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Contents
What Matters Most
Why This Kitchen Assistant Resume Works
How to Write a Kitchen Assistant Resume That Gets Interviews
What to Include in a Kitchen Assistant Resume
Kitchen Assistant Resume Summary Examples
Kitchen Assistant Work Experience Examples
Top Kitchen Assistant Skills
Certifications for a Kitchen Assistant
Common Kitchen Assistant Resume Mistakes
Kitchen Assistant Resume FAQs
Summary
Kitchen assistant with four years keeping busy Dublin restaurant kitchens prepped, clean and running. Handles food preparation, washing-up, stock rotation and cleaning, freeing the chefs to focus on cooking. Keeps the kitchen to strict food-hygiene standards and is reliable through the heaviest services without falling behind. Learned basic prep and cooking skills on the job and steps up to simple cooking tasks when the line is slammed. Hard-working, quick and genuinely part of the team rather than just the help. Keen to keep learning and progress toward commis chef. Looking for a kitchen-assistant or trainee-chef role with a kitchen that develops its people.
Work Experience
Kitchen Assistant
The Liffey Bistro, Dublin, Ireland
Apr 2020 – Present
- Handle food prep, washing-up, stock rotation and cleaning to keep the kitchen running through service.
- Keep the kitchen to strict HACCP food-hygiene standards, including cleaning schedules and temperature logs.
- Stay reliable and quick through the heaviest dinner services without falling behind on the pass.
- Step up to simple cooking and plating tasks when the line is slammed and needs a hand.
- Receive and rotate deliveries, keeping the store and the fridges organised, labelled and in date.
- Work as a genuine part of the brigade, supporting the chefs wherever they need it.
Kitchen Porter
Dublin City Cafe, Dublin, Ireland
Aug 2018 – Mar 2020
- Handled washing-up, cleaning and basic food prep in a busy cafe kitchen.
- Learned food-hygiene standards and the daily kitchen routines on the job.
- Supported the cooks during busy services and kept the stations stocked.
- Kept the kitchen clean and the wash-up flowing through peak periods.
- Earned a kitchen-assistant role with more prep responsibility of her own.
Catering Assistant
Dublin Catering Services, Dublin, Ireland
Sep 2016 – Jul 2018
- Helped prepare and serve food at catered events and a busy canteen kitchen.
- Washed up, cleaned and kept prep areas stocked through busy service periods.
- Learned basic food hygiene, prep and kitchen teamwork on the job.
- Built the grounding that led into a full kitchen-porter role.
Education
Leaving Certificate, General Education
Dublin Community School
Sep 2013 – Jun 2017
- Completed secondary education while working part-time in hospitality. Built early reliability and a strong work ethic on the job. Moved into kitchen work after leaving school.
Food Safety & Hygiene (HACCP) Certificate, Food Safety
Irish Food Safety Authority
Jan 2019 – Mar 2019
- Certification in food hygiene and HACCP basics required for kitchen work. It underpins the cleanliness and safe-handling standards kept every shift. Renewed in line with employer requirements.
Certifications
Food Safety & Hygiene (HACCP)
Irish Food Safety Authority
Mar 2019 – Present
- Certification in food hygiene and HACCP basics required for kitchen work. It underpins the cleanliness and safe-handling standards kept every shift. Renewed in line with employer requirements.
Basic Food Prep & Knife Skills
Irish Food Safety Authority
Mar 2021 – Present
- Short certificate in basic food preparation and safe knife skills for kitchen work. It supports the prep and simple cooking tasks she takes on when the line needs an extra hand.
Highlights
Reliable through service
- Keeps prep and wash-up flowing through the heaviest services so the chefs never get held up. A dependable kitchen assistant is the quiet engine behind a smooth kitchen.
Stepping up
- Took on simple cooking and plating tasks during busy services and is working toward a commis role. The eagerness to learn has made her a valued part of the brigade.
Continued Development
Commis Chef Foundations
Catering College
May 2021 – Present
- Course working toward commis-chef foundations covering section basics, mise en place and simple cookery. It supports her step up from kitchen assistant toward a junior cooking role.
Allergens & Kitchen Safety
Catering College
Jun 2020 – Present
- Course in allergen awareness and kitchen safety beyond the basics, covering cross-contamination and safe service. It strengthens the clean, compliant station she keeps every shift.
