Examples & writing guide
Kitchen Porter CV Example for 2026
Updated 18 June 2026
A good kitchen porter CV explains, in plain terms, how you help keep a kitchen clean, organised and ready for service. This guide covers the structure and evidence to use, whether you already have relevant experience or are writing a kitchen porter CV with no experience.
Examples by experience level
Junior Kitchen Porter
TemplateGrey Frame5 / 5
Why this works
This kitchen porter CV example turns café and voluntary catering experience into clear evidence of pace, hygiene, teamwork and dependable kitchen support.
Continue writing your CVExperienced Kitchen Porter
TemplateNavy Atlas4 / 5
Why this works
This example shows steady progression, dependable service during busy shifts and measurable improvements to wash-up, cleaning, stock rotation and waste handling.
Continue writing your CVSenior Kitchen Porter
TemplateAshford1 / 5
Why this works
This CV shows steady progression into shift leadership, backed by credible figures for wash-up flow, hygiene routines, stock control and team training.
Continue writing your CVJunior vs senior: what changes
| Aspect | Junior | Senior |
|---|---|---|
| Personal statement | Lead with reliability, physical stamina and transferable evidence from education, volunteering, cleaning, retail or hospitality. Keep each claim modest and support it elsewhere in the CV. | Lead with substantial kitchen experience, the scale of services supported, responsibility for colleagues and measurable operational results. Do not repeat a list of routine duties. |
| Experience evidence | Use supervised tasks and small, defensible figures, such as the number of covers supported, items processed or shifts completed. Placements and volunteering can help when labelled accurately. | Show sustained results across busy services, several kitchen areas or larger workloads. Connect the scale of the operation with cleaner handovers, reliable equipment availability or fewer service delays. |
| Kitchen operations | Show dishwashing, pot washing, sanitising, surface cleaning and waste handling through precise examples. A short account of following a cleaning routine is stronger than a broad claim about doing every kitchen task. | Show control of wash-up flow, equipment care, safe stacking and cleaning routines during demanding services. Include examples of resolving bottlenecks or equipment problems without overstating your authority. |
| Team contribution | Describe following instructions, communicating clearly with chefs and moving between practical tasks when asked. Use a real shift, event or placement to make the evidence credible. | Describe allocating work, coaching colleagues, arranging cover and coordinating with chefs or catering managers. Add the size of the team or service only when you can verify it. |
| Stock and food support | Mention basic food preparation, delivery unloading or storeroom organisation only when you personally carried out the work. State the scope rather than implying responsibility for the whole operation. | Show responsibility for orderly storage, chilled-produce rotation, delivery handling or wider food-service support. Tie the work to a defensible result, such as fewer misplaced items or faster service preparation. |
| Safety evidence | Give concrete examples of careful manual handling, machine use, stacking and prompt reporting of breakages or hazards. Focus on actions taken rather than generic awareness. | Show how checks, briefings, reporting or revised routines dealt with recurring defects, incidents or disruption. Use figures only when records or direct experience can support them. |
How to write a kitchen porter CV
Use a simple reverse-chronological layout, beginning with your current or most recent work. One page usually gives a new applicant enough room, while two pages may suit someone with several relevant roles or substantial supervisory experience. Choose a readable typeface, clear headings and consistent spacing. Leave out your photo, date of birth and full street address.
Tailor each application to the vacancy and make the page easy to scan. Read the advert closely, compare it with your genuine experience and move your strongest matching evidence towards the top. Kitchen porter work commonly covers washing kitchenware, cleaning and sanitising equipment and work areas, supporting chefs, disposing of rubbish and keeping the kitchen clean. Some posts also involve basic food preparation, unloading deliveries or organising a storeroom. A kitchen porter CV template gives you a structure, not a list of claims to copy.
| Section | What to include | What to leave out |
|---|---|---|
| Contact details | Name, town or city, mobile, professional email and optional profile link | Photo, date of birth and full home address |
| Personal statement | Experience level, relevant setting, two or three strengths and one proof point | Unsupported praise or personal reasons for needing work |
| Experience | Employer, title, location, dates and short achievement points | Dense paragraphs and copied vacancy wording |
| Skills | A focused selection supported by evidence elsewhere | Rating bars and vague personality labels |
| Education and training | Recent education and accurately described relevant training | Long accounts of unrelated study |
| Additional details | Relevant languages, awards or volunteering | Interests that add nothing to the application |
Personal statement
Write two or three sentences that quickly establish where you fit. Mention whether you are entering hospitality, already working in a kitchen or coordinating wash-up and cleaning routines. Add one concrete detail, such as the type of service, the number of covers supported or the frequency of a routine. That evidence makes words such as "reliable" and "organised" believable.
If you have no direct kitchen experience, draw on transferable evidence from cleaning, stock handling, retail, warehousing, customer service, volunteering or practical study. Make the connection precise. You might have followed timed cleaning routines, kept a work area orderly, checked deliveries or stayed productive during a rush. Never present transferable work as kitchen employment. If your duties overlap more with food preparation and general support, see this kitchen assistant CV guide.
Experience, skills and extras
List jobs newest first, including unrelated work when it contains useful evidence. Build each point around an action, its scope and the outcome. For example, show how often you completed a cleaning routine, how many deliveries you checked or the size of the service you supported. Use only figures you can explain at interview.
Choose skills that appear in those points. Hygiene knowledge, teamwork, communication, organisation, physical stamina and the ability to work quickly in a busy setting can all strengthen a kitchen porter CV, but a short example carries more weight than a bare claim. Keep the list selective and use wording that fits the vacancy naturally. If you are applying for a role with more cooking responsibility, show relevant food preparation experience.
Keep education proportionate to its relevance. Add the qualification, subject, institution and dates, then place useful training in its own section if that makes it easier to find. Awards, languages and volunteering deserve space only when they strengthen the application. Check the finished CV for unexplained gaps, inconsistent dates, spelling errors and unsupported claims before sending it.
Personal statement examples
Reliable kitchen porter with two years' experience supporting busy hotel kitchens and maintaining orderly wash-up areas during services of up to 180 covers. Confident in cleaning and sanitising kitchenware and work areas, coordinating priorities with chefs and checking incoming deliveries. Known for staying steady at peak times and helping new starters learn daily routines.
I am a hard-working person looking for a kitchen porter position. I can work alone or in a team and will do anything required. I learn quickly and think I would be good at the job, but I have not provided any evidence.
Writing your experience
Kitchen porter experience can read like a list of chores when every point begins with "responsible for". Replace that phrase with an action, a sense of scale and a result. State what you did, show how much or how often, then explain the practical difference. Perhaps equipment was ready before service, closing checks were completed, storage became easier to use or chefs received clean kitchenware when they needed it.
Useful measures include covers, shifts, deliveries, cleaning areas, colleagues trained and checks completed. Use only numbers you can verify. If you cannot support a percentage, choose a straightforward count such as "checked four deliveries each week" or "supported evening services of up to 120 covers". When no useful number exists, add honest context such as breakfast service, event catering or a school dining hall.
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| Was responsible for washing up | Operated the plate-washing area across five evening shifts each week, returning clean crockery for services of up to 140 covers |
| Helped keep the kitchen clean | Cleaned work surfaces, floors and appliances across three kitchen zones, completing every assigned closing check for eight weeks |
| Helped with stock | Unloaded and checked four weekly deliveries, labelled incoming goods and reorganised frequently used items |
These are illustrative kitchen porter CV sample bullets. Replace every figure and outcome with your own defensible evidence. "Supported" is often the honest verb when the whole kitchen produced the result. Do not take sole credit for a team effort.
Useful verbs include cleaned, sanitised, operated, organised, unloaded, checked, reported, prepared, cleared, trained and coordinated. A junior applicant might cover completed routines, safe equipment use or keeping pace through a busy shift. An experienced porter can show dependable closing work and broader coverage. A senior applicant should make coordination visible through work allocation, training, handovers, checks and problems resolved.
Keep workplace procedures in context. Some posts involve loading washing machines correctly and stacking items safely. In certain settings, porters may also report accidents, near misses or equipment defects. Present these as experience gained in that workplace, rather than suggesting that every employer uses the same procedure.
Key skills & ATS keywords
Hard skills
Soft skills
ATS keywords
Education & certifications
Keep education concise and place the most recent qualification first, followed by the institution and dates. Higher education is not required for kitchen porter jobs, so experienced applicants can usually keep this section compact. If you are starting out, one short note about relevant practical learning, teamwork or a placement can help. Do not let unrelated study displace stronger evidence from employment or volunteering.
