Three chef resumes at junior sous, sous and executive level, rendered in a real template and annotated line by line. Each reads the way a hiring chef reads: where you cooked, covers and banquets, food cost against budget, inspection scores, cooks kept.
Written by the Resumi editorial team for a fictional candidate. Role facts come from O*NET and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Strength band is Resumi’s optimization score, not a ranking any employer sees.
What makes this resume work
Each marker on the page has a note here. Press a marker to jump to its note. Hover a note and its marker lifts.
1
Seats and station in the headline
Junior sous chef, scratch kitchen, 110 seats, ServSafe manager and a culinary diploma, all before the summary. Chefs who hire read the kitchen first, and the seat count tells them the volume before a single bullet.
2
Covers and food cost up front
Two hundred forty covers a night, food cost at 29%, three inspections at 100, six cooks trained. A hiring chef gets volume, cost, sanitation and leadership in two lines, the four things a sous chef is measured on.
3
The pass, with ticket times
Four nights a week on the pass for 240 covers, 92% of tickets under 14 minutes. Running expo is what separates a junior sous from a strong line cook, and the ticket time is the number the dining room feels.
4
Food cost against a target
Twenty-nine percent against a 30% target for a year, with the prep lists and weekly counts that did it. Postings for kitchen managers ask for cost control and inventory by name, and this line shows both at the junior level.
5
Inspection scores with the method
Three county inspections at 100, after rewriting the temperature logs and label system. The handbook puts sanitation monitoring first among the chef's duties, and a score with its cause reads as a system rather than luck.
6
Banquet volume from the line years
Four-hundred-plate banquets fired in 22 minutes on a four-cook line, five shifts a week. Hotel and venue postings ask for large-scale event experience, and the line cook years supply it in the units a banquet chef counts.
1
Restaurant and banquet ceiling named
Sous chef, a 140-seat hotel restaurant, banquets to 600, Certified Sous Chef and ServSafe manager, in the headline. Hotel and campus postings ask for high-volume and banquet experience, and the headline answers before the summary.
2
Food cost on a sales base
Thirty point four percent food cost on $2.1 million in sales, 14 cooks scheduled, 4 inspections at 99 or better. A food and beverage director reads the percentage and the base together, because a low percentage on small sales proves little.
3
Line and expo, with volume
A 14-cook line and the expo for 140 seats and banquets to 600, five dinner services a week. The bullet gives the crew size, the seat count and the banquet ceiling, the three figures a hiring chef uses to picture the job.
4
Labor budget held, overtime counted
Weekly schedules for 14 cooks inside a 28% labor budget with overtime under 2%. Executive chef postings put scheduling and financial control beside cooking, and this line shows the sous chef already doing the manager's arithmetic.
5
Menus counted, dishes costed
Three seasonal menus a year, 36 dishes each, costed in Excel with recipe cards and plate specs. The handbook lists menu planning and recipe development as core duties, and the count turns creativity into output.
6
Station years kept to two lines
Sauté for 240 covers a night with ticket times, then station waste cut 22% by resizing pars. Three years on a station compress into volume and one cost result, so the page stays on the sous chef work.
1
Outlets, banquet space and CEC
Executive chef, three outlets, 22,000 square feet of banquet space, Certified Executive Chef. Hotel executive chef postings ask for multi-outlet and banquet leadership and prefer a culinary credential, and the headline carries all three.
2
Sales, cost and turnover together
Six point eight million dollars in food sales, food cost at 29.8%, turnover cut in half, five inspections at 100. A general manager reads the summary as a P&L line and a staffing line, which is how the executive chef is judged.
3
Brigade and revenue in one line
Thirty-eight cooks across three outlets and banquets to 900, on $6.8 million in annual food sales. The first bullet sets the scale of the kitchen, so every percentage below it has a base the reader can weigh.
4
Food cost as dollars under plan
Twenty-nine point eight percent against a 31% budget for five years, written as $82,000 a year under plan. Converting the percentage to dollars is how the executive chef speaks to the owner, and it is the line a controller will verify.
5
Turnover cut, sous chefs promoted
Cook turnover from 61% to 29% in three years, with station ladders and two sous chefs promoted from within. Postings for executive chefs ask for identifying and developing future leaders, and a turnover figure with promotions is that requirement met.
