Chef Resume: Real Examples & Free Template

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As a Chef, you know which ingredients to use to make an appetizing dish. But, are you having trouble cooking up a job-winning resume? If that’s the case, our expertly outlined resume templates can help. Cook up a resume to fill any hiring manager’s appetite.

Chef Resume Example MSWord®
Make your resume the main course for a recruiter with our Chef Resume template in Word format.

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ResumeGiants » Examples » Chef Resume

As a chef, you’re an expert when it comes to cooking up a storm.

However, the same might not be true when it comes to cooking up a chef’s resume.

There are lots of things to consider when trying to impress a recruiter.

You’ll need to know answers to questions such as:

• How to write a chef’s resume?
• What are key skills for a chef’s resume?
• What experience will make you 3x more likely to get hired?

A culinary resume can’t just be magicked out of thin air.

Yet, it can be made a lot easier.

That’s why we’re going to tell you everything you need to know about how to make a resume for a chef job.

Our guide explains the key ingredients to a professional chef resume, such as:

• Writing a resume for entry-level chef jobs
• Starting out strong with a gripping resume summary or objective
• The experience that will make your resume look delicious to a recruiter
• What skills you can sprinkle into the text to succeed
• How to wrap everything up so your profile proves irresistible

If you’re short of time, you can also use our chef resume builder to create an epic resume in just a few minutes.

It’ll walk you through each section of the chef resume template totally free, so you can have an expert bio ready to go whenever an exciting new professional cook job appears.

First up, you might be wondering what an optimized cook’s resume needs to have on it.

To get started, here’s a glimpse at what a smart cook resume sample PDF should look like.

Resume Example

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[Gillian Gerber]

[Chef]

[667 Tanner Drive, Portland, OR, 72484 | 578-555-1710 | gill.gerber66@gmail.com]

Summary

Dedicated and creative chef with over 6 years of professional kitchen experience. I bring expert knowledge of European fusion cuisine, plating, and presentation, as well as a flawless track record (100%) in FDA food safety.

Experience

Chef

La Delicatesse | Portland, OR

2019 – 2021

• Led 6 chefs and 12 waiting staff
• Prepared and cooked meat, fish, vegetarian and vegan dishes
• Planned new seasonal menus each quarter with an average budget of $150,000
• Modified restaurant inventory storage, saving $30,000 YOY
• Reduced order to table time by 15% via carefully planned logistics

Sous Chef

Royal Oak Hotel | Portland, OR

2016 – 2018

• Assisted in a busy kitchen with 15-20 fellow staff members
• Modified dishes when appropriate to account for customer dietary requirements Precisely plated and prepared dishes meeting the restaurant and head chef-quality standards
• Maintained an organized, safe, and clean workstation

Skills

• European fusion cuisine
• Leadership
• Food safety
• Plating and presentation
• Teaching and mentoring kitchen staff
• Time management
• Quality focus

Education

A.A. Culinary Arts

Clackamas Community College | Portland, OR

2013 – 2016

Relevant coursework: Japanese Cuisine, European Cuisine, Food Health, and Safety

Certificates

IFT – Certified Food Scientist – 2020

ANSI – Certificate in Food Handling and Hygiene – 2019

Hobbies and Interests

Wine tasting

Biking Reading

Let’s start cooking a similar chef resume with your information.

Most chef resume examples should be created in a reverse chronological format, showing your most recent experience first.

This is the best choice for a candidate as it’s organized the way recruiters like best and quickly communicates where you are in your career.

There are other options, such as functional and combination templates, which put more emphasis on skills.

However, these aren’t recommended for most chef jobs, as they could put you at a disadvantage.

Don’t forget, the file type you use for your resume counts too.

This is because applicant tracking systems (ATS) are used to scan through most newly sent resumes. They can be pretty harsh if you don’t use a machine-readable document.

That’s why it’s best to use either of the following to submit your resume:

• PDF
• Word

That is, of course, unless the recruiter specifically asks for a certain file type to be used. In which case you should always follow the instructions they’ve provided.

