How to Write a Chef CV: Example, Template & UK Guide

Include necessary contact information in the chef CV header

The header of your chef CV should be presented like a clean nameplate at the top of a menu. Include the following:

• Full name: Make it bigger, so that it’s impossible to miss and to forget.
• Professional title: Tailor it to the role. If you’re a Head Chef, Sous Chef, Chef de Partie, etc., list your position below your name to show your level immediately.
• Contact details: That’s what you surely don’t want your recruiter to miss. Include a phone number and a professional email.

• No unnecessary personal info: Stick to basics. Do not list age, date of birth, marital status, or full address. UK employers don’t require these, and including them can seem out of place (or lead to biased concerns).
• No photo (for UK CVs): Unlike in some countries, it’s generally not recommended to include a profile photo on your UK CV. Cheffing is about your skills and experience, so let those ingredients shine, rather than a headshot.
• Optional extras: If you have a professional website or online portfolio (say, a gallery of your plated dishes), you can include the link. Just make sure it’s relevant and adds flavour to your application.

Example (chef CV header)

Start with a chef CV personal profile

Your personal profile is like an amuse-bouche: a brief taste of your best qualities to make the recruiters hungry for more. This is the place to infuse a bit of your culinary personality and passion. Make it count and they’ll read on!

Tips to stir in when writing your profile:

• Start with a descriptor and role – e.g. “Creative pastry chef with 5+ years’ experience…”. An adjective + your chef title + years of experience serves perfectly well.
• Mention your cuisine specialities or key strengths. Do you shine in Italian cuisine, pastry arts, farm-to-table cooking, or high-volume banquet service? Highlight that niche.
• Sprinkle in one or two quantifiable accomplishments to prove your value. Concrete metrics (savings, increases in revenue or customer satisfaction, awards won) will only prove your professionalism and attention to detail.
• Finish with what you’re aiming for in this next role or how you will benefit the employer. Tailor this to the specific job posting if possible, to show you’re the perfect fit for their kitchen.
• Keep the tone professional yet passionate. Let your love for cooking come through without sounding too flowery. 

And while culinary puns are fun, use them more sparingly here; you want to be taken seriously as a candidate with a dash of personality, not come off as gimmicky.

Chef CV personal profile example

Create a tasty work experience section on your chef CV

Your work experience is the main course of your CV – it needs to be satisfying and full of substance. 

Structuring each job entry:

• Job title, venue, dates: Example – “Head Chef – The Gourmet Garden, London — July 2019–Present”. Include the restaurant type if not obvious (e.g. “fine dining 80-cover restaurant” or “5-star hotel brasserie”) to give context.
• Key responsibilities: Describe your actions in bullet points using strong verbs like led, created, managed, supervised, increased, reduced, launched. Include leadership duties (managing brigades, training staff), menu development, kitchen operations, and roles like budgeting or catering.
• Achievements with metrics: This key strategic element links responsibilities to achievements and data. Show how you’ve improved efficiency, food quality, revenue, customer ratings, reduced costs, or earned awards. Include measurable results, as numbers attract restaurant managers reviewing your CV.

When writing about your experience, tailor it to the job you’re applying for. For example, if the advert emphasises banquet experience and you possess it, ensure your relevant past role highlights the significant events you catered. Each bullet should answer the question: how did this improvement to the kitchen or business enhance it? This approach demonstrates your understanding of business needs, not just recipes.

Chef CV work experience example

Show your education and training on a CV for a chef

In the culinary industry, practical experience often outweighs formal qualifications. Nevertheless, your education and training section remains important to demonstrate your core cooking knowledge and certifications. Include your academic qualifications, culinary school diplomas, and any relevant training courses or apprenticeships here.

