Home › Resume Builder › Examples › Sous Chef

Sous Chef Resume Example

A sous chef is judged on what runs when the head chef is off. Covers per service, stations supervised, food cost percentage and the size of the brigade you direct are the four numbers an executive chef looks for before reading anything else.

Use This Example Matching Cover Letter

📄 Shown in the Compact template 🔎 Written for Hospitality & Retail hiring 🔓 Free — no signup 🖨 PDF, Word or image

Marcus Delaney

Sous Chef

Portland, OR • marcus.delaney@example.com • +1 555 018 2299 • linkedin.com/in/marcus-delaney

Summary

Sous chef running a 9-cook brigade across 220 covers a service in a scratch kitchen, holding food cost at 29% and covering full pass responsibility three services a week.

Experience

Sous ChefFoundry & Ash Mar 2023 - Present

Expedite the pass for 220 covers a service, directing 9 cooks across grill, saute, garde manger and pastry
Hold food cost at 29% through weekly ordering, yield testing and a rewritten prep list that cut waste on protein trim
Run the kitchen unsupervised on the head chef's two days off, including ordering, scheduling and the daily specials
Rebuilt station mise en place standards after a health inspection, moving the property to a clean re-inspection

Lead Line CookRivet Hall Brasserie Jun 2020 - Feb 2023

Ran saute and grill on a 160-cover service and trained six new cooks to solo station standard
Wrote and costed four seasonal specials that stayed on the menu as permanent items

Skills

Brigade supervisionExpediting the passFood cost and yield controlPurchasing and vendor orderingMenu costing and specials developmentPrep list and par sheet writingHACCP and temperature loggingScheduling and labour hoursButchery and fabricationCook training and station sign-off

Education

Associate of Applied Science, Culinary ArtsCascade Culinary Institute 2018 - 2020

Certifications

ServSafe Food Protection Manager
ServSafe Allergens
ACF Certified Sous Chef (CSC)
HACCP principles training

What a manager checks first

Covers per service, brigade size, and whether you own the food cost number.

What recruiters screen for

✓Covers per service and brigade size, which set the scale of kitchen you can actually run
✓Food cost percentage and who owned the ordering, because that is the line between senior cook and sous chef
✓Whether you have run service alone, since covering the head chef is the whole point of the role
✓Cuisine and production style, as a scratch kitchen and a par-cooked volume kitchen need different people

Keywords for this role

sous chefcovers per servicefood cost percentagekitchen brigadeexpeditingmenu costinginventory and orderingHACCPstation trainingscratch kitchen

Use only the ones that genuinely apply, worded the way the posting words them.

Try a colour

Colour never affects ATS parsing — parsers read text, not styling.

Start With This Layout →

Here is how to write your own version, and what a manager does with it during a five-minute gap between services.

How hiring works in this role

Sous chef hiring nearly always includes a stage, and the trial is weighted more heavily than the interview because a chef wants to see how you move on a live pass. Expect questions on ordering, yield, prep lists and how you handle a cook who calls out an hour before service. Availability across both weekend services and the ability to run the kitchen on the head chef's days off are usually decisive.

What a manager checks first

The first pass happens fast, often standing up between services. A manager is looking for the shifts you can cover and the volume you are used to, because those are what decide whether you solve this week's problem. A resume that hides either loses to a weaker one that states them plainly.

Volume, speed and money

Use the numbers the industry runs on: covers per service, rooms per shift, average check, transactions per hour, sales per hour, food cost percentage. If you upsold, trained new staff, held a section alone on a busy night or cut waste, those are the lines that get read. Length of service in one venue is itself an achievement here, where turnover is high.

The top of the page: availability and volume

Availability is a hiring criterion in this industry, not an administrative detail, so state it near the top along with any food safety or alcohol service certification you hold. Two lines of summary is plenty: the service style you work in, and the volume you are used to.

Mistakes that cost sous chef candidates interviews

Listing dishes rather than numbers, when the chef reading it wants covers, brigade size and food cost
Not saying who ordered and costed, which leaves you looking like a line cook with a title
Skipping the food safety manager certification, which the person in charge is generally required to hold

Where this role can take you

Sous chef to senior or executive sous, then chef de cuisine and executive chef. Taking full ownership of ordering, costing and the menu is the step that makes the case; running multiple outlets is what opens group roles.

Before you hand it over

Many of these applications are handed over in person or filled in on a tablet in the venue, so keep the resume to one page and easy to skim in thirty seconds. Where the employer uses an online system, check the file parses cleanly with our free ATS checker.

Hospitality & Retail

More Examples in This Field

Server / Waiter Restaurant hiring moves fast and looks for volume, service sty... Retail Sales Associate Retail resumes are read for sales performance and reliability.... Chef / Cook Kitchen hiring is about station, volume and cuisine. A chef re... Bartender Bar managers read for volume and speed before they read for cr... Barista Cafe managers hire on rush-hour throughput and dialling-in abi... Line Cook Chefs hire line cooks by station and by covers, so say which s...

Browse all resume examples →

FAQ

Sous Chef Resume Questions

What should a sous chef resume include?

Availability and any food safety or alcohol service certification near the top, a two-line summary naming your service style and the volume you are used to, experience bullets using covers, rooms, checks or transactions, then training you have given and length of service. One page.

How does hiring for sous chef roles actually work?

Hiring moves quickly here and is often settled in a short conversation or a trial shift rather than from the page. The resume earns the conversation, so it has to be readable in half a minute, on a phone, by someone in the middle of service.

Do certifications help for a sous chef role?

A food protection manager certification is required for the person in charge in most jurisdictions, and a sous chef routinely is that person. A food handler card applies in many states and localities. Allergen training is increasingly expected. Culinary school helps but chefs weigh the kitchens on your resume far more heavily than the diploma.

What do hiring managers look at first on a sous chef resume?

Your availability and the volume you are used to. Managers hire for the shifts they cannot cover, so a resume that makes availability obvious in the first few lines gets a call ahead of a stronger one that buries it.

Where does a sous chef career usually go next?

Progression runs from the floor to a section or a shift, then to supervision and management, and it happens faster here than in most industries. Length of service in one venue and training new starters are the two things that make the case for you.

How long should this resume be?

One page. Employers in this field read quickly and often on a phone, and a second page rarely gets opened. Cut old short-term roles before you cut certifications or equipment experience.

Can I use this example as a template?

Use the structure and the way each achievement is phrased, but write your own content. The names and employers here are fictional, and a resume describing work you did not do will not survive an interview.

Build Your Sous Chef Resume

Start from this layout, edit in a live preview with an ATS score as you type, and download as PDF, Word or image — free.

Use This Example — Free