Příklad CV: Sous Chef

Choose the right format for a Sous Chef resume

Use a reverse-chronological format. Hiring managers at hotels, restaurants, and catering operations move fast, and they want to see your most recent kitchen immediately. A functional or hybrid format raises red flags unless you have a genuine employment gap to explain.

Keep it to one page if you have fewer than ten years of experience; two pages is acceptable for executive-level candidates with multi-unit or multi-concept history. Use clean section headers, consistent font sizing (10–12pt body, 14–16pt name), and enough white space so a chef reading it between service can scan it in thirty seconds.

• Lead with your name, city/state, phone, professional email, and LinkedIn or portfolio link if you have one
• Order sections: Summary → Work Experience → Skills → Certifications → Education
• Avoid photos, graphics, or tables — many applicant tracking systems used by hotel groups and restaurant chains parse plain text only
• Save and send as a PDF unless the job posting explicitly requests a Word file

Write a professional summary that lands the interview

Your summary sits directly under your contact information and does one job: make the hiring chef or GM read the rest of the page. Skip 'passionate culinarian' and 'team player.' Name your cuisine focus, your years of experience, your kitchen size, and one measurable win.

Example: "Sous Chef with 7 years of progressive kitchen leadership across high-volume Italian and New American concepts, including a 120-seat downtown flagship. Reduced food cost from 34% to 28% within six months by redesigning prep workflows and tightening vendor ordering. ServSafe certified, experienced in BOH scheduling for 18-person teams, and comfortable opening and closing independently."

Write work-experience bullets that show real impact

Each bullet should follow an action-verb → task → result structure. Quantify wherever you can: covers per service, food cost percentage, labor cost, team size, ticket times, waste reduction, or revenue tied to a menu change. Vague bullets like 'assisted with daily operations' are invisible to a hiring chef.

Think about what you actually controlled: ordering, scheduling, training, menu development, health inspections, vendor negotiations, and line expediting are all fair game.

• Oversaw daily prep and line execution for a 250-cover dinner service, cutting average ticket time from 22 minutes to 16 minutes by restructuring station mise en place
• Developed and costed a seasonal prix-fixe menu that increased average check from $58 to $74 and contributed $31K in incremental revenue over a 10-week run

Skills and certifications recruiters and ATS systems look for

Most restaurant groups and hotel brands run resumes through an ATS before a human sees them. Include hard skills as keywords, not just in bullets but in a dedicated skills section. Focus on what you actually do, not a generic dump of cooking verbs.

Certifications matter more in this profession than in most. ServSafe Manager Certification is close to mandatory in the US. Depending on your market, HACCP training, a Food Handler Card, or a Certified Culinarian (CC) credential from the American Culinary Federation can separate you from candidates with identical experience.

• ServSafe Manager Certification (include expiration date)
• HACCP principles and implementation
• Food cost and labor cost management, POS and inventory systems (Toast, Restaurant365, BlueCart, MarketMan)
• Cuisine-specific skills: butchery, charcuterie, pastry fundamentals, wood-fire, or live-fire if applicable
• BOH scheduling software (HotSchedules, 7shifts), knife skills training, allergen awareness

Education, licenses, and extras that round out your resume

List your culinary degree or diploma from an accredited program (CIA, Johnson & Wales, Le Cordon Bleu, community college culinary arts) with graduation year. If you completed a formal apprenticeship through the ACF, list it here. A bachelor's in hospitality management is worth including, especially if you're targeting hotel F&B director pipelines.

Add a brief section for relevant extras: James Beard semifinalist recognition, Food & Wine Best New Chef nomination, local press features, or stage experience at a Michelin-starred kitchen all carry weight. Fluency in Spanish is a practical asset worth listing if you manage a Spanish-speaking BOH team.

Mistakes to avoid

• ×Listing job duties instead of outcomes — 'responsible for ordering' tells a hiring chef nothing; 'reduced food cost 6 points by tightening par levels and cutting one underperforming vendor' tells them everything.
• ×Omitting your ServSafe status or letting an expired certification appear on the resume without noting you've renewed it, which immediately signals a compliance risk to operators.
• ×Using a generic skills list padded with soft skills like 'passionate' or 'detail-oriented' instead of specific techniques, cuisines, and systems the employer can verify in an interview.
• ×Failing to tailor the resume to the concept — a fine-dining tasting-menu restaurant and a 300-seat sports bar both need a Sous Chef, but the keywords, tone, and highlighted experience should look completely different for each application.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a culinary degree to get a Sous Chef job?

No, but you need to account for the absence of one. Many working Sous Chefs came up through the ranks without a formal degree, and experienced operators know this. If you lack a degree, make your work history do the heavy lifting — show progression from line cook to lead line to CDC or Sous, and highlight any structured training, ACF apprenticeships, or stages that demonstrate you invested in your craft.

How far back should my work history go on a Sous Chef resume?

Go back ten to fifteen years maximum, and only include earlier roles if they show meaningful progression or a notable employer. Listing every line cook position from culinary school forward clutters the page and buries your leadership experience. If a role lasted fewer than six months, you can group it under a brief 'Early Career' line rather than giving it its own entry.

Should I include references or a portfolio on a Sous Chef resume?

Skip 'references available upon request' — it wastes space and is assumed. References are provided when asked, typically after a working interview or second conversation. A portfolio link is worth adding if it contains actual menu PDFs, press coverage, or food photography from your own concepts; a dead or sparse link does more harm than good, so only include it if the content is current and professional.