How to Write a Resume for Chef Position

After you've graduated from an excellent culinary arts school and worked under several good chefs, it's time to get your own position as a chef. When searching for a chef position, you'll need to create a professional resume. Chef resumes should stress work experience, culinary training and education. Chronological resumes work best for this field. Here is a guide to help you write an effective chef resume.

Things You'll Need

• Work experience in food preparation, culinary design, menu creation, staff training, and managing food budget
• Degree from culinary school or equivalent work experience
• Outline of experience, education, and goals
• Computer with word processing program
• Printer
• Resume paper and envelopes

Instructions

1. Create an outline to develop a strategy for obtaining the ideal chef position. Before you start the resume, write down your career goals and describe how your prior experience and education qualify you for a chef job in outline form. This will help you organize your thoughts and think of the best way to describe your qualifications. A good resume presents career objectives and qualifications that clearly demonstrate why the person is perfect for the job. As a chef, you want to focus on the following areas: restaurant experience, kitchen supervising, menu development, recipe creation, recipe creation, culinary design and presentation, specialty cuisine, food ordering, budget management, catering work and staff training.

2. Use the outline as a guide to put your job goal, experience, training, and education into resume format on a rough draft. Resumes are traditionally one or two pages long, depending on experience. Fit the information under the headings of "Objective," "Summary of Qualifications," "Professional Experience," "Awards" and "Education."

3. The first paragraph on the resume is your name and contact information. This is generally centered on the page. Be sure to include full contact information such as name, address, day and night phone numbers, cell phone number and e-mail.

4. State the title of the chef job you seek and describe how your expertise fits the position for the "Objective" section. The objective section can be developed in several different ways. One style is to list a job title and provide a qualifications description in one sentence. This style provides a glimpse of the candidate's goals and her experience. A second style involves listing the position sought and writing a one paragraph description of the candidate's qualifications. The paragraph style functions like a sales pitch to keep reading the rest of the resume. A third style is to state the job title only. This style relies on the summary of qualifications section to sell the candidate.

5. List your core skills in bullet points in the "Summary of Qualifications" section. This is the area to sell your abilities and knowledge and describe how these skills will make you an excellent chef. A chef has to be an excellent cook, culinary artist, kitchen supervisor, cooking staff trainer and manager, menu expert, and budget manager all in one. If you are a recent graduate, you want to create an "Achievements and Skills" section instead of a "Summary of Qualifications." This type of section will allow you to discuss your core skills, abilities, and strengths based on school experiences.

6. Describe your work experience in the "Professional Experience" section. In each job description, list the name of the business, the position title, and your responsibilities. Emphasize any skills and experiences from the previous jobs that are important to the potential chef position. Mention if you were responsible for hiring, training, or supervising kitchen staff or if your created menus and original dishes. The job descriptions are usually listed in bullet points.

7. If you received any awards or your restaurant received awards while you served as chef, list them in the "Awards" section.

8. List both professional training and education in the "Education" section. If you are a recent graduate with minimal work experience, put the "Education" section right under the "Objective" section.

9. Look at sample resumes of other chefs to get ideas on format and language. You can find sample resumes online and at school career planning centers.

Tips & Warnings

• Research the resumes of accomplished chefs for ideas on the experiences and skills that are important to a chef position.

• Ask to see the resumes of friends who are chefs to get ideas about format and descriptions.

• Show your resume to a professional resume writer and editor for feedback.