Languages
- English (UK) — Native or Bilingual Proficiency
- Irish — Limited Working Proficiency
Technical Skills
- Food Preparation
- Food Hygiene (HACCP)
- Cleaning & Sanitation
- Stock Rotation
- Washing-Up / Pot Wash
- Basic Cooking
- Deliveries & Storage
- Knife Skills
- Kitchen Routines
- Teamwork
Personal Skills
- Work Ethic
- Reliability
- Speed
- Teamwork
- Eagerness to Learn
Activities & Interests
- Dating
- Movies
- House Repair
- Climbing
- Baby
What Matters Most
Kitchen recruiting is fast and unsentimental - a head chef skims your CV between services. Before the detail, here is what decides a strong kitchen-assistant résumé:
- Lead with reliability and speed through service, not soft-skill adjectives - a kitchen lives or dies on whether the wash-up and prep keep flowing when it is slammed.
- Name a food-hygiene qualification early: a Level 2 Food Hygiene or HACCP certificate tells a head chef you can be left on a section without an EHO risk.
- Show you know the real tasks by name - mise en place, FIFO stock rotation, temperature logs, goods-in, pot wash - not vague ‘helped in the kitchen’ lines.
- Signal appetite to progress. Kitchens keep the assistants who want to cook; a line about stepping up to prep or plating during service beats any generic ambition claim.
- Keep it to one page and lead each bullet with the action - chefs scan for verbs and volume (covers, deliveries, sections), not paragraphs.
- List real venues and dates. Continuous kitchen work, even as a porter first, proves you can handle the heat and hours the job actually demands.
Why This Kitchen Assistant Resume Works
The sample above belongs to a four-year kitchen assistant in busy Dublin restaurants who is aiming at commis chef. Here is what a head chef would notice and reward in it:
- The summary opens on the core value - keeping the kitchen prepped, clean and running so the chefs can cook - which is exactly the outcome a head chef is buying, before it mentions any personal trait.
- It names the real workload by its kitchen terms: food prep, wash-up, stock rotation, HACCP standards, temperature logs and goods-in - so it reads as someone who has actually stood on a section, not a hopeful outsider.
- The experience is ordered to show a climb - catering assistant to kitchen porter to kitchen assistant - which quietly proves stamina and that previous kitchens trusted her with more each time.
- One bullet about stepping up to simple cooking and plating when the line is slammed does the heavy lifting: it separates a career kitchen assistant from a stopgap and points straight at the commis-chef goal.
- Food hygiene sits up front rather than buried, signalling she can be left on a station without becoming an audit risk - the single fastest yes for a head chef.
- Nothing is padded or invented; the reliability and speed claims are anchored to service, which is where they actually get tested.
How to Write a Kitchen Assistant Resume That Gets Interviews
A head chef hires on trust and speed, not prose. Write every line so it answers one question: can this person keep my kitchen moving through a full service? These moves do that.
Open the summary with what you keep running, not who you are
Lead with the outcome a chef buys - ‘keeps prep, wash-up and stock flowing through service so the chefs stay on the line’ - then add years and venue type. Save adjectives; a chef infers reliable from the fact you held it down through busy dinners, not from the word.
Put your food-hygiene certificate where it gets seen
A Level 2 Food Hygiene, HACCP or Food Handler card is the closest thing this role has to a licence. Put it in the summary or a certifications line, with the level and year, so a head chef sees at a glance that leaving you on a section carries no EHO risk.
Turn duties into service-scale evidence
Everyone can write ‘did food prep and cleaning’. Give it a number: preps for a 120-cover Saturday service, receives and rotates 15-20 supplier deliveries a week on FIFO, keeps temperature logs across four fridges. Scale is what tells a chef you can handle their kitchen. If you are starting out and want a clean, ATS-safe layout to drop these into, you can build it on a kitchen-ready template and fill in your own covers and venues.
Show the climb, even a short one
Order your roles so progression shows - porter to assistant, or more prep responsibility over time. A chef reads an upward line as ‘other kitchens trusted her with more’, which is worth more than any self-description of ambition.
Point at the next rung
If you want to cook, say it and back it: a line about stepping up to prep, plating or a simple section during busy service, or a commis-foundations course, tells a chef you will stay and grow rather than leave in three months. Kitchens invest in the ones going somewhere.
What to Include in a Kitchen Assistant Resume
A kitchen CV is short and functional. Include the sections a head chef actually reads, and cut the rest:
A three-to-four-line summary led by reliability, speed and food hygiene - not a personal-statement essay.
Food-safety certification with level and year (Level 2 Food Hygiene / HACCP / Food Handler).
Work history with real venue names, kitchen type (bistro, gastropub, hotel, canteen) and dates - gaps and job-hopping matter less here than proof you can take the hours.
A tight skills list using real kitchen vocabulary: mise en place, FIFO rotation, temperature logs, allergen handling, pot wash, goods-in.