Right, you’re preparing to write a top chef resume.

You’ll want to add some extra sauce at the start to get things rolling.

What you’ll need is a resume summary or objective.

In simple terms, this is your chef resume outline.

It’s also your chance to immediately get things off on the right foot.

But how do you choose between the two options?

Ideally, you’ll use a chef’s professional summary if you’re more established in your career.

A chef’s resume objective, however, will be essential if you’re making a career jump or you’re fresh out of culinary school.

Both are similar but have some differences you’ll need to be careful with.

Let’s see a couple of examples to see what those are in more detail.

Chef Resume Summary Example

So, you’ve settled on a cook’s resume summary, nice choice.

This short paragraph is your 3-second elevator pitch.

It should quickly throw a few facts about your professional history at the recruiter that sell you best for the job.

However, remember, it has to be relevant. Otherwise, things can end in disaster.

Nice job, if you wanted to make Jamie Oliver cry.

This is trying so little, it might set a new record in how long it takes for a resume to reach the trash can.

The chef resume sample below, however, might have recruiters licking their lips…

How to Write an Entry-Level Chef Resume Objective

If you’re a bit more inexperienced as a chef, a resume objective can come to your rescue.

It has a lot in common with a resume summary.

Both express why you’re a great hire.

However, an objective takes a slightly different approach by stating your career goals directly.

In the sample resumes for chef positions below, you’ll see where this can go very right and very wrong.

Entry-Level Chef Resume Objective Examples

On an entry-level chef resume, a resume objective is great for showing that you’re eager to learn and hungry to grow.

However, this culinary student’s resume for a seafood restaurant position below manages to miss the mark entirely.

Oh boy, this is rancid.

This restaurant cook resume objective would get screamed at by Gordon Ramsey.

This is not the way to go.

Instead, use an example like the optimized chef resume sample below.

This is the sort of chef resume example that would make Guy Fieri give you the thumbs up.

It quickly explains your motivation for applying for the job.

After, it goes to town explaining why you’re the perfect fit despite a lack of regular experience.

Your experience in the kitchen is your biggest selling point on a chef resume.

So mixing up a cooking experience section that looks tasty is a must.

In cook resume examples you don’t need to write huge blocks of text about each job.

Break each job you want to include down into its own individual entry.

A few quick summarized bullet points will help explain the work you did and the goals you achieved in an instant.

But remember, a chef’s resume isn’t one size fits all.

Of course, there’s a lot of difference if you write a prep cook resume sample compared to a sushi chef resume.

You’ll need to modify the skills, KPIs, and achievements you include to fill the precise job description at hand.

Let’s see what this looks like in practice.

Cook Resume Template Examples: Experience

Getting your cook experience on your resume doesn’t have to be like constructing a beef wellington.

Simplicity is the key, much like a well-prepared pasta dish.

However, make things too simple and you might end up disappointed as we can see in the example below.

If this were a dish, it would get sent back to the kitchen.

Unfortunately, in this case, it’s a culinary resume template that is not going to be moved forward to the next stage of the interview process.

It’s generic, half-baked, and doesn’t give the recruiter anything to work with.

Now this is the crème de la crème of an experience section.

It’s got some vital statistics from previous jobs.

The information is quick and punchy.

It’s also tailored for the job description by providing specific areas of success.

In short, it’s a feast for the eyes.

Here are some other examples of achievements for a Chef Resume:

• Trained 5 staff members to quickly adapt to takeout service during pandemic, resulting in sales of $7,000 per day
• Re-developed entire menu in 2021, increasing sales revenues by 90%
• Developed process that reduced waste by 48%

Entry-Level Chef Resume: Experience Section

If you’re only starting out in your culinary career, your resume might need to approach things a bit differently.

You’ll need to come up with chef resume ideas based on jobs you’ve actually held or from your training.

This, however, still needs to be specific to the profile being advertised.