6
Catering years in events and cost
Three hundred forty events a year from 20 to 1,200 guests with food cost at 27%, then a commissary system that cut overtime 35%. Four years of catering compress into volume, cost and one operational fix.
Junior sous chef with two years on the line and one running the pass: 110-seat scratch kitchen, 240 covers a night, food cost held at 29%, 3 health inspections at 100, 6 cooks trained on every station.
Experience
Junior sous chef
Aug 2025 – Present
Larkspur & Vine · Nashville, TN
Led the pass 4 nights a week for 240 covers, keeping ticket times under 14 minutes on 92% of tickets.
Trained 6 line cooks to every station in 8 weeks each, with all 6 still on the roster after a year.
Maintained a 29% food cost against a 30% target for 12 months with daily prep lists and weekly counts.
Cut prep waste 18% in 6 months by costing 42 recipes and resizing par levels for weekday covers.
Achieved 100 on 3 county health inspections by rewriting the line's temperature logs and label system.
Line cook, grill and sauté
May 2023 – Jul 2025
Stones River Hotel & Conference Center · Murfreesboro, TN
Executed grill and sauté for a 140-seat restaurant and banquets up to 400 plates, 5 shifts a week.
Produced 400-plate plated banquets in 22 minutes from fire to last plate on a 4-cook line.
Education
Diploma in Culinary arts
Aug 2022 – May 2023
Sumner Ridge Community College · Gallatin, TN
Skills
Kitchen
Expediting, Grill Station, Sauté Station, Banquet Production, Cook training
Costs
Food cost control, Recipe costing, Prep lists, Par Levels
Safety
Temperature Logs, Health inspections, Allergen management
Certifications
ServSafe Food Protection Manager
Jun 2023
National Restaurant Association
ServSafe Allergens
Feb 2024
National Restaurant Association
Renata Villalobos
Sous chef · Hotel restaurant and banquets to 600 · Certified Sous Chef, ServSafe Manager
Sous chef, six years in scratch kitchens, three running a 140-seat hotel restaurant and banquets to 600: food cost 30.4% on $2.1 million in sales, 14 cooks scheduled, 4 health inspections at 99 or better.
Experience
Sous chef
Jun 2023 – Present
Stones River Hotel & Conference Center · Murfreesboro, TN
Led a 14-cook line and the expo for a 140-seat restaurant and banquets to 600, 5 dinner services a week.
Maintained food cost at 30.4% on $2.1 million in annual sales against a 31% budget for 3 years.
Planned weekly schedules for 14 cooks inside a 28% labor budget, with overtime under 2% of hours.
Achieved 99 or better on 4 health inspections with HACCP logs and a daily line walk before service.
Developed 3 seasonal menus a year, 36 dishes each costed in Excel with recipe cards and plate specs.
Trained 9 new cooks to 3 stations each in 6 weeks, cutting first-year turnover from 6 cooks to 2.
Chef de partie, sauté
Apr 2020 – May 2023
Larkspur & Vine · Nashville, TN
Executed sauté for 240 covers a night in a 110-seat scratch kitchen, ticket times under 14 minutes.
Reduced station waste 22% by resizing pars to the weekday cover count and logging daily prep.
Education
Diploma in Culinary arts
Aug 2019 – May 2020
Sumner Ridge Community College · Gallatin, TN
Skills
Kitchen
Expediting, Banquet Production, Sauté Station, Menu development, Kitchen scheduling
Executive chef, fourteen years, the last five running a hotel's 3 outlets and banquets to 900: $6.8 million in food sales, food cost 29.8%, a 38-cook brigade with turnover cut in half, 5 health inspections at 100.
Experience
Executive chef
May 2021 – Present
Stones River Hotel & Conference Center · Murfreesboro, TN
Directed a 38-cook brigade across 3 outlets and banquets to 900, on $6.8 million in annual food sales.
Achieved 100 on 5 health inspections and 2 brand quality audits with zero critical findings.
Delivered food cost of 29.8% against a 31% budget for 5 years, $82,000 a year under plan.
Launched 4 menus a year across 3 outlets, 210 costed recipes, lifting restaurant food sales 12% in 2025.
Cut cook turnover from 61% to 29% in 3 years with station ladders, 2 sous chefs promoted from within.
