Chef CV Example and Writing Guide for 2026
Updated 8 July 2026
A good chef CV lets an employer see what you can cook, how you work during service and where you have made a measurable difference. This guide gives you a practical chef CV template, a strong chef personal statement and realistic wording that you can adapt using facts you can defend.
Chef CV examples
Junior Chef CV example
JuniorReliable commis chef with hands-on experience in a busy neighbourhood restaurant and earlier hospitality work. Comfortable preparing ingredients, supporting several kitchen sections, checking deliveries and keeping accurate food-safety records. Works calmly during demanding services and is ready to take on greater responsibility within a structured brigade.
Why it works: This chef CV sample pairs practical kitchen experience with clear service, waste and hygiene figures while keeping the candidate's junior status believable.
Chef de Partie CV example
Mid-levelChef de Partie with six years of experience across busy restaurant and hotel kitchens. Confident running a designated section, preparing complex dishes, checking food safety records and helping junior chefs work accurately during demanding services. Brings a practical record of reducing waste, refreshing menu items and keeping food quality and presentation consistent.
Why it works: This chef CV sample pairs confident station leadership with defensible evidence on service volume, waste, menu work and junior staff development.
Senior Chef
SeniorHead Chef with progressive experience leading busy restaurant kitchens, developing commercially workable menus and maintaining consistent food quality during high-volume services. Strong record in food-cost control, waste reduction, team coaching and service planning, with the practical judgement to solve problems quickly without lowering standards.
Why it works: Shows clear progression from section ownership to kitchen leadership, backed by service-volume, cost, waste, quality and staff-development results.
How to write a chef CV
Use a clean, reverse-chronological CV of one or two pages. Two pages usually suit experienced chefs; one can be enough for a commis chef, apprentice or recent college leaver. Put your name and contact details first, followed by your personal statement, skills, employment history, education and training, then relevant extras.
| Section | What to include |
|---|---|
| Personal statement | Current level, kitchen setting, strongest practical evidence and the role you are targeting |
| Experience | Employer, title, dates and three to five concise bullets focused on output, standards and results |
| Skills | Culinary techniques plus relevant evidence of menu creation, stock control or staff management |
| Education | Most recent qualification or training first, with dates and the awarding organisation where applicable |
| Extras | Languages, volunteering or interests only when they add useful evidence |
Keep the personal statement to roughly three or four lines. Match it to the vacancy instead of describing yourself as a generic "passionate chef".
For experience, separate routine duties from achievements. A chef CV is stronger when it shows the volume handled, waste reduced, service times improved or colleagues trained. Use only numbers you can verify.
Tailor the skills section to your actual background. Relevant areas can include knife skills, butchery, baking, pastry work, sauce-making, grilling, sous-vide cooking, plating, menu planning, recipe development, allergen management, food storage, inventory control and staff scheduling. If you have a cuisine specialisation, mention it when it matches the job.
List education and training briefly. Earlier school qualifications can usually be left out once you have stronger culinary training or substantial experience. Check dates, tense and formatting before sending the CV, and do not include a photograph or date of birth.
Personal statement examples
Chef de partie with five years' experience running grill and sauce sections in busy hotel and independent restaurant kitchens. Trusted to organise mise en place, complete food-safety checks and deliver up to 140 covers per service while coaching two commis chefs. Now seeking a sous chef post with greater responsibility for menu development, stock control and team performance.
I am a passionate and hardworking chef who loves food and works well alone or in a team. I am looking for a new challenge where I can develop my skills and help the business succeed.
Writing your experience
Write each employment bullet as a small piece of evidence: start with an action, add the scale or difficulty, then state the result. Numbers can cover daily covers, portion yield, waste, food cost, preparation time, ticket time, inspection results, menu sales or staff coached. Pick measures that fit your real work rather than forcing a percentage into every line.
| Flat duty | Stronger, evidence-led version |
|---|---|
| Responsible for the grill section | Ran the grill section for services of up to 110 covers, keeping average ticket times below 18 minutes across a three-month period |
| Helped with stock control | Reorganised weekly stock counts across 85 ingredients, cutting recorded spoilage from £420 to £290 per month |
| Trained junior chefs | Coached three commis chefs on preparation and plating standards; all three passed their station sign-off within six weeks |
The stronger versions work because they name the action, define its scope and show what changed. The figures are illustrative. Replace them with your own records, rotas, wastage sheets, service reports or other defensible evidence.
Choose verbs that reflect kitchen work: prepared, cooked, finished, plated, developed, costed, reduced, organised, inspected, recorded, supervised, coached, briefed and resolved. "Assisted with" is sometimes accurate, particularly early in a career, but say what you personally contributed. For example, "Assisted with pastry preparation" becomes "Prepared and portioned six pastry components for a 70-cover evening service, completing mise en place 25 minutes before briefing."
Match bullets to seniority. A commis chef can show reliable preparation, section rotations, correct storage of deliveries and accurate food-safety records. A chef de partie should show ownership of a designated station and routine safety checks. A sous chef can demonstrate staff supervision and responsibility for running the kitchen when the head chef is absent. Senior chefs should also bring out recipe or menu development, stock control, waste reduction, service quality and coaching.
Avoid filling every role with identical duties. Give the most space to recent posts and select achievements that answer the vacancy. Three to five sharp bullets usually read better than a long job description.
