Culinary Text-Only Resume Examples
Years of Experience
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- #2
- #3
Loren Hopkins
(123) 456-7890 | [email protected] | 123 Front Street, Watkins Glen, NY 14891
Profile
Knowledgeable Line Cook with 10 years of work experience in a restaurant kitchen. Skillfully prepare appetizers, entrees, sides, and desserts. Draw on strong knowledge of all local food safety regulations. Oversee kitchen staff during daily food prep. Food safety certificate expires in January 2024.
Professional Experience
Line Cook, Francesca’s Fine Dining, Watkins Glen, NY | January 2019 to Present
- Prepare appetizers, entrees, sides, and desserts for 75+ customers nightly
- Oversee pre-open food preparations
- Check deliveries for accuracy, and put away daily food orders
- Ensure strict adherence to all cleanliness and sanitation standards
Line Cook, Overlook Banquet Hall, Watkins Glen, NY | July 2013 to December 2018
- Prepared entrees, sides, and desserts for up to 250 meals per event
- Assisted in pre-event food preparations
- Put away daily deliveries, following strict health safety standards
- Completed daily temperature logs of refrigerators and cleaners
- Cleaned kitchen cooking surfaces after preparing all meals
Cook’s Assistant, Waffle Frolic, Corning, NY | June 2010 to June 2012
- Finished waffles with customers’ chosen toppings
- Prepared desserts and beverages
- Replenished food ingredients for serving line
- Maintained high cleanliness and sanitization standards
- Relayed front-of-house requests to kitchen staff
Education & Credential
Associate of Culinary Studies
Corning Community College, Corning, NY | 2012
Graduate
Penn Yan High School, Penn Yan, NY | 2010
Food Safety Certification
Watkins Glen County Health Inspector | January 2021
Key Skills
- Food Plating & Presentation
- Food Safety Procedures
- Large-Scale Event Catering
- Team Collaboration
Sarah Ortiz
(123) 456-7890 | [email protected] | 123 Your Street, San Diego, CA 12345
Profile
Sous Chef with 5 years of experience preparing high-quality Mexican cuisine for upscale restaurants. Offer advanced expertise in menu design, food preparation, and kitchen operations. Proven record of leading culinary teams to reduce waste and streamline processes.
Professional Experience
Sous Chef, Spice Cocina, San Diego, CA | May 2018 to Present
[Innovative, upscale Latin restaurant.]
- Collaborate with executive chef to create and prepare dishes, develop new menu designs, and enhance food presentation
- Lead a team of 8 line cooks and kitchen staff, coordinate daily kitchen operations, and ensure compliance with quality standards
- Created 3 dishes incorporating Carolina Reaper and Scorpion pepper ingredients, including a carne asada meal with Scorpion chili-infused guacamole. Efforts drove a $100K sales gain through the introduction of a new spice challenge
Sous Chef, Cantina La Vida, San Diego, CA | May 2016 to Present
[Four-star Mexican restaurant.]
- Develop menu, prepare food, and manage inventory in coordination with the lead chef
- Train kitchen personnel on effective food storage and portion control
- Reduced waste by more than 20%, saving $40K annually
Education & Credential
Bachelor of Arts (BA) – Culinary Arts
San Diego Culinary Institute, San Diego, CA | 2016
Key Skills
- Food Presentation
- Latin American Cuisine
- Menu Design
- Process Improvement
- Team Leadership & Motivation
Caryn Feist
(439) 499-3338 | [email protected] | 3 Hutchinson Ct., Bell, CA 90202
Profile
Executive Chef with strong experience overseeing upscale, full-service restaurants. Eleven years of advancement preparing food, developing menus, and managing back-of-house operations. People-oriented manager passionate about food, quality, and customer service, as well as motivating and mentoring team members.
Professional Experience
Executive Chef, Lamberti’s Cucina, San Diego, CA | March 2015 to Present
- Create menus and set quality standards to provide top-caliber dining experiences across 4 local restaurants
- Lead, train, and motivate diverse culinary teams
- Collaborate with chef partners across the enterprise
- Liaise with supply chain management to identify potential supplier relationships
- Address any quality or service gaps
- Develop food service equipment plans to meet budgetary goals
Sous Chef, Jenny’s House, N. Hollywood, CA | January 2009 to February 2015
- Supervised food preparation and presentation to ensure quality and restaurant standards
- Worked with executive chef to maintain kitchen organization and staff ability
- Led kitchen staff in executive chef’s absence
- Oversaw and organized kitchen stock and ingredients
- Kept cooking stations stocked prior to prime operation hours
- Managed food and product ordering
- Hired and trained new kitchen employees
- Minimized waste and managed budgetary concerns
Education & Credentials
Associate of Science in Culinary Arts
Art Institute of California, N. Hollywood, CA | 2018
Master Chef Certificate Program
Chef Eric’s Culinary Classroom, Los Angeles, CA | 2009
Certified Chef de Cuisine (CCC)
American Culinary Federation (ACF) | 2018
Key Skills
- Creative Problem-Solving
- Food & Beverage Budget Administration
- Full-Service Restaurant Leadership
- Health Code Compliance
- Quality Assurance
- Recipe Standardization
- Seasonal Menu Development
- Special Event Menu Development
- Task Prioritization
Tips for Writing a Better Culinary Resume
1. Use the time-honored “cooking” method
You’ll be encouraged to hear that one of the most influential writing ideas of the past century is actually a cooking metaphor. English professor Peter Elbow wrote it in his seminal 1973 book “Writing Without Teachers.” Elbow argues that in order to write anything well, you have to “cook” your starting information and ideas – meld them into something cohesive and satisfying. More specifically, he defines this form of information “cooking” as the process of one piece of material being transformed, reoriented, or reorganized in terms of the other.
