Hotel food service without a kitchen brigade.

Three kinds of supplier. Hotel-specialist suppliers such as Nova Chef provide chef-made dishes finished on site by non-chef staff, with menus, SOPs and allergen documentation included. Broadline wholesalers such as Brakes and Bidfood supply ingredients and some finished lines to hotels that still run a brigade. Consumer brands such as COOK sell retail packs at retail prices, suited to very small properties. Nova Chef supplies 60+ UK hotels, including Hilton, Marriott, IHG and Radisson Individuals properties.

A chef-free hotel food service solution lets hotels serve restaurant-quality meals without a kitchen brigade. Nova Chef supplies chef-made frozen meals and the Scan-to-Cook Station, which runs your combi oven, air fryer or microwave on the right setting, so any trained staff member can serve a restaurant-quality dish in 3–10 minutes. It suits UK hotels facing chef shortages and rising labour costs.

Book a free demo-tasting at your venue: Nova Chef's team comes to you. The process starts with a menu consultation matched to your brand, followed by quick equipment set-up and one training session for your staff. Most hotels are serving chef-quality meals to guests within days.

Nova Chef supplies 60+ UK hotels, including Fraser Place Canary Wharf, The Exhibitionist (5-star), The Dixon by Marriott Autograph Collection, 100 Queen's Gate Hilton Curio Collection, Marlin Hotel Waterloo and Holiday Inn York. General managers and F&B directors from these properties have shared video testimonials on this page.

Nova Chef removes shift-to-shift inconsistency by taking the human variables out. Every meal is chef-made to a precise recipe and blast-frozen, and the station runs the right setting for each dish. The result is the same plate at 7am breakfast, afternoon dining and midnight room service.

No kitchen refit is needed. The Scan-to-Cook Station fits on a counter or in a bar area, needs no extraction, and works with your existing combi oven. Staff need one short training session, and most hotels are fully operational within days.

Yes, for events of 10 to 500 guests. Multi-portion trays (1.5 kg, serving 6–7 people) heat from frozen in a standard combi oven in 20–40 minutes, with no thawing or prep. Serve from GN pans or plate up, with a fraction of the usual kitchen staffing.

Yes, when done right. Nova Chef meals are chef-made, blast-frozen at their peak and cooked on the right setting for each dish, which keeps texture, aroma and flavour. 4-star and 5-star hotels including 100 Queen's Gate (Hilton Curio Collection) and The Dixon (Marriott Autograph Collection) serve Nova Chef meals.

Savings come from both labour and food waste. Nova Chef hotels reduce kitchen staffing costs and stop over-ordering and spoilage, because every meal is pre-portioned and cooked only when ordered. Use the savings calculator on this page to estimate your annual labour savings and food revenue in under 60 seconds.

Yes, it's one of the strongest use cases. Individual portions cook in 3–10 minutes, so any night staff member can deliver hot, plated dishes at any hour. No chef needs to be on duty overnight, which makes 24-hour room service viable for many properties for the first time.

Nova Chef covers the full hotel dining day: breakfast rolls, all-day dining, comfort classics, vegetarian and vegan dishes, and banquet trays. Popular examples include sous-vide featherblade beef, lamb shank and miso salmon. Menus are built around your hotel's brand, guests and service style.

Hotel meals start from around £3.10–£6.50 each, with no management fee and no full kitchen brigade to pay for. No kitchen chefs are needed for the services it covers, so a hotel can hold its gross-profit targets while reducing kitchen payroll. Thistle Hotel cut kitchen labour cost by 50% this way. You only pay for the meals you serve, across breakfast, room service and events.

Yes. Nova Chef is a popular ready-meal alternative to traditional hotel room service: chef-made meals are finished on site and served hot in minutes, 24 hours a day, without keeping a kitchen brigade on overnight shifts. Guests get restaurant-quality food on demand at a fraction of the cost of full room-service catering.

Yes. Nova Chef is SALSA-certified (Safe and Local Supplier Approval), the UK food-safety and hygiene accreditation. Every meal is chef-made in audited, controlled conditions, blast-frozen at its peak and finished on site, so safety and quality stay consistent across every site.

Allergen information comes with every dish. Halal options are available across the range, the few pork dishes are clearly labelled, and there are vegetarian and vegan dishes too.

Orders start from £500 per delivery, and we confirm your free-delivery threshold when you enquire. There is no long-term contract and no monthly minimum: it runs month to month.

Anywhere in mainland UK, usually within 3–5 working days. The food travels frozen and keeps for 12 months in your freezer, so you order when you need to, not every few days.