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Business & Management

Line Cook Resume Example

Professional Line Cook resume example. Get hired faster with our ATS-optimized template.

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Line Cook$32,000 - $48,000

Professional Line Cook resume example. Get hired faster with our ATS-optimized template.

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Sous Chef$52,000 - $78,000

Professional Sous Chef resume example. Get hired faster with our ATS-optimized template.

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Chef de Cuisine$72,000 - $115,000

Professional Chef de Cuisine resume example. Get hired faster with our ATS-optimized template.

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Executive Chef$92,000 - $165,000

Professional Executive Chef resume example. Get hired faster with our ATS-optimized template.

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Why This Resume Works

Cover count and station signal

Hot-line credibility comes from the cover count and station you ran. State 220-cover Saturdays and the specific station, not 'busy weekends'. That detail sorts line cooks into appropriate kitchens at first read.

Plate-up time as a measurable line metric

Plate-up time and first-bite percentage are the two numbers a chef de cuisine cares about for the line. If you've held a sub-30-second average, lead with it.

Doneness accuracy on protein

Doneness within a tight tolerance on a logged volume of chops is the protein-station equivalent of an SLA. Chefs hire on this number when filling a wood-fire grill seat.

Specific equipment by brand and model

Naming a Hobart H600, Robot Coupe R2N, and Rational SCC by model tells a chef you've actually closed a station, not just heard the words. Generic 'commercial mixer' loses you the callback.

Waste reduction with a real number

Cold-line waste from 6.8% to 3.1% with the mechanism (smaller Cambro pans for slow movers) is the kind of detail that signals a line cook who actually thinks about food cost, not just service.

Switch between levels for specific recommendations

Key Skills

  • Protein station execution (grill, sauté, plancha)
  • Hot apps and pasta station
  • ServSafe Food Handler
  • Mise en place sheets and prep lists
  • Vulcan range and Rational SCC CombiOven
  • Robot Coupe R2N cutter mixer
  • Toast or iiko KDS
  • ServSafe Allergens
  • Wood-fired grill (steaks, chops)
  • Cold line and garde manger basics
  • Hobart H600 mixer cleaning protocol
  • Plate-up time tracking under 30 seconds
  • Stage at a Michelin-recognized house
  • ServSafe Manager Certification
  • HACCP plan ownership
  • Brigade leadership (10-15 cooks)
  • Food cost ownership at $1M+ scale
  • Recipe costing and menu engineering
  • Restaurant365 or MarginEdge or iiko BackOffice
  • Sous-vide program (Vac Master VP215, Anova Pro)
  • Pacojet 2 Plus dessert program
  • Banquet and buyout execution
  • Choco or BlueCart purveyor management
  • Apprentice and stagiaire training
  • Compeat or xtraCHEF cost reporting
  • ACF Certified Chef de Cuisine (CCC)
  • Tasting menu architecture (5- and 9-course)
  • Recipe development and costing
  • Food cost ownership at $2M+ scale
  • ServSafe Manager + HACCP certification
  • Brigade hiring and sous-chef development
  • Purveyor program (15-25 vendors)
  • Pacojet 2 Plus pastry program
  • Anti-griddle (PolyScience) plating
  • Sous-vide and Anova Pro program
  • Irinox blast chiller pastry workflow
  • Crunchtime or xtraCHEF inventory
  • International stage (Noma, Disfrutar, Mirazur)
  • ACF Certified Executive Chef (CEC)
  • Multi-outlet hotel & resort F&B P&L
  • Banquet and catering revenue ownership
  • Brigade scaling (40-80 cooks)
  • Quarterly business reviews with property GM
  • $3M+ food spend ownership
  • ServSafe Manager + HACCP Lead
  • AHLEI Certified Hospitality Educator (CHE)
  • Sous-chef development and corporate placement
  • Local-sourcing program design
  • Restaurant365 or xtraCHEF at multi-outlet scale
  • Hyatt / Four Seasons / Marriott corporate audit
  • Le Cordon Bleu continuing education

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Salary Ranges (United States)

Line Cook
$32,000 - $48,000
Sous Chef
$52,000 - $78,000
Chef de Cuisine
$72,000 - $115,000
Executive Chef
$92,000 - $165,000

Career Progression

Chef careers follow a long apprenticeship-style ladder. Line cooks spend 2-4 years on station execution before moving into junior sous-chef roles. Sous chefs work 5-9 years on the cost numbers, brigade leadership, and HACCP ownership before stepping into chef de cuisine. Chef-de-cuisine tenures last 4-8 years before the move to executive chef in a hotel context or owner-operator path in independent. Lateral moves are common: corporate culinary R&D, food media, chef-instructor at CIA/Le Cordon Bleu/ICE, private chef for principal residences, and consulting for restaurant openings.

  1. Line CookSous Chef4

    Close the line as senior cook on a station 3+ nights a week. Pass ServSafe Manager. Cross-train across 3-4 stations. Build a clean reference with chef de cuisine and chef de cuisine of a sister property. Cover-count credibility on 200+ cover services.

    • ServSafe Manager Certification
    • Brigade leadership of 3-5 cooks (informal)
    • Recipe costing basics
    • HACCP plan participation
  2. Sous ChefChef de Cuisine6

    Hold food cost in a 27-29% band on $1M+ food spend across 3+ years. Sign off on 2-3 sous chefs for promotion. Earn ACF CCC or international stage at a named house. Author at least one full seasonal menu changeover with measurable food-cost or line-throughput outcome.