Executive sous chef
Mar 2017 – Apr 2021
Cane Ridge Catering · Antioch, TN
Managed production for 340 events a year, 20 to 1,200 guests, with 14 cooks and food cost at 27%.
Built the commissary prep system that cut event-day overtime 35% and late plates to under 1%.
Chef de cuisine
Jun 2013 – Feb 2017
Larkspur & Vine · Nashville, TN
Led a 12-cook scratch kitchen for 240 covers a night, food cost 30% and 3 health inspections at 100.
Education
Diploma in Culinary arts
Aug 2012 – May 2013
Sumner Ridge Community College · Gallatin, TN
Skills
Leading
Menu development, Cook training, Kitchen scheduling, Banquet Production
Experience leads because a junior sous chef already owns numbers a hiring chef can check: covers on the pass, ticket times, food cost against target, inspection scores, cooks trained and kept. The line cook years read as banquet volume and speed, the culinary diploma sits below, and the ServSafe manager and allergen cards are dated under the experience.
Typical titles: Junior sous chef, Lead line cook, Kitchen supervisor
Mid-level
3–6 years
The default view. A sous chef's page in the units a food and beverage director tracks: seats, banquet ceiling, food cost on a sales base, labor budget, menus costed, inspection scores, cooks trained and turnover. The station years keep two lines with their covers and waste result, and the credentials block dates the Certified Sous Chef and ServSafe manager cards.
Typical titles: Sous chef, Chef de cuisine, Kitchen manager
Senior
7+ years
Scope replaces cooking: outlets, banquet space, food sales, food cost in dollars under plan, brigade size, turnover cut, inspections and audits passed, menus launched with their sales effect. The catering years keep two lines, the chef de cuisine years one, and the CEC and ServSafe manager cards are dated at the bottom.
Typical titles: Executive chef, Executive sous chef, Culinary director
04Summary
Weak
Passionate and creative culinary professional with extensive experience in high-volume kitchens, dedicated to delivering exceptional dining experiences and leading teams to success.
Strong
Sous chef with six years in scratch kitchens, the last three running a 140-seat hotel restaurant and banquets to 600 plates: food cost 30.4% on $2.1 million in sales against a 31% budget, 14 cooks scheduled inside a 28% labor budget, 4 health inspections at 99 or better, Certified Sous Chef.
Where the cooking happened, the seat count, the banquet ceiling, food and labor cost against budget and the inspection record are the five things a hiring chef or food and beverage director checks before the tasting. The weak version could open any cook's resume, and chefs who hire say they skip it.
05Bullets
Weak
Responsible for overseeing daily kitchen operations, maintaining food quality and ensuring compliance with all health and safety regulations.
Strong
Maintained food cost at 30.4% on $2.1 million in annual sales against a 31% budget for 3 years.
Food cost is the number a chef is measured on, and postings for executive chefs name cost of goods and inventory control before menus. A percentage against a budget on a stated sales base can be checked against the P&L. The weak bullet repeats the posting, proves nothing, and reads the same on every kitchen manager's resume.
06Skills and keywords
Kitchen
Expediting (in the example)
Banquet Production (in the example)
Sauté Station (in the example)
Menu development (in the example)
Kitchen scheduling (in the example)
Cook training (in the example)
Grill Station
Mise en Place
Knife Skills
Banquet event orders
Costs and purchasing
Food cost control (in the example)
Labor Cost Control (in the example)
Recipe costing (in the example)
Par Levels (in the example)
Portion Control (in the example)
Excel (in the example)
Purchasing
Inventory management
P&L Management
Prep lists
Safety and credentials
HACCP (in the example)
Health inspections (in the example)
ServSafe Food Protection Manager (in the example)
Certified Sous Chef (in the example)
Temperature Logs
Allergen management
ServSafe Allergens
Certified Chef de Cuisine
Certified Executive Chef
Filled chips appear in the example above.
Paste a job description and Resumi shows which of these your resume already covers.
Fix: Chefs who hire say they read a list of kitchens, the position in each and the dates, and skip anything written to impress an office. Cut the objective and the adjectives. Name each kitchen, its style and seat count, your station or title, and the months.