Availability and right to work - shift flexibility, evenings and weekends is a genuine selling point for kitchens.
Any step toward cooking: a commis or knife-skills course, or sections you have covered under pressure.
Extra tips
Kitchens lose staff who cannot get home after a late close.
A short line that you drive or live near the venue quietly removes a chef's biggest doubt about hiring you.
Kitchen Assistant Resume Summary Examples
Your summary is the first thing a head chef reads. These three show the same role at different stages - borrow the structure, not the wording, and swap in your own venues, covers and certificate:
Entry-level resume summary example
Reliable kitchen assistant, recently started in professional kitchens, with a Level 2 Food Hygiene certificate and a first year spent on wash-up, basic prep and cleaning in a busy 90-cover gastropub. Comfortable working the pot wash and goods-in through a full Saturday service without falling behind, and used to keeping temperature logs, date labelling and cleaning schedules to HACCP standards every shift. Quick to learn a section, happy to take direction from the chefs, and genuinely at home with the late finishes and weekend hours the job demands rather than treating it as a stopgap. Eager to build knife skills and prep experience and grow toward commis chef with a kitchen that trains its people.
Mid-level resume summary example
Kitchen assistant with four years across busy restaurant and hotel kitchens, trusted to run mise en place, wash-up, stock rotation and cleaning so the chefs stay on the line through a full service. Holds a HACCP food-hygiene certificate and keeps fridges, temperature logs and cleaning schedules audit-ready every shift. Receives and rotates around 20 supplier deliveries a week on FIFO, and steps up to simple prep and plating on a cold section when a 150-cover service gets slammed. Known for turning up, keeping pace through the heaviest dinners without falling behind on the pass, and being a genuine part of the brigade rather than just the help. Now looking for a kitchen that will back the next step toward commis chef.
Senior-level resume summary example
Senior kitchen assistant with seven years in high-volume hotel and event kitchens, effectively running the prep and wash-up side of the section without needing to be told. Holds Level 2 Food Hygiene and allergen-awareness certification and has trained three new starters on cleaning schedules, goods-in and FIFO stock rotation. Preps and portions for banqueting services of 300-plus covers, keeps the cold larder and temperature logs EHO-ready, and covers a simple hot or cold section confidently when the brigade is short a pair of hands. Dependable through the worst of a Saturday service, calm when tickets pile up, and now looking for a head-kitchen-porter or trainee-commis role in a kitchen that runs at pace and promotes from within.
Kitchen Assistant Work Experience Examples
Write bullets a head chef can scan for action and scale. These sets show how the same job reads across different kitchens - take the shape and drop in your own numbers:
Once your bullets carry real numbers, covers prepped, deliveries rotated, fridges logged, the shape of the page matters as much as the words. You can arrange them on a one-page layout and swap in your own venues so a head chef can scan the lot between services.
Restaurant / bistro kitchen
- Ran mise en place and wash-up for a 120-cover bistro through Friday and Saturday dinner services, keeping the pass supplied and the pot wash clear so chefs never waited on clean pans or prepped garnish.
- Received and rotated 15-20 supplier deliveries a week on FIFO, labelling and date-checking stock so the walk-in stayed organised and waste from out-of-date produce dropped noticeably over the year.
- Kept temperature logs across four fridges and a freezer and held cleaning schedules to HACCP standards throughout the year, passing two unannounced EHO inspections without a single non-conformance on either visit.
- Stepped onto a cold-starter section during slammed Friday and Saturday services, plating salads and simple starters to spec so the chefs could stay on hot food and tickets kept moving out to the pass on time.
Hotel / banqueting kitchen
- Prepped and portioned for banqueting services of up to 300 covers, working from prep lists so every station was stocked and ready before doors and service ran without shortages or last-minute gaps.
- Operated the pass-through dishwasher and managed goods-in for a busy hotel kitchen, keeping crockery, pans and prep containers cycling fast enough to feed three services back to back.
- Maintained allergen controls and cross-contamination separation across a large cold larder, keeping labelled, segregated storage that stood up to hotel-group food-safety audits without a single non-conformance.
- Trained two new kitchen porters on cleaning schedules, FIFO rotation and safe knife handling, cutting the time it took new starters to work a section unsupervised from weeks to a few shifts.
Café / canteen kitchen (entry)
- Handled wash-up, basic food prep and cleaning in a high-turnover café kitchen serving 200-plus covers a day, keeping stations stocked and the wash-up flowing through the lunch rush.
- Learned and applied food-hygiene basics on the job - temperature checks, date labelling and cleaning routines - and earned a certificate within the first three months of starting the role.
