Regardless of your industry, your resume is a critical element of your job application. You must craft a customized resume to showcase your skills to any recruiter.

So, if you are looking to become a cook, you need to make an effort to highlight your skills, experiences, and qualifications to give you the best chance of landing a role in the food service industry. This notion is true whether you have years of experience or are an entry-level candidate looking to land your first job in a restaurant or kitchen. When writing your resume, it’s always a good idea to review examples for inspiration. ResumeHelp has a cook resume example to help you get started.

Now, let’s examine the steps you need to take to craft the perfect resume.

Becoming a Cook

Overall employment of cooks is projected to grow 26% from 2020 to 2030, meaning there should be plenty of opportunities for you to choose from. However, whether you are a front-of-house server wanting to transition to the kitchen or a pot washer looking to show your culinary skills, you’re going to need to follow a few steps to get a role.

Next, let’s review how you can write an excellent cook resume with tips to show off your experience, and the essential skills you need to include on a cook’s resume.

How to Write an Excellent Resume

The first step to writing a resume is choosing a format to best highlight your strengths. The most common resume formats are functional, chronological, and combined. Functional resumes focus on skills, chronological resumes prioritize work history and combined resumes mix elements from both.

The format you choose will depend on your strengths as a candidate. It’s a great idea to use resume templates so you can take inspiration from tried and tested formats to display your information clearly and concisely.

No matter which format you choose, your resume should include the following sections:

• Contact information (include in the header)
• Resume summary/Resume objective
• Skills
• Education
• Experience

Contact information

You must include your accurate contact information so the hiring manager can call you to schedule an interview.

Resume summary/Resume Objective

A resume summary provides a snapshot overview of your career thus far, picking out some key highlights. A resume summary is excellent if you have years of experience as a cook already. In contrast, a resume objective may be a better option for those entering the role for the first time as it is more aspirational. It draws on some strengths and explains how you want to grow in the position.

Skills

You’ll list relevant hard and soft skills in this section, not just any culinary-specific skills. Here are some of the in-demand skills for a cook:

• Multitasking
• Time management
• Food safety and hygiene procedures
• Attention to detail
• Interpersonal skills
• Active listening
• Food prep

This list is not exhaustive. You should search the job ad and job description for skills the recruiter is looking for. You can then add these skill keywords to your resume to increase your chances of grabbing the hiring manager’s attention.

Experience

In your experience section, you usually list your relevant work experience in reverse-chronological order. Previous experience in a restaurant or kitchen will naturally be valuable to include here as it shows you are familiar with the environment.

However, if you have no previous cooking experience or you have never worked in the food service industry, you can still list roles here. Include any roles with some connection to the duties of the role you are applying for. For example, include roles that show you can work under pressure as part of a team. Help draw the line between previous experience and the cook position for the recruiter.

Education

The education section is your opportunity to share any relevant certifications or professional qualifications you have that can establish your credibility as a cook. It’s good to seek out local providers and culinary schools to help build a foundational knowledge of cooking skills.

Realistically, recruiters will ignore applicants who don’t at least have a fundamental understanding of food prep, food safety, and culinary practices evidenced through a professional qualification.

Your resume is essential to a job application. You won’t land the best roles as a cook without using it to its full potential. Follow these tips to create a great resume.