Hospitality resume example

Executive Chef resume example

An executive chef resume should establish culinary identity and operational discipline together. This example shows menu development, brigade leadership, food cost, purchasing, safety, events, and waste reduction without relying on subjective claims about creativity.

Applying in the UK? Use the same evidence and structure as a executive chef CV example; adapt spelling and local terminology naturally.

Build my resume Study the example
This is a sample resume.

Lucia Romano

Executive Chef

New York, NY · lucia@email.com · linkedin.com/in/luciaromano

Professional summary

Executive chef with 14 years of progressive culinary experience across full-service hotels and independent restaurants. Leads menu development, kitchen operations, purchasing, food safety, cost control, events, and the development of high-performing culinary teams.

Experience

Executive Chef

The Mercer Hall Hotel · New York, NY

2019 – Present
  • Lead a 34-person culinary team across a 120-seat restaurant, banqueting for up to 450 guests, room service, and seasonal events.
  • Redesigned menu engineering and purchasing controls, reducing food cost from 32.8% to 29.9% while retaining core guest favourites.
  • Implemented station-level waste logs and production pars that reduced avoidable prep and spoilage waste by 21%.

Chef de Cuisine

Marrow & Vine · Brooklyn, NY

2015 – 2019
  • Directed daily service, menu execution, ordering, scheduling, and training for a seasonal neighbourhood restaurant.
  • Built recipe specifications and plating guides for 48 dishes, improving consistency across lunch, dinner, and private events.
  • Developed three sous chefs through rotating pass leadership, costing reviews, hiring participation, and structured feedback.

Skills

Culinary leadership · Menu development · Menu engineering · Food cost control · Kitchen operations · Banqueting · Purchasing · Inventory management · Food safety · Recipe costing · Team development · Waste reduction

Education & credentials

Associate Degree in Culinary ArtsCulinary Institute of America
Food Protection Manager CertificationNew York City Department of Health
Want a resume like this?

Build yours with the same structure in minutes, free to start.

Build my resume
Make it yours

How to adapt this executive chef example

Keep the structure. Replace the substance with your own scope, decisions, and results.

01

Match the service model

Fine dining, hotels, contract catering, high-volume casual, and events require different proof. Lead with the operation closest to the vacancy.

02

Use percentages with periods

Food cost, labour, waste, and guest measures need a baseline and comparable period to be meaningful.

03

Keep the food portfolio focused

Link menus, press, or plated work only when current and genuinely yours, and explain collaborative authorship where appropriate.

Keyword starting points

Terms commonly relevant to executive chef roles

Use a keyword only when it reflects your experience and the job description. Exact wording helps discovery; evidence in a bullet makes it believable.

Check keyword coverage
  • executive chef
  • culinary leadership
  • menu development
  • food cost
  • kitchen operations
  • banqueting
  • purchasing
  • inventory control
  • food safety
  • recipe costing
  • team development
  • waste reduction
Questions

Executive Chef resume FAQ

Should an executive chef resume include menu links?

A focused portfolio or recent menus can help, especially for concept-led roles. Ensure links work, identify your contribution, and keep the resume readable without them.

Which kitchen metrics are useful?

Food cost, waste, labour, covers, event capacity, ticket time, audit results, team size, and retention can help when they are accurate and relevant to your control.

How much early kitchen experience should be listed?

Senior chefs can compress early commis and line roles into an earlier-experience line unless a property, cuisine, or mentor is directly relevant to the target job.

More examples

Related resume examples

View all roles
Hospitality

Hotel Manager resume example

Senior

Operations

Operations Manager resume example

Senior

Operations

Project Manager resume example

Senior

Build your resume

Build the resume this role deserves.

Start with guided fields, keep every fact under your control, and export an ATS-readable resume.

Build my resume Optimize an existing resume
Before you apply

Guides for this kind of role

GuideHow to match a resume to a job description without keyword stuffing

An evidence-first method for comparing a resume with a job description: separate real requirements from background language, then tailor truthfully.

Read guide GuideWhy ATS checkers give different resume scores

Understand why ATS resume checkers disagree, which parts of a score are useful, and how to compare results without chasing a false universal number.

Read guide