- Supported cooks during peak service by prepping vegetables and portioning to order, freeing them to keep pace on the hot line through the busiest weekend dinner hours without falling behind on tickets.
- Kept the back kitchen, bins and floors clean to schedule, contributing to a spotless environmental-health rating at the annual environmental-health inspection and daily manager walk-throughs.
Top Kitchen Assistant Skills
A head chef scans your skills list for the real vocabulary of the section - the tasks and controls you can be left with. Weight it toward the hard, hands-on ones:
Hard skills
- Food Preparation
- Mise en Place
- Knife Skills
- Washing-Up / Pot Wash
- HACCP Compliance
- Food Hygiene
- Temperature Logs / Cold-Chain
- Cleaning & Sanitation
- Allergen Handling
- Stock Rotation (FIFO)
- Goods-In / Deliveries
- Portioning
- Basic Cooking & Plating
- Dishwasher Operation
- Prep Lists
- Waste Management
- Cold Larder Basics
- Kitchen Equipment Operation
Soft skills:
- Reliability
- Speed under pressure
- Stamina
- Teamwork
- Takes direction
- Eagerness to learn
- Attention to detail
Certifications for a Kitchen Assistant
You do not need a diploma to work a kitchen, but one credential genuinely moves a kitchen-assistant CV - a recognised food-hygiene certificate. It tells a head chef you can be left on a section without becoming a food-safety risk:
-
Level 2 Food Hygiene / Food Handler certificate
— Accredited food-safety training provider (EHO/HACCP-approved) The one credential that genuinely strengthens an entry kitchen CV; often required before you handle food. Equivalent to a Food Handler card - list the level and year.
-
ServSafe Food Handler
— National Restaurant Association The recognised US food-handler credential; the North American equivalent of a Level 2 food-hygiene card. Include only if you actually hold it.
Common Kitchen Assistant Resume Mistakes
Most kitchen-assistant CVs fail for the same few reasons. Avoid these and you are already ahead of the pile a head chef is skimming:
- Writing vague duty lines like ‘helped in the kitchen’ instead of the real tasks - mise en place, FIFO rotation, temperature logs, goods-in - that prove you have actually worked a section.
- Burying or omitting your food-hygiene certificate; it is the fastest yes on the page and should not be hidden at the bottom.
- Leading with personality adjectives (‘hard-working, reliable’) with nothing behind them, when the same claim lands far harder tied to holding a busy service down.
- Leaving out scale - covers, deliveries, number of fridges or sections - so a chef cannot tell whether you handled a quiet café or a slammed 200-cover kitchen.
- Overstating cooking experience: a head chef will test it on day one, so claim the prep and plating you have really done and show appetite to learn the rest.
- Padding to two pages. A kitchen CV should be one page, scannable in the ten seconds a chef gives it between prep and service.
Kitchen Assistant Resume FAQs
The questions candidates most often search when writing a kitchen-assistant CV, answered straight:
No - kitchen assistant is a common entry-level role and many chefs will train the right attitude. On your CV, lead with reliability, willingness to work evenings and weekends, and any food-hygiene certificate, then use part-time, catering or even home and voluntary kitchen work to show you can handle pace and cleanliness.
Weight it toward hands-on kitchen skills: food preparation, mise en place, knife skills, pot wash, HACCP and food hygiene, temperature logs, FIFO stock rotation, allergen handling and cleaning. Add a few soft ones - speed under pressure, reliability, teamwork - but keep the hard, section-level skills up front where a head chef looks first.
It is not always legally required to apply, but a Level 2 Food Hygiene or Food Handler certificate is the single credential that most strengthens the CV, and many kitchens want it before you handle food. It is quick and inexpensive to get - list the level and year near the top of the page.
Lead with a food-hygiene certificate and genuine availability for evenings and weekends, then draw evidence from anything adjacent - café or bar work, catering shifts, cleaning roles, even busy home cooking - framed as reliability, speed and cleanliness. Name real tasks you can do and make clear you want to learn the section.
A kitchen porter focuses on wash-up, cleaning and goods-in; a kitchen assistant does that plus more food prep and light cooking. If you have moved from porter to assistant, show it as a progression - it proves a kitchen trusted you with more and reads as an upward career line.
One page. A head chef skims it in seconds between prep and service, so keep the summary to three or four lines, use short verb-led bullets, and cut anything that is not a real kitchen task, a certificate, or a venue and date.
Point at concrete steps toward cooking: sections or simple plating you have covered during busy service, a knife-skills or commis-foundations course, and food-hygiene certification. A head chef promotes the assistants who already reach for prep and want to learn the line, so make that appetite visible rather than just stating it.
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