Key skills & ATS keywords
Hard skills
Soft skills
ATS keywords
Education & certifications
Put your most recent and relevant education or training first. Give the exact title, training provider or school, and completion date. Add one short note only when it clarifies useful practical work, such as a kitchen placement or a menu project.
A food-safety certificate is required for chefs under the supplied role guidance, so place it where an employer can find it quickly and reproduce its title accurately. Do not imply that training is current if you cannot support that claim with your records.
Apprenticeship routes into chef work can include Catering and Hospitality Level 2 Foundation, Production Chef Level 2 Intermediate, Commis Chef Level 2 Intermediate, Chef de Partie Level 3 Advanced, Pastry Chef Level 3 Advanced and Senior Culinary Chef Level 4 Higher. These are optional routes, not universal entry conditions. List only the route you have completed or are genuinely undertaking.
Previous experience is not needed to begin as a chef apprentice. Entry expectations can still vary by route and employer: intermediate chef apprenticeships usually ask for some GCSEs, including English and maths, while advanced chef apprenticeships usually ask for five GCSEs at grades 9 to 4, including English and maths. State these grades only when they are relevant and accurate.
If you have little formal culinary education but mainly have kitchen assistant experience, give more room to the transferable kitchen duties and professional development that support a move into chef work. Entry-level applicants may include relevant school subjects when there is little else to show; established chefs can normally keep older school results brief or omit them.
Common mistakes to avoid
Listing dishes prepared without showing pace, volume, consistency or the standard achieved.
Turn duties into evidence. State the section or service covered, the number of covers or dishes handled, and a result you can defend, such as fewer returns, faster ticket times or stronger waste control.
Filling the skills section with cooking techniques while leaving out menu, stock and people responsibilities.
Balance practical techniques with menu creation, stock control, food costs, scheduling or staff management. Select only the areas you have used and can discuss confidently at interview.
Writing vague food-safety claims such as "good hygiene awareness" without showing how standards were applied.
Give concise evidence from daily work, such as completing safety records, checking deliveries, monitoring storage or expiry dates, managing allergens and keeping an assigned section clean.
Using the same generic chef CV for restaurants with very different menus and service models.
Where you have a genuine cuisine specialisation, name it and connect it to the advertised style. Keep broader transferable evidence so the CV does not depend on unsupported claims of expertise.
Leaving mentoring and supervision buried inside a long list of routine duties.
If you have coached colleagues, state how many people you supported, what you taught and what changed. Useful outcomes include quicker onboarding, more consistent plating or better service readiness.
Adding impressive-looking percentages, cover counts or savings that cannot be checked.
Use only figures you can defend. If an exact number is unavailable, describe the real scope plainly, such as responsibility for a section, delivery checks or running service in a senior chef's absence.
Junior vs senior: what changes
| Aspect | Junior | Senior |
|---|---|---|
| Personal statement | Lead with practical training, transferable service experience, dependable preparation and readiness to learn across kitchen sections. Keep the claim narrow and support it elsewhere in the CV. | Lead with the size and type of operation managed, kitchen leadership, menu contribution and measurable control of quality, timing, costs or waste. |
| Culinary evidence | Show sound preparation, cooking and finishing across the dishes or sections genuinely handled. Practical assessments, placements and relevant education can supply evidence when employment is limited. | Show advanced preparation and finishing techniques, responsibility for complex dishes, menu refreshes and consistent execution across busy services. |
| Operations | Focus on accurate preparation, safe storage, delivery checks, stock reporting, clean working practices and reliable completion of assigned tasks. | Show ownership of ordering, inventory, yield, waste, food costs, budgets, rotas and supplier coordination, using defensible measures of scale and results. |
| People leadership | Demonstrate communication, teamwork and constructive responses to pressure. Mention helping peers only when there is a clear example. | Quantify the brigade or shift supervised and explain coaching, delegation, briefings and performance improvements. Include occasions when you ran the kitchen or service. |
| Achievement metrics | Use modest measures such as covers supported, preparation volumes, ticket-time improvements, accurate stock checks or reduced plate returns. | Use wider operational measures such as food-cost movement, waste reduction, service volume, team retention, training completion or improvements across several sections. |
| Education and development | Give relevant education, training and practical learning enough space to offset limited employment. Include earlier education only when there is little stronger evidence. | Keep education concise and give more space to recent professional development and evidence of applying learning to menus, standards, people or kitchen performance. |
Frequently asked questions
One or two pages is usually the clearest choice. An entry-level chef may have enough evidence for one page, while an experienced chef can use two if every role adds relevant detail rather than repeating routine duties.
Use relevant education, practical training, placements, volunteering and transferable hospitality work. Show specific evidence of preparation, cleanliness, teamwork, time management and learning under pressure rather than claiming experience you do not have.
No. A British-style CV does not need a photo or date of birth; use the space for a focused chef personal statement, relevant skills and evidence from work or training.
No. Include relevant, completed training that supports the vacancy and record its title accurately. Leave out unrelated or unverifiable entries, and do not present attendance as proof of competence.
Name the move directly, then connect previous work to kitchen demands through evidence such as service under pressure, scheduling, stock handling, customer expectations or team coordination. Pair those transferable strengths with recent practical training or experience.
Use one clean chef CV template as a base, then adjust the personal statement, skills and strongest bullets for each vacancy. Chef CV examples are useful for structure, but your figures, specialisms and achievements should come from your own defensible experience.