This dynamic interaction is precisely what should happen when you develop your resume. Here the first “piece of material” is your career background to date. The second is your current job search goal. If you follow the “cooking” method, you’ll transform your career information for the better by reorienting or reorganizing it in terms of your goal. The result? A highly focused, effective resume.
The “cooking” approach may sound tricky and abstract at first. But in practice, it makes writing your resume as logical and intuitive as throwing together your favorite chili. The key is to (a) start with a healthy amount of career information and (b) compare that information methodically against your goals. You’ll find a clear overview of this procedure in our Resume vs. Curriculum Vitae (CV) article – see the subsection “How to write a successful resume.”
2. Write a confident summary
Your resume’s Profile summary will work best by projecting confidence. But many people find it hard to write anything confidently, much less a formal career summary for an unknown audience.
To overcome writer’s block, you can use a brainstorming technique called focused freewriting. The method is “focused” in that you must only write about a particular topic you’ve chosen. But it’s also “free” writing since you can write whatever comes to mind about the subject without regard for order or organization.
Try a focused freewriting session for your resume Profile. Spend ten or fifteen minutes quickly writing down your answer to this question: What are your top qualifications for your target job?
This method helps you overcome the self-consciousness that makes many jobseekers use bland, generic phrasing in their summaries. You can better explore and capture your original, genuine thoughts by writing more freely at first. You’ll probably generate a lot of stray notes and ideas that you don’t end up using in your Profile. But you’ll also probably generate at least a few clear, confident sentences on your most impressive experiences to date. Get those clear sentences on your resume. You’ll dramatically improve its persuasive effect on hiring managers.
Example
Executive Chef with strong experience overseeing upscale, full-service restaurants. Eleven years of advancement preparing food, developing menus, and managing back-of-house operations. People-oriented manager passionate about food, quality, and customer service, as well as motivating and mentoring team members.
3. Put your work history in the right order
The job descriptions on your resume should be in reverse-chronological order or from newest to oldest. This rule may sound simple enough, but it could confuse you if you started or ended multiple jobs at the same time or if you held a short-term position at the same time as a long-term job that ended later.
The solution is first to order all your positions from newest to oldest by their END date. Then, order any positions with the same end date from newest to oldest by their START date.
Example
Sous Chef, Spice Cocina, San Diego, CA | May 2018 to Present
Sous Chef, Cantina La Vida, San Diego, CA | May 2016 to Present
Key Skills Hiring Managers Look for on Culinary Resumes
For a better culinary resume, include a “Key Skills” section. This section gives hiring managers a quick overview of the expertise and value you offer. It also helps your resume perform better in ATS scans. Consider including any of the terms below:
| Key Skills and Proficiencies | |
|---|---|
| Creative Problem-Solving | Food & Beverage Budget Administration |
| Food Plating & Presentation | Food Safety Procedures |
| Full-Service Restaurant Leadership | Health Code Compliance |
| Large-Scale Event Catering | Menu Design & Development |
| Process Improvement | Quality Assurance |
| Recipe Standardization | Task Prioritization |
| Team Collaboration | Team Leadership & Motivation |
Common Action Verbs for Culinary Resumes
It’s easy to get stuck when writing the Experience section of your resume. You may find yourself running out of action verbs to describe your work. To help you over the hump, we put together this list of strong resume verbs for a culinary professional:
| Action Verbs | |
|---|---|
| Blend | Cater |
| Combine | Cook |
| Customize | Cut |
| Design | Enhance |
| Ensure | Generate |
| Improve | Manage |
| Mix | Monitor |
| Plate | Present |
| Reduce | Resolve |
| Slice | Standardize |
How to Align Your Culinary Resume With a Job Posting
For each job in your Experience section, consider adding a facility description. You can place this description in brackets right next to or below the facility name. It also helps to match formatting. For instance, if you’ve italicized the facility name, italicize the description too. (See resume #2 above for an example of how this can look.)
Facility descriptions let you show any similarities between your past employers and the organization you’re now pursuing. For instance, maybe you’ve worked in the same type of cuisine or for a similar size restaurant. By working these details into your descriptions, you can make your resume more relevant to the job at hand – and likely to produce an interview.
Other Resume & Cover Letter Resources
The Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts that jobs for chefs and head cooks will grow by about 15 percent between 2021 and 2031, well above the average for all jobs. For more insight on pursuing opportunities in this and other culinary fields, check out the links below: