Prep Cook Resume Examples and Templates for 2023

Prep Cook Resume Examples

Years of Experience

Tips for Writing a Better Prep Cook Resume

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. It comes from English professor Peter Elbow’s seminal 1973 book “Writing Without Teachers.” Elbow argued that in order to write anything well, you have to “cook” your starting information and ideas, i.e., meld them into something cohesive and satisfying. More specifically, he defined this process of information “cooking” as one piece of material being transformed or reoriented by another.

This dynamic interaction is exactly what you should aim for in writing 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.”

Put your work history in the right order

The job descriptions on your resume should be in reverse-chronological order, or newest to oldest. This rule might sound simple enough, but it can confuse you if you started or ended multiple jobs at the same time or if you held a short-term job at the same time as a long-term job that ended later. The solution: first order all your positions newest to oldest by their END date. Then for any positions with the same end date, order them newest to oldest by their START date.

Turn non-culinary jobs into an asset

Although you must outline your recent work history on your resume, you don’t have to – nor should you – give more than basic details on any job that doesn’t pertain to your current goals. Keep this tip in mind when drafting your Experience section, so you don’t type out long descriptions of jobs that won’t speak to your target employers.

Often a great resume strategy for unrelated jobs is to focus your description on the transferable “soft skills” you gained there that now complement your overall skillset. For prep cooks, good transferable skills usually include efficiency, diligence, and team collaboration.

Common Key Skills for Prep Cook Resumes

One of the best ways to improve your resume is to add keywords.

That’s because most employers now use an applicant tracking system (ATS), which scans each submitted resume for keywords relevant to the job opening at hand. When the ATS finds a resume with many relevant keywords, it flags the document for the hiring manager.

To make your resume ATS-friendly, add a keyword-rich “Skills” or “Expertise” section. Here are some common keywords for prep cook resumes:

Note: As the list below indicates, you should only use noun phrases in this section. Reserve personal attributes and adjectives (like “highly collaborative” or “strong work ethic”) for your Profile summary. Any time you’re unsure whether a term fits in this section, just plug it into the phrase “I’m skilled in [term].” If the term makes a correct sentence (“I’m skilled in team collaboration”), you can add it. But if it’s nonsense (“I’m skilled in highly collaborative”), leave it out.

Common Action Verbs for Prep Cook Resumes

One of the most frequent resume mistakes is using too few verbs. You may fall into repeating the same generic verb (say, “Manage”) many times. This repetition can distract the hiring manager and fail to show the varied nature of your experience. The following list will help you mix up the verbs on your prep cook resume:

How to Align Your Resume With a Job Posting

For each job in your Experience section, consider adding a description of the restaurant or facility. 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 3 above for an example of how this can look.)

Facility descriptions let you show any similarity between your past and desired employers. For instance, maybe you’ve worked in the same type of cuisine or for a similar size facility. If you’re applying for a job in a high-volume or highly rated restaurant, use facility descriptions to emphasize any background you have in these environments. By working these details into your descriptions, you can make your resume that much more relevant to the job opening at hand.

More Resume and Cover Letter Resources

The Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts that jobs for food preparation workers will increase by about two percent between 2021 and 2031.

For more on finding opportunities in this field and related fields, check out the links below: