When you are scouting for a big break in the world of culinary and catering careers, have a look at our top-notch Kitchen Hand resume sample. As a support resource, getting a job as a Kitchen Hand is highly advisable to learn the ins and outs of kitchen conduct. Gaining kitchen experience will provide you with a great foundation if you want to progress into Chef’s role later on in your career.
The competition in this field is stiff, so you need to ensure that your application gets noticed by sending a kick-ass resume to potential employers.
What you can read in this article
(Free sample downloads are at the bottom of this page)
1. Contact Information:
2. Profile Summary: The recipe for success starts with your resume summary. No faux pas allowed as these three little lines at the top of your resume page could be the difference between landing the job or not.
3. Qualifications Summary: Getting a job as a Kitchen Hand does not require any qualifications part from a high school diploma, but if you want to progress up the culinary ladder, diplomas and associate degrees could significantly boost your career growth. Provide accurate details about the certifications and qualifications you have completed with the institution, qualification name, and dates.
4. Relevant Kitchen Experience: Provide details about your employment history in reverse chronological order starting with your current position first. If you have done any internships or apprenticeships related to the culinary sector, include these details under your working experience too. Remember you are not writing a recipe, see your job description more like a list of ingredients and use bulleted sentences rather than paragraphs.
5. Other Employment Experience: This will include events or work history outside of the formal culinary field, but which may be important for the employer to know about, like part-time server or waitering gigs or working at the school canteen This section is particularly important if you are looking for your first without having formal experience as a Kitchen Hand.
6. Skills Summary/Key Skills: Keywords from the job posting are like SEO for your resume. Incorporate them throughout your job descriptions, profile summary, and accomplish statements to reinforce your compatibility with the role.
7. Education/Licenses/Certifications/Relevant Coursework/Training: There are numerous training and development programs and courses available for Kitchen Hands to supplement their practical experience with theoretical knowledge Start with your formal catering certifications and post-school diplomas or accreditations if you are a member of a Culinary Training Institute. List any additional professional development courses that better prepared you to work in the culinary field like food preparation, wine pairing, or kitchen safety.
Kitchen Hands are instrumental in maintaining the workflow of the kitchen, especially regarding prepping and cleaning processes. Regardless of your years of working experience in restaurants, hotels or catering events, employers and recruiters would be looking for specific things in your resume document to ensure that you are the right fit for their team.
The first aspect to highlight is the type of Kitchen Hand experience you have. You may be assigned to prepping duties or washing dishes as your main responsibility. With other roles in smaller establishments, your duties may overlap with that of a line cook where you also prepare salads and sauces. In top tier restaurants, Kitchen Hands could be solely responsible for cleaning and sanitizing duties. The Kitchen Hand’s duties can change depending upon the style and theme of the restaurant.
Secondly, you may want to indicate your level in the ‘’food chain’’ of the kitchen environment. Some Kitchen Hand is assisting the Head Chef, while others may be assigned to a Senior Cook or Pastry Chef. Restaurant Managers will also use Kitchen Hands to help with stock take, removing old stock and unloading new supplies and food items from delivery vehicles.
Next, you need to elaborate on your work environment. The role of a Kitchen Hand in a food truck will differ greatly from someone employed as one of Gordon Ramsey’s restaurant chains. Kitchen Hands can work in many settings, including restaurants, corporate business canteens, fast-food outlets, hotel kitchens, hospitals, military services, and school cafeterias. Make sure that you highlight the types of industry areas you have worked at within your resume summary and in each job description.
*Cool Tip for a stellar resume
You can create an excellent first impression by showing them what you can do by giving by categorizing your primary duties and then providing concrete examples of how you would conduct those duties in your everyday job.
Below we have given a few examples of how to uniquely pitch your core kitchen skills that will grab the attention of hiring managers in an instant.
Instead of just writing that you clean and sanitize all surfaces and floor areas, give specific details. For example, that you adhere to OHSA standards, are familiar with safely mixing cleaning chemicals. Also, mention the areas that you clean individually for instance work station areas, entire serving line, dining room, dish pits lunch room, storeroom, loading dock, and the cold storage container.
A monotonous task but absolutely vital to ensure the patron’s health and safety by preventing contamination of dishes and cutlery. To wash dishes properly, you need to maintain adequate water temperatures and use sufficient sanitizing liquid whether the washing is done by hand or in an automatic dishwasher. You could also be responsible for polishing silverware and do chemical dips of kitchen equipment.
