Culinary Resume Examples with Skills, Objectives & 20+ Tips

You’re not a “cook.” Cooks make food. You design creative and exciting experiences for your patrons. Prove you’ve earned your cutlets with this umami-level sample culinary resume.

Tom Gerencer

Career Expert

Updated 10/06/2021

As seen in:

Culinary Resume Sample

Martin Brandao, Head Chef

martin.q.brandao@gmail.com

linkedin.com/in/martinqbrandao

603-481-7565

Professional Summary

Talented head chef with 7+ years of experience. Skilled in staff management and creating menus. Seeking to enhance the dining experience at The Joyous Ocelot. At The Prawn Broker, received two five star reviews from Massachusetts Life Magazine for, “exciting menu, flawlessly executed.” Served a packed house 5 nights a week thanks to vibrant word of mouth.

Work Experience

Chef

The Prawn Broker

Feb 2014–May 2019

Served as head chef in 110-seat five-star restaurant. Presided over a sous chef, 6 junior sous chefs, and a kitchen staff of 20.
Maintained five-star reviews from Massachusetts Life Magazine’s head food critic. She praised my menu as exciting and flawlessly executed.
Served 500+ dinners per night, 5 nights a week. Built unstoppable word-of-mouth thanks to creative and intriguing menu.
Trained 25 chefs, sous chefs, and other kitchen staff in food safety, preparation, storage, and presentation best practices.

Chef

Northern Maine Outdoor Center

Jan 2012–Feb 2014

Ran kitchen in remote but popular year-round outdoor center.
Raised restaurant rating from three-star to four-star in 15 months.

Education

2012 Cambridge School of Culinary Arts

Professional Chef’s Program Graduate

Pursued a passion for farm-to-table cuisine.
Excelled in food safety and menu-creation coursework.

2007–2011 Boston College

Bachelor of Science in Business Administration

Wrote a weekly column on smoked foods preparation in student paper.
President, student culinary arts club.

Skills

Technical Skills: Staff management, menu creation, business knowledge, food safety
Soft Skills: Interpersonal skills, leadership, time management, collaboration

Activities

Wrote three cookbooks that sold 1,200 and 1,500 copies.
Make clam & corn chowder 1x a week at Bunker Hill Mission.

Do you need a certain kind of resume for culinary jobs? See our other guides:

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Sample Culinary Resume—See more templates and create your resume here.

One of our users, Nikos, had this to say:

[I used] a nice template I found on Zety. My resume is now one page long, not three. With the same stuff.

Here’s how to write a culinary resume that gets jobs:

1. Choose the Best Culinary Resume Format

Culinary professionals like chefs, sous chefs, and pastry chefs have expert-level food-preparation knowledge. They create and implement menus that excite and delight their patrons. A culinary resume must show skills in food safety, kitchen management, and other chef and kitchen skills.

Presentation matters.

That’s true in a dining room and in a resume for culinary jobs.

So—

You need a well-proportioned resume.

That’s why the resume samples for experienced culinary pros online use the chronological resume layout.

It’s the best layout for resumes, just as clock-face plating is the best food presentation style. It puts things in the right order for the customer.

The order of resume sections is header, experience, education, skills, then sections like publications or conferences.
In your resume name header, display your name and contact info.
There’s no need to put an address on your resume. Just list your city or town.
Save your culinary arts resume in PDF format, provided the job posting doesn’t tell you different.

Pro Tip: What font should a resume be in? Pick an easy-reading font like Calibri, Cambria, Verdana, or Helvetica.

2. Write a Culinary Resume Objective or Resume Summary

The restaurant manager is busy.

Your culinary resume must be appetizing right away.

So write a short elevator speech. It’s called a professional profile or a profile summary for a resume.

Either way, it’s a sampler of all your finest culinary moments.

Here’s the recipe:

An adjective (talented, accomplished)
Title (Chef, Sous Chef, etc.)
Years of experience (7+, 5)
Your target (enhance the dining experience)
A taste of your skills (staff management, creating menus)
Skills proof (5-star reviews, served packed house)
Measures that convince (two reviews, 5 nights)

In a resume with no experience, you won’t have all those ingredients.

So—prove transferable abilities from non-culinary roles in an objective on your resume.

Example: if you managed a team of hotel valets, that proves leadership.

Pro Tip: How long should a professional resume be for culinary jobs? One page, unless your many food service accomplishments would rival Paul Bocuse’s.

3. Pair Your Resume with the Culinary Job Description

You’re a culinary pro, not a resume-writing pro.

Don’t make this rookie mistake:

Don’t whip up a generic culinary resume for every job opening.

Knowing how to write experience in a resume means knowing how to tailor your resume to each position.

Match your job titles to the online opening. If they say, “Head Chef,” that’s you. If they say, “Executive Chef,” use that.
You also need accomplishments for resume for culinary roles. Pick your proudest moments when you used the skills they’re asking for.
As with your summary, add numbers. “500+” works better than “a lot.”

Pro Tip: Spice things up by using the right verbs for resumes, like “served, trained, raised.” Never settle for the bland “responsible for” or “handled.”

4. Elevate Your Culinary Resume Education Section

Most resume education sections are as alike as canned food.

Make yours sizzle.

Don’t stop with your school name, dates of attendance, and degree.

Show off your culinary skills with more achievements.

Did you lead a culinary club? That proves leadership. Did you excel in food safety classes? That’s another plus.

Pro Tip: Definitely list cum laude on your resume for culinary jobs if you scored that high. Was your GPA more in the McDonald’s zone? Then leave it off unless you graduated this year.

5. List More Than Culinary Skills in Your Resume

List these work skills in your culinary resume:

Culinary Resume Skills

This technical skills list gives the basics:

Business knowledge
Kitchen management
Menu creation
Food safety
Presentation
Food quality
Cost control
Infrared Salamander Broiler
Vulcan 70in. Gas Range
Working with suppliers
Sourcing food and kitchen supplies

Of course you’ll need some soft skills too:

Pro Tip: Use a good mix of hard skills vs soft skills in your culinary arts resume. But don’t list too many. Go heavy on the few abilities the job ad holds in high regard.

When making a resume in our builder, drag & drop bullet points, skills, and auto-fill the boring stuff. Spell check? Check. Start building professional resume template here for free.

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When you’re done, Zety’s resume builder will score your resume and tell you exactly how to make it better.

6. Add “Other” Sections to Your Culinary Resume

You can’t stop after “education.”

That’s as boring as a dry, plain chicken breast.

Add one or two of these:

Activities
Freelance work
Reviews or media writeups
Publications
Side projects
Conferences
Commendations from superiors
Personal interests
Honors
Awards
Community service on a resume
Languages
Fitness interests

Pro Tip: Listing certifications on a resume is easy. If they matter for the job, make a “Certifications” section under “Education.” If they’re “extra,” add them to “Activities.”

7. Send a Cover Letter With Your Culinary Resume

Should I submit a cover letter with my culinary resume?

It’ll boost your chance of getting hired.

But—

Don’t make an over-processed culinary cover letter.

Of the different cover letter formats, the three-paragraph style is your friend.
When starting a cover letter, mention something memorable like your biggest culinary “win.”
In your culinary cover letter middle, show you’re the perfect choice. If they have a Vulcan Broiler and you made 200 meals a night with one, say so.
When you’re closing a cover letter, offer something tasty. Example: “I’d be glad to share why Massachusetts Life Magazine called me the best chef in the state.”
How long are cover letters? They should be half a page.

Unsure how to follow up on a job application? Send a short, polite note once a week, with a brief reminder of the most memorable fact in your cover letter.

Plus, a great cover letter that matches your resume will give you an advantage over other candidates. You can write it in our cover letter builder here. Here's what it may look like:

See more cover letter templates and start writing.

That’s it!

That’s how to write a culinary resume.

Will they be more impressed with your culinary arts resume or your cooking? Can you think of a way to make a resume for culinary jobs reflect your skills so they “get it?” Give us a shout in the comments. We’d love to talk!

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