Unlike the sample below.

Wow, this stinks.

A resume template for a chef like this that is bland, unfocused, and dull is something you want to avoid.

With a few tweaks here and there you can make this information a lot more interesting.

Ok now, this is looking tasty.

This particular resume example gets across a lot more key information even if the candidate’s experience is a bit more basic.

We’ve got some numerical data, specific information about key things the candidate did in the kitchen, and a good range of skills.

This is much more likely to look appetizing to a recruiter.

A lot of chefs’ jobs don’t rely so much on degrees to assess candidates.

But that doesn’t mean the education section on your chef resume doc should be lacking.

This is still a core section that must be included, even if you’re just highlighting your high school diploma.

However, there’s much more that you can do here to show you’re the ace chef the employer needs.

Chef Resume Education Section

What does a chef resume education section look like in the wild?

After all chef qualifications on a resume vary quite a lot.

However, if you have studied a cooking course, you’ll want to make sure you don’t cover it like the example below.

Look, let’s be real here.

The recruiter doesn’t want to know about your college football career.

They’re probably more interested in how you learned to cook.

In short, the example above isn’t going to get you anywhere.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Instead, it’s better to focus on details like the example below does.

Mmm, delicious.

Now, this is a satisfying education section.

As a ‘starter’ and ‘main course’, it’s got the key information about the course and college quickly summarized at the top.

However, it’s even thrown in some ‘dessert’ in the shape of the candidate’s relevant coursework.

This should give the candidate plenty of room to impress.

Skills are one of a chef’s strongest assets.

There are hundreds of cuisines and cooking styles to specialize in, which could make interesting reading for the recruiter.

Of course, remember these always depend on the specific job description being advertised.

But in general, what skills should a chef have on their resume exactly?

Consult our list of possible chef skills on a resume below to help you brainstorm some choice ideas for your document.

Add a touch of relevant experience, a pinch of skills, and a dollop of education and you have an expert resume, right?

Well, not always.

You might find it useful to add a few extra sections to make your profile even more alluring.

These are optional but think of these as the cherry on top of your perfectly prepared chef’s resume.

You can use an extra section if you want to highlight special achievements or activities such as:

• Certifications
• Languages
• Volunteering
• Publications

You can also add some details about relevant hobbies and interests too if you think they’d make a recruiter pick up the phone to get you in for an interview.

Although remember, all of these choices are optional. If they don’t help you get hired they can safely be left out.

Chef Resume Sample “Other” Sections

Adding extra sections can give your resume a boost but you must be careful when and where you put them in.

On a normal cook resume, you should avoid adding extra sections that won’t get you the job faster.

Something the example below trips up with.

Well, get this guy (or girl). An opera singer?

Unfortunately, this has nothing to do with being a restaurant chef.

This isn’t going to work.

However, if you look at our perfected “other sections” below you’ll see how right adding these details can go.

This is much more like it.

No space wasted on irrelevant hobbies. Just business.

If you’ve got extra information that you think the hiring manager should really know about then it makes sense to add them in.

Including extra sections like these give you the opportunity to tell the recruiter a bit more about you as a person and why you are the complete package.

If you think adding these kinds of details will help you seal the role, be sure to make use of them.

We’ve looked over some resume samples for chef jobs.

You now know the best (and worst) ways to prepare your resume.

To perfectly prepare a resume for a cook job remember the following:

• Catch the reader’s attention quickly with the resume summary or objective
• Make your experience work for the job description at hand
• Add a good mix of hard and soft skills that sell you as a candidate
• Give a good impression of your educational background
• Add an extra “pinch of spice” with some extra sections

Now you know how to write a chef’s resume in a flash, we can tell you how to get your own chef resume sample PDF as a free download even faster.

Our resume builder can help you create better than any chef resume templates made in Microsoft Word or Google Docs.

Not only that, it’ll take you step-by-step through each stage of the process so you never miss a trick.

Create a professional, optimized resume today.

It only takes a couple of minutes.