2
Eighteen kitchens in six years, all listed
Fix: Job hopping is the flag hiring chefs name first, and one says a resume with 18 jobs shows a lack of awareness. Keep the kitchens that added a skill or a cuisine, give each its months, and fold the short stints into one line.
3
Food cost and covers missing from every line
Fix: Executive chef and kitchen manager postings ask for cost of goods, inventory and financial control, and sous chef postings ask for high-volume work. Write food cost against budget, sales, covers a night, banquet counts and labor percentage. Without them the resume is a menu with no prices.
4
Certifications listed without dates or the issuer
Fix: Campus and hotel postings require a ServSafe manager certificate within weeks of hire, and the ACF designations expire and must be renewed. Give each card its issuer, issue date and expiration, and put the food-handler permit the state requires beside them.
5
Menus described as creative, not counted
Fix: The handbook lists menu planning and recipe development among the chef's duties, and every applicant claims creativity. Count the menus a year and the dishes costed, give the sales change after a launch, and name the cuisine and the price point.
08Format and template
Beige Border keeps a plain page with a bordered contact box and a thin rule beside each section, so the kitchens, the covers and the food cost read in order with nothing to decorate them. Chefs who hire say they want a list of kitchens they can read in a minute, and this layout gives them exactly that, with the certifications in a dated block under the experience. The same content moves into Standard, Brown Sidebar or Warm Classic. Whichever you choose, the current kitchen and its numbers stay on the first screen.
Shown above: Beige Border
StandardFree
Brown Sidebar
Warm Classic
09Questions chefs ask
What numbers belong on a chef resume?
The ones the P&L and the health department already record: food cost against budget on a stated sales base, labor percentage, covers a night and seats, banquet counts and the largest plated event, menus a year and dishes costed, health inspection scores, cooks trained and turnover. The handbook lists estimating costs, pricing menu items and ordering supplies among the chef's core tasks, and executive chef postings ask for inventory, cost of goods and financial control by name. A chef who writes those figures is answering the posting before the interview.
Do hiring chefs read resumes at all?
For cooks, barely. Chefs who hire say a cook's resume matters little below senior chef de partie or sous chef, that they look for kitchens they recognize and call people they know there, and that a short cover note written for the restaurant counts for more than formatting. From sous chef up, the resume is read, because the job carries the schedule, the ordering and the food cost. Write it for that reader: kitchens, positions, dates, then the numbers each kitchen produced, and keep it to one page.
Should a chef resume list every kitchen?
No. Hiring chefs name job hopping as the first red flag, and one describes a resume with eighteen jobs as a lack of awareness. List the kitchens that added a cuisine, a station or a level of responsibility, give each its months, and let a stage or a season stay off the page unless the posting asks for it. Gaps get one plain clause. The handbook notes that most chefs spend years as line cooks before promotion, so a steady climb through two or three kitchens reads better than a tour of twelve.
Which certifications matter for a chef in 2026?
CareerOneStop lists 15 certifications from 7 organizations for the occupation, most of them American Culinary Federation designations from Certified Sous Chef through Certified Master Chef, and flags the Certified Executive Chef as in demand. The handbook adds that some states and localities require a food handler's certification and that other credentials can lead to advancement and higher pay. Postings ask most often for a ServSafe manager certificate, sometimes within a set period after hire, and hotel and campus postings add allergen knowledge and CPR. List the required permit first, then the ACF designation with its date.
How do I move from sous chef to executive chef on paper?
Show the whole kitchen, not the line. The handbook describes executive chefs designing menus, reviewing purchases and training cooks, and the certifying body requires years in charge of production and supervision of full-time cooks before its executive designation. Postings for executive chefs and kitchen managers ask for hiring, scheduling, inventory, cost of goods and health inspections. So the sous chef resume should already carry the schedule you wrote, the labor budget you held, the menus you costed and the cooks you trained, with the food cost figure at the top.
How long should a chef resume be?
One page, including the executive chef with fourteen years across three kitchens. Chefs who hire say a good resume is one they do not have to spend time reading, and they want kitchens, positions and dates first. Give the current kitchen five bullets with its numbers, earlier kitchens one or two lines each, and cut adjectives before you cut a food cost figure or an inspection score. Awards, press and stages can wait for the interview or a short cover note written for the restaurant.