    • Tasting menu architecture
    • Purveyor program ownership (15-25 vendors)
    • Brigade hiring and culture
    • ACF CCC or international stage credential
  3. Chef de CuisineExecutive Chef5

    Run a brigade of 25+ across multiple outlets or a high-volume independent. Deliver F&B revenue against plan for 3+ consecutive fiscal years. Earn ACF CEC. Build a sous-chef bench with at least 3 promotions to chef-de-cuisine roles in the same group or sister properties. Establish direct relationship with property GM or owner-operator on quarterly business reviews.

    • Multi-outlet F&B P&L
    • Banquet revenue ownership
    • Le Cordon Bleu continuing education or ACF CEC
    • Quarterly business review delivery

Many chefs move laterally instead of climbing the executive-chef ladder. Common alternatives: (1) Corporate Culinary R&D at flagship brands (Chipotle, Cheesecake Factory, Hyatt corporate, Marriott corporate). Pays competitively with chef de cuisine, no nightly service. (2) Chef-instructor at CIA, Le Cordon Bleu, ICE, Johnson & Wales, Kendall. Stable hours, public-sector benefits if at a community college. (3) Private chef for a principal residence, family office, or yacht. Top-end pays $180-400K but is often on-call and travel-heavy. (4) Restaurant consultant for new openings, menu development, kitchen design. Project-based; works well for chefs with strong recognition and network. (5) Owner-operator of an independent restaurant. Highest upside, full operational responsibility, typically requires master license-equivalent (responsible person of record, HACCP, business operations skill).

A chef CV is read by people who can spot a fake at a glance, executive chefs and corporate F&B directors who know the difference between somebody who has actually held food cost at 28% on a $2M food spend and somebody who copied bullets off Indeed. The strongest chef résumés do three things consistently: name the cover count and station they ran (220 covers Saturday, protein station, not 'busy weekends'), cite real food-cost and labor numbers tied to a real dollar denominator, and reference the specific equipment they actually closed (Hobart H600, Rational SCC, Pacojet 2 Plus, Vac Master VP215). Generic 'managed kitchen' bullets are filtered out before a callback. ServSafe Manager and HACCP currency are baseline at sous chef and above; an ACF certification (CCC, CEC) is what separates a chef-de-cuisine candidate from a senior sous.

Frequently Asked Questions

Chefs design menus, manage food cost and labor cost, lead the kitchen brigade, own food safety (HACCP plan, ServSafe Manager currency), and coordinate with front-of-house and corporate F&B. The day-to-day mix shifts dramatically by level: line cooks execute their station, sous chefs run service and own the cost numbers, chefs de cuisine own the menu and the brigade, and executive chefs own the P&L of the kitchen or the hotel F&B operation including banquets and in-room dining.

Most chefs de cuisine in the US have 10-12 years between their first line-cook job and the chef-de-cuisine seat. The path is typically 2-4 years on the line, 5-7 years as sous chef and senior sous, then chef de cuisine. Culinary school (CIA, Le Cordon Bleu, ICE, Johnson & Wales) compresses the early line years; some of the strongest chefs de cuisine never went to culinary school and came up through staging at named houses.

Sous chef is the second-in-command who runs service, owns the cost numbers, and is the day-to-day operator on the line. Chef de cuisine owns the menu, the brigade, and the kitchen culture for one restaurant; reports to the executive chef in a hotel or to the owner in an independent. Executive chef owns the P&L for the entire culinary operation across multiple outlets, including banquets and in-room dining. In small independents the chef de cuisine and executive chef are the same person; in hotels they are distinct roles.

No. Culinary school (CIA, Le Cordon Bleu, ICE, Johnson & Wales, Kendall, ICC) signals foundational technique and a network, but the kitchen path through stages and line work at named houses is equally valid. Most fine-dining chefs de cuisine and executive chefs hire on lineage (which kitchens you trained in, who you cooked under) more than on the diploma. ServSafe Manager and HACCP currency are non-negotiable from sous-chef level up regardless of education path.

In 2024-2025: hotel & resort executive chef roles (especially Las Vegas Strip, NYC, Miami), independent fine-dining chef-de-cuisine roles in tasting-menu houses ($150+/cover), and corporate dining at flagship Google/Meta/Apple campuses pay the highest base salaries. Catering and banquet-heavy operations have the highest variable comp through completion bonuses. Restaurant-group chef-de-cuisine roles pay competitively but lean more on equity-style bonuses tied to the parent-group P&L.

List 4-day stages at named houses (Eleven Madison Park, Le Bernardin, Atelier Crenn, Quince) as full bullets with dates and the chef you worked under. List shorter or generic stages only if they fill a gap; otherwise drop them. The signal is which kitchens you've actually been on the line in, not how many.

Closing the line as the senior cook on a station 3+ nights a week, with the chef de cuisine and sous chef trusting your sanitation and KDS sign-off. Quantify it: 'Closed the hot-apps station 4 nights a week with full sanitation breakdown, passing every monthly internal QA at 98+'. That's the signal that translates to junior-sous-chef readiness.
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