Here’s what to include:

• Culinary school or college courses: If you attended a culinary institute or took professional cookery courses, list the degree, diploma, or certificate name, the institution, and the year completed. 
• Apprenticeships or on-the-job training: Many UK chefs start as apprentices or through trainee programmes. You can include an apprenticeship under education if it was a formal program, as this shows structured training.
• Certifications: You might break this into a separate section, but shorter courses or certifications can be mentioned in education too. Key ones include food safety and hygiene courses, allergy awareness, first aid, and any specialised cuisine courses. These demonstrate continuous learning and compliance with UK standards.
• Secondary education: Generally, there’s no need to list your GCSEs or A-levels unless you have little else to show. If you’re an entry-level chef, you can mention any relevant subjects (like Food Technology). Otherwise, focus on culinary-specific education.
  

If you lack formal culinary education, don’t worry, your experience can easily compensate. Still, show any professional development you’ve pursued. Even a short course or workshop can be a nice extra garnish in this section, indicating passion for honing your craft.

Chef CV education section example

Highlight your key chef skills on a CV

Just as every great recipe has essential ingredients, every great chef CV has a key skills section. This is where you list the competencies that make you a seasoned chef and an effective employee. Just remember to include both hard and soft skills. Otherwise, this section will feel incomplete.

Add bonus sections to make your CV stand out even more

A basic CV might be just experience, education, and skills – but an extraordinary chef CV includes those little extras that can tip the scales in your favour. To really add a garnish that makes your CV stand out, consider including additional sections for any extra achievements or credentials. 

Here are some bonus sections you can add:

• Certifications: If not already covered under education, list any professional certifications. Common ones in the UK culinary scene include Food Safety Level 2 or 3, Health and Safety Certificates, First Aid, and any speciality courses (e.g. a WSET wine certification if relevant for a chef-sommelier role). 
• Awards: Have you won or been nominated for any accolades? This could range from competition wins to local awards. If you played a key role in your restaurant earning prestigious awards, like Michelin stars or AA Rosettes, mention that too. 
• Memberships: Joining culinary associations can demonstrate your commitment to the field. In the UK, the Craft Guild of Chefs, the British Culinary Federation and international groups like WorldChefs make a great impression.
• Languages: If you speak other languages, especially useful ones in kitchens (French is the language of cuisine, Spanish is common in many kitchens, Italian for Italian cuisine, etc.), list them with proficiency level. In cosmopolitan cities or luxury hospitality, an extra language can be a bonus for communicating with diverse staff or reading international recipes.
• Culinary competitions: Even if you didn’t win, participation in well-known contests (MasterChef, Great British Menu, local cook-offs) is worth noting. It shows passion and that you thrive under pressure. 
• Publications: If you’ve been featured in the media, or if you write a food blog or have published a cookbook, you can include a line about it. These can impress employers, as they indicate thought leadership or at least that your work has public recognition.
• Volunteer work or community involvement: Perhaps you volunteer at food banks, teach cooking classes to youth, or participate in charity cook-off events. A brief mention shows character and community spirit. 
• Hobbies and interests: Food photography or food-travelling count as something relevant and can show your cultural culinary exposure.

Format your chef CV correctly

Great plating makes a dish instantly appealing; in the same way, good formatting makes your CV inviting to read. Recruiters and restaurant owners are often busy (and may have stacks of CVs to sift), so a well-formatted CV can make your information easy to digest at a glance. Here are some chef-style precision tips for CV layout and design in the UK:

• Aim for no more than two pages in length for a CV. Concise is key. Junior chefs or commis chefs might even keep it to 1 page if experience is limited. You want to leave the hiring manager satisfied, not stuffed with irrelevant details.
• Use a clean, professional CV font (Arial, Calibri, Garamond, etc.) at a readable size – roughly 10–12pt for body text and a bit larger (14–18pt) for section headings. Avoid overly fancy or “handwriting” fonts; your CV isn’t a menu logo. 
• Ensure there’s sufficient white space (margins of about 1 inch) so it doesn’t look overcrowded. A cluttered CV is like a cluttered workstation: hard to work with.
• Clearly label each section with bold or slightly larger text. Use consistent styling for all headings. 
• Send your CV as a PDF file and give the file a clear name like ChefCV_OliverGraham.pdf.