Food prepping is another function that deserves its own explanation. Are you peeling, dicing, and cutting vegetables or cracking eggs onto the grill? When assisting the pastry chef you may be required to mix dry items like flour, baking powder in sugar in exact quantities for which you would need to know about weighing ingredients, following recipes and of course, a steady hand. In some restaurants, Kitchen Hands could have full responsibility for preparing certain food items, therefore mention if you are tasked with preparing salads or sauces and desserts.
Kitchen maintenance is typically on the to-do list for most Kitchen Hands. If you are responsible for minor repairs on equipment, mention them by name, for instance, slicing and juicing equipment, hot racks, ovens or deep freezers. Supply and inventory management forms part of maintaining kitchen flow. Are you the person responsible for signing off supplier deliveries and updating inventory records on the system? Do you conduct a weekly stocktake of items such as condiments, baking supplies, or liqueurs and complete order forms for stock that needs to be replenished?
F&B (Food and Beverage) Managers usually receive many candidate applications for permanent as well as vocational roles. Your resume needs to peak their interest instantly, and you can make that happen by lodging a picture-perfect career summary at the top of your resume page (this summary should be in bold and in a bigger font than the rest of your resume to be immediately visible).
A career summary consists of three parts: industry exposure, years of experience, and a wow factor (special accomplishment, multilingual, reputable accreditation). Also, keep this concise and to the point, in one paragraph containing between three and six sentences at most.
Dedicated Kitchen Hand with an impeccable work ethic of over five years and used to the long hours of a 24-hour fast food and dining establishment. Bringing meticulous cleaning and sanitation skills supplemented by an advanced certificate in Restaurant Safety and Hygiene Practices.
A confident, trustworthy, and diligent Kitchen Hand who takes great pride in facilitating zero-disruption workflow processes in high-volume commercial kitchen environments. A specialist in cutting and slicing, gained from a decade of work tenure and numerous culinary courses and workshops. Conversant in Mandarin, which assists significantly in collaborative communication between Korean kitchen staff and the restaurant manager.
Highly adept Kitchen Hand in the areas of kitchen cleanliness and inventory management. Demonstrated capabilities of maintaining stock and inventory records. Holds an Associates Degree in Culinary Arts. Also, comfortable in substituting for line cooks where needed in the preparation of gourmet pastries and desserts.
An employer would expect to see the following proven foundational duties and skill sets within an applicant’s resume, depending on educational level and career stage.
When writing your accomplishment section, you may be tempted to copy and paste the list of duties you performed as detailed in your job description. Keep in mind that there is a considerable difference between accomplishments and activities. To ideate, your accomplishments, think about what you are most proud of what you have achieved in your previous roles that resulted in positive feedback from your supervisor.
The impact of accomplishments statements can be amplified by quantifying your achievements into numerical values, specified time frames, frequencies, or improvement percentages.
When writing down your accomplishments, try to answer questions such as “How much?” or “How many?”
Examples:
The education section in your Kitchen Hand resume should still receive the appropriate amount of attention even if you do not have formal degrees or diplomas. Professional development programs courses, workshops, and even in-service training may be listed in your education section.
In short, indicate What, Where and When regarding your qualifications, certifications or courses or workshops completed.
This is how you may list your qualifications: First, the start and finish date, then the qualification’s title, followed by the institution name, city, and state abbreviation.
List your high school diploma details similarly, but only include this when you have less than five years of working experience.
Here are some examples of a Kitchen Hand’s Resume in terms of education:
2018 – ServSafe Certified, Udemy, Online
2016 – 2018 Associate Degree in Culinary Arts, Kingsborough Community College, Brooklyn, NY
2015 – First Aid/CPR Diploma, Red Cross Academy, Online
2015 Food Service Supervisor (FS), American Culinary Federation, LA
2014 Cook’s Helper Certificate, Oasis College, Shelton, CT
2012 Food Handler Certification, Texas State University, Swan Community and Technical College, WA
2011 – Certificate in Advanced Culinary Techniques, Tampa Chefs Academy, FL
The catering field requires specific technical skills, but prospective employers would also be looking for other skills, called soft skills. These are the main types of skills that will speak to your fit as a potential employee who will add value to the establishment and be a valuable asset to the kitchen team.
| Young Apprenticeship in Hospitality | Certificate in Food Hygiene | Certified Culinarian (CC) |
| Culinary Techniques Course | Diploma in Food Production | Principles of Dining Room Service |
| Bachelor in Culinary Arts | Professional Kitchen Hand Certificate | ServSafe Food & Safety Training |
| Project Management Diploma | Baking and Pastry Specialist Certificate | High School Diploma |
