Head Chef / Line Cook Resume Example

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Anthony Russo

Head Chef

✉ luis.barrera@email.com📱 +1 555 0614📍 San Diego, CA

Profile

Head Chef with 11 years in restaurants and hospitality. Lead a brigade of 8 across a service of up to 180 covers per day, with ownership of the menu, food cost and sanitation compliance.

Skills

Kitchen leadership

Menu development

Food cost and waste control

HACCP standards

International cuisine

Vendor management

Education

Culinary Arts Diploma
Culinary Arts Institute · 2014

HACCP Certification
Dept. of Health · 2022

Languages

SpanishNative

EnglishProfessional working proficiency

Professional Experience

Head Chef

Costa del Sol Hotel · 2019 – Present

Leads a brigade of 8 across a service of up to 180 covers per day between the restaurant and hotel events.

Develops the seasonal menu and event proposals, costing every dish before sign-off.

Controls kitchen inventory and waste, adjusting ordering and portioning to protect the department margin.

Maintains HACCP standards across the operation, passing health inspections with no critical findings.

Sous Chef

La Terraza Restaurant · 2016 – 2019

Supported kitchen leadership in daily operations and station supervision.

Standardised recipes and spec sheets to hold consistency across shifts.

Trained new hires in knife skills, cooking techniques and food handling.

Certifications

Food Handler Certification — Dept. of Health, current

HACCP Certification — 2022

💡 Why this resume works

Operation scale: brigade of 8, up to 180 covers per day.
Financial ownership: food cost, waste and margin — not just cooking.
Sector compliance: HACCP and food handling, gating requirements.
Verifiable outcome: inspections with no critical findings.
Trade progression: from sous chef to head chef.

How to write a chef resume that proves you can run service

In kitchens, the resume exists only to get you a stage or a trail shift. The executive chef reading it looks for three signals: which stations you have owned, what type of kitchen and what volume, and whether you understand food cost and waste. Everything else gets tested on the line. A resume built on "passion for food" with no station named does not even earn the trail.

What the executive chef looks for

Stations owned. Grill, sauté, garde manger, pastry, fry, expo. State which you ran solo and which you supported. That is how a brigade gets built.
Kitchen type and covers. Fine dining, hotel, banquet, catering, institutional, fast casual. Covers per service. A 300-cover night has nothing in common with a 40-cover one.
Food cost and waste control. Recipe costing, portion control, inventory, waste reduction, par levels. It is what separates a cook from a chef.
Sanitation and certification. Food handler card, ServSafe Manager, HACCP, temperature logs, FIFO. Health inspections can close a restaurant; the chef needs confidence here.
Menu development with judgment. If you contributed to a menu, say what you added and whether you factored cost and seasonality. Creativity without costing does not interest anyone.

Mistakes that get a chef resume rejected

"Passionate about food" in the summary. It says nothing and everyone writes it. Replace it with stations, covers and kitchen type.
Not naming stations. "Cook" could mean anything. The chef needs to know where to place you on day one.
Omitting service volume. Without covers per service, your experience cannot be sized.
Leaving out sanitation. If ServSafe or HACCP never appear, the chef assumes you do not manage it — a health risk.
Inflating the title. Calling yourself "chef" when you were a line cook shows up in five minutes on the line. Use the real title and show progression.

Keywords culinary ATS filters look for

Use them only where they are true for you: the filter searches for them, but the recruiter verifies them in the interview.

line cookhead chefsous chefprep cookstationsgrillsautégarde mangermise en placefood costportion controlwaste reductioninventorypar levelsServSafeHACCPtemperature logsmenu developmenthigh volumekitchen brigade

Want to know whether your current resume uses these keywords and whether ATS filters can read it? Analyze it free — three checks a day, no sign-up.

If you are starting in professional kitchens

Kitchens teach on the job, and nearly everyone starts on prep or dish. Get your food handler card before applying — it is inexpensive, fast and required in most states. If you attended culinary school, detail externships with establishment, station and covers. If you cooked in a family business or did catering on your own, list it with cuisine type and how many you served. Above all, make night, weekend and holiday availability explicit: in this trade it is the number-one filter.

Frequently asked questions

How do I write a cook resume with no experience?

Get a food handler card, detail externships or family-business cooking with station and volume, and make night and weekend availability clear. The rest is decided on the trail shift.

Should I write cook or chef?

The real title you held. "Chef" implies command of a brigade. If you were a line cook, say so and show progression: prep → line → station lead.

How do I state volume?

Covers per service or per day: "200-cover weekend service". It is the reference every chef reads instantly.

Should I mention food cost knowledge?

Yes, if genuine. Recipe costing, portion control and waste tracking are what mark a cook who can move up to sous chef.

How long should the resume be?

One page. Stations and kitchen type up top, then establishments with covers and what you owned at each.

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