Chef CV Example, Template, & Writing Guide for 2025

Ensure your CV format is structured to best highlight your unique experience and life situation.

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How to write a chef CV

People enjoy fine dining, and they’ll pay well to dine where a chef produces great food. But you’ll only get to showcase your culinary skills if you impress your future employer by writing an effective CV.

Employers look for chefs who are experienced in preparing meals, presenting dishes and cooking with different foods and ingredients. Scroll down to learn how to create an outstanding CV for a chef role using four guided tips.

1. Open with a convincing personal statement

A great chef CV starts with a strong CV personal statement of 2–4 sentences that introduces your expertise with food and cooking.

A CV personal statement sits at the top of your CV under your name and contact details. You can format your chef CV personal statement as a paragraph or use bullet points.

A chef CV personal statement’s goal is to help employers understand exactly who you are and what skills and expertise you can bring to their restaurant or business.

Your chef CV personal statement should:

• start with a professional title with a strong adjective (for example: ‘Experienced chef’, ‘Top chef’)
• introduce your previous experiences as a chef
• summarise your most relevant skills
• explain how you’ll be beneficial in that position

Here’s an example of a well-written chef CV personal statement that highlights the applicant’s key chef skills and years of experience:

2. Choose proper CV formatting

The correct CV layout will make your chef CV look organised and easy to read.

So use a standard CV format. For the quickest results, use a CV template for your chef CV, but if you prefer a made-from-scratch document, ensure that it contains five to six sections.

Here’s what to include in a CV for chefs:

1. Your CV title
2. Your personal statement
3. Work experience section
4. Education section
5. Skills section
6. Additional sections such as your hobbies and interests or certifications

If you include an additional section at the bottom of your CV, make it short and use bullet points..

And because employers are primarily interested in what you’ve done recently, emphasise your most recent work history by using reverse-chronological CV format.

Reverse-chronological CV format means starting with your most recent (or current) job, and then working backwards. Reverse-chronological format lets employers see your most recent positions or education first, which are usually the most relevant.

3. Highlight your chef skills

An impressive chef CV that showcases your exceptional key skills will secure an interview.

Chefs need many hard skills to succeed as a chef in a fast-paced restaurant or hotel.

For instance, some hard skills for chefs include preparing gourmet dishes, creating menus, and managing the restaurant’s budget.

Here are some other hard skills for your chef CV:

Also, showcase any specific certifications you have as a key skill on your CV or in a separate section for certifications. For example, a first-aid certificate is relevant because it shows you can handle medical emergencies in the kitchen, such as burns.

4. Quantify your experience using hard numbers

Recruiters like to see numbers and results on a CV because positive numbers mean their business will grow with you on their team. And quantifying your contributions using hard numbers gives evidence of your value and shows how much you’ve positively impacted the restaurants and hotels you’ve worked in.

So include any relevant data such as percentages, sales, and time worked that’ll help your accomplishments and work experience section stand out.

Here’s an example of how to use hard numbers in your chef CV’s work experience section:

• Increased loyal customer base by 25% through exceptional dinner service
• Trained 10+ kitchen staff members to meet strict standards defined by head chef, Marco Pierre
• Increased restaurant revenue by £6K per month by catering for special dietary requirements
• Generated £2K per month savings by transitioning from six vendors to only one supplier
• Decreased food and drink wastage by 10% through wastage and spoilage tracking

Additional resources for your chef CV

If you’re new to the kitchen industry, the perspectives of other professionals are an invaluable resource for starting your career. Ryan Dean Dexton is a vlogger who offers a comprehensive view of kitchen hierarchy, skills a professional chef needs, and tips for breaking into the culinary world:

Need more ideas?

Our library of CV examples has hundreds of tailored CVs you can use to fine-tune your job application and stand out from other applicants.

Chef job outlook in 2025 — things to know

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), chefs in the UK earn an average annual salary of £22,284.

Additionally, there are similar pay levels for both men and women in this type of role.

Data source: The Office for National Statistics, an agency of His Majesty’s Government. The information contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0 and reflects the ONS’s most recent salary (1/11/2023), gender pay gap (4/2023), and skills shortage data (6/2022).

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