.
Which immigration route fits your vacancy?
Food service has several possible routes into employment. Which one fits depends on the person's training, the role and your business, not on the industry alone.
Skilled worker with recognised training
§ 18a AufenthG covers skilled workers whose vocational qualification is recognised as equivalent. For chefs, IHK FOSA is usually responsible for recognition.
Specialty chefs under § 11 BeschV
For full-time work in specialty restaurants, approval with a labour-market check can be granted for up to four years, initially for no more than one year. A waiting period then applies before re-employment through this route.
Work experience under § 6 BeschV
With at least two years of experience and a qualification recognised in the home country, § 6 BeschV can open another route, subject to a salary threshold or collective agreement.
Your next steps
Hotels
Reception, housekeeping and hotel kitchens: assess staffing needs in hotels.
Working with us as an employer
How we clarify German employers' hiring needs and agree the scope of our work together.
Recruitment and selection
From the requirements brief through the search to your selection decision.
Explore our services
Support that can be agreed for language, recognition, immigration and integration.
Could a search in India fit your kitchen?
Send the type of business, duties, qualification requirements, working hours, salary and details of accommodation and onboarding. We start with feasibility, not a promise of availability.