Kitchen Porters who handle food in UK food businesses must receive training, instruction or supervision suited to their work. Before beginning food-handling duties, they must receive written or verbal instruction in food-hygiene essentials, including personal hygiene, temperature control, cleaning procedures and pest awareness. A food hygiene certificate is not a universal legal requirement for preparing or selling food in the UK. Employers may instead demonstrate suitable preparation through instruction, supervision, workplace training, self-study or relevant prior experience.
The appropriate training depends on the work involved. Guidance for Kitchen Porters handling only low-risk foods, prepacked foods or food service only specifies food safety awareness, level 1 hygiene instruction. This applies to that activity scope rather than every kitchen porter post. For Kitchen Porters who prepare open high-risk foods or supervise food handling, the supplied route specifies training equivalent to the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) level 2 award in food safety and catering within three months of starting work. This is conditional guidance tied to those duties. More generally, training equivalent to level 2 in food safety and hygiene is preferred for Kitchen Porters who are food handlers.
Record training exactly as it appears on your documents. Give the title, provider and completion date. Describe workplace instruction as training or instruction, rather than calling it a certificate. If a course is unfinished, label it "in progress" and include the expected completion date.
| Your situation | How to present it |
|---|---|
| Completed named award | Give its exact title, issuer and completion date |
| Workplace instruction or induction | Describe it plainly without calling it a certificate |
| Course under way | Mark it as in progress and add the expected completion date |
| No formal certificate | State relevant instruction and practical hygiene knowledge accurately |
Relevant awards, certifications and languages may sit in an additional section when they support the application. Keep unrelated courses brief.
Common mistakes to avoid
AvoidListing duties such as "washed dishes" without showing pace, workload or a result.
InsteadTurn the duty into evidence. Name the equipment or area, add a volume or service period you can prove, and state the result. For example, explain how you kept plates and utensils available during a busy sitting instead of merely saying that you used the dishwasher.
AvoidSending the same kitchen porter CV to every employer.
InsteadAdjust the CV to the vacancy and keep it easy to scan. Bring forward genuine evidence of wash-up work, kitchen sanitising, chef support, storage or food preparation when those duties appear in the job description.
AvoidLeaving hygiene knowledge buried inside an old job description.
InsteadGive hygiene practices a clear place in the skills section, then support them with an experience bullet about cleaning and sanitising equipment, utensils or work areas. Say what you cleaned and what improved as a result.
AvoidClaiming to work well under pressure without offering evidence.
InsteadUse a concise example from a busy service, event, canteen, café or transferable role. State the workload, what you did to keep work moving and the outcome, using only figures you can defend.
AvoidFilling a kitchen porter CV with unrelated hobbies while omitting transferable experience.
InsteadRemove interests that do not help the application. Use the space for relevant evidence from cleaning, catering, hospitality, retail, volunteering or other practical work, and label unpaid experience honestly.
AvoidUsing vague safety phrases while omitting what happened when something went wrong.
InsteadShow practical judgement. Explain how you reported a breakage, equipment defect, accident or near miss, or how you loaded, unloaded and stacked kitchenware safely. Keep the example factual and specific.
Frequently asked questions
One page often gives an entry-level applicant enough room, while two pages may suit someone with substantial relevant experience. Use reverse-chronological order, keep recent kitchen evidence prominent and remove repeated duties.
Use examples from education, volunteering, cleaning, retail or events that demonstrate stamina, teamwork, organisation and safe working. Describe each task and result precisely, but do not present informal or unpaid activity as employment.
No. A British-style CV normally omits a photograph and date of birth, leaving room for contact details, a personal statement, skills, experience and education.
Yes. Use accurate wording from the job description and move your most relevant evidence nearer the top, whether the post focuses on dishwashing, cleaning, chef support, deliveries, storage or food preparation.
Translate earlier work into evidence of cleaning routines, careful equipment use, stock handling, quick service, teamwork or customer service. Keep previous job titles accurate and explain the transferable result instead of presenting unrelated work as kitchen experience.
Include a role-specific qualification when it is relevant to the vacancy, recording its exact title and issuer accurately. It should support, rather than replace, evidence of dependable kitchen work.
From example to application
Turn this kitchen porter example into a CV that sounds like you.
Keep the structure that works. Tailor the details around your experience, strengths, and the role you want.