Cooks are the role Croatian hospitality cannot fill from the domestic market — HZZ lists cooks and assistant cooks among the occupations exempt from the labour-market test — and Filipino cooks from hotel schools, cruise ships and Gulf kitchens are the supply. We test them live, to your menu, before you interview.
Adriatic kitchens cook Mediterranean food at volume for an international clientele — grilled fish, pasta and risotto, seasonal vegetables, breakfast buffets for five hundred — and the Filipino cook's career runs through exactly that repertoire: hotel-school training in classical and Mediterranean technique, then cruise lines, Gulf hotels and resorts in Asia. Croatian dishes are learned in a week; what cannot be taught quickly is speed, hygiene discipline and calm at service, which these cooks bring.
Your head chef sends a brief — two or three dishes from your menu, a timed mise en place, a plating standard. At Prime Search's Makati kitchen the candidate cooks it while your chef watches live or on the recording: knife skills, station organisation, temperatures, seasoning, hygiene, timing. Cooks who pass are interviewed; cooks who do not are not presented. For pastry and pizza roles the test is built around the product.
The route is Croatia's combined residence-and-work permit: you file one application online through the joint HZZ/MUP platform, HZZ runs the labour-market test unless the occupation is on its exemption list and gives its opinion on your eligibility, MUP decides within 90 days, and the permit runs for the contract period — up to three years, depending on the route. Before anything is filed we check the 2026 employer conditions — €100,000 turnover over the last twelve months, at least one Croatian or EEA employee for the previous year, Croatian/EEA staff at 20 % of third-country headcount (10 % for exempt occupations), no arrears, adequate accommodation.
Seasonal restaurants and resorts use the seasonal permit; since June 2026 the same cook returns for three seasons on one permit. Year-round hotels use the standard permit for up to three years and plan Croatian A1.1 for the first renewal — kitchens run in English and Croatian, and the vocabulary of a kitchen is learned fast.
Pay must be at least the statutory minimum — €1,050 gross a month in 2026 — or the extended sector collective agreement where one applies (construction, hospitality), and accommodation must meet the legal standard for the whole stay; we put both in the offer before the interview so nothing is renegotiated at the police counter.
Recruitment runs through our own DMW-licensed agency, Prime Search Manpower Agency Inc. in Makati (licence DMW-027-LB-11182024): your company is accredited at the Migrant Workers Office in Vienna, which has jurisdiction for Croatia, the job order is registered with the DMW, and every worker leaves Manila with a verified contract, medical clearance, pre-departure orientation and an Overseas Employment Certificate. The Philippine ban on direct hiring applies; the employer is always your company, directly — the Croatian permit is issued to you, not to an agency.
Everything here is subject to the Foreigners Act as amended (NN 40/2025, NN 55/2026), the HZZ exemption list in force and MUP practice.
Yes — senior Filipino cooks with cruise-line and five-star experience are available; we test at the level you brief.
Filipino cooks from Gulf kitchens routinely cook halal and Asian menus; brief it and we test it.
Two to four weeks to a tested shortlist; three to five months to arrival; seasonal briefs in October for April.
General information for employers, not legal or migration advice. Rules change; we re-verify before each hire.