Sous chef Resume: Free Example (2026)

Start with a concise header that includes your name, city, phone number, email, and a link to a professional profile or portfolio. Follow with a brief professional summary of two to three lines that states your role, years of experience, and core strengths relevant to the sous chef position.

Next, add sections for work experience, skills, certifications, and education in that order to prioritize what hiring teams care about most.

A strong summary quickly communicates your value and target role. Example 1, "Sous chef with seven years of experience in high-volume hotels, skilled at menu development, staff training, and food safety compliance." Example 2, "Experienced sous chef focused on seasonal menus, cost control, and team leadership in upscale casual restaurants." Use one of these templates and tailor it to the job description by swapping in keywords the employer uses.

List your work experience in reverse chronological order and lead each entry with your job title, employer, location, and dates. For each role write two to four achievement-focused bullets that show what you did, how you did it, and the outcome or metric when possible.

Instead of generic duties, write lines like, "Assisted head chef to redesign dinner menu, increasing average entrée sales by improving prep efficiency and ingredient usage." and "Trained and scheduled 12 line cooks to reduce overtime by 18 percent while maintaining service quality."

Include a skills section that mixes technical kitchen skills and leadership abilities such as menu costing, inventory management, plating techniques, and staff training. Add certifications that matter like ServSafe manager, HACCP, or culinary school credentials, and place them near the top if the job listing calls them out.

Group skills into categories such as Culinary Skills, Kitchen Management, and Safety to make scanning easier for recruiters.

Use a clean, professional layout with consistent fonts and clear section headings so both humans and applicant tracking systems can read your resume. Prefer standard section titles like Summary, Experience, Education, and Skills, and save creative headings for your portfolio or cover letter instead of the resume.

Avoid images, uncommon fonts, or tables that can break parsing by ATS software, and use keywords from the job posting naturally in your experience and skills sections.

Achievement statements should include the task, your action, and the result or metric when possible to show impact. For example, write, "Reduced monthly food waste by 22 percent through inventory controls and weekly par level reviews," or "Collaborated on seasonal menu rollout that increased weekend covers by 14 percent over three months." Use active verbs such as implemented, led, reduced, improved, and trained to start each line.

List formal education with the degree or certificate, institution name, and graduation year or dates attended. Add an Additional Information section only if it strengthens your application and keep items relevant such as language proficiency, culinary competitions, or volunteer kitchen leadership.

If you maintain a food blog or portfolio, include a short link and one-line description to share your work.

For fine dining roles emphasize technical skills, plating, and brigade experience with exact dish examples and techniques. For high-volume or banquet kitchens focus on speed, consistency, inventory control, and team size you supervised.

Read the job posting and mirror the language they use for priorities so your resume reads as a close match to the employer's needs.

Write a short cover letter that highlights one or two career achievements and explains why you want this specific kitchen role rather than restating your resume. Prepare for interviews by selecting two to three stories that illustrate your leadership, conflict resolution, and menu development experience using a clear beginning, middle, and result format.