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Contents
What Matters Most
Why This Sous Chef Resume Works
How to Write a Sous Chef Resume
What to Include in a Sous Chef Resume
Sous Chef Resume Summary Examples
Sous Chef Work Experience Examples
Top Sous Chef Skills
Certifications for a Sous Chef
Sous Chef Salary Expectations
Common Sous Chef Resume Mistakes
Sous Chef Resume FAQs
Summary
Sous chef with twelve years in French and modern-European kitchens around Lyon, the last five as second-in-command of a 75-cover restaurant. Runs the line in service, manages prep and mise en place, and steps up as head chef on days off without a drop in standards. Holds food cost and consistency through tight portion control, ordering and a well-drilled brigade of eight. Trains chefs de partie and commis through clear station standards, and keeps the kitchen to strict HACCP discipline. Calm and authoritative at the pass, and the person the head chef trusts to hold the kitchen together. Looking for a senior sous or head-chef role with a restaurant serious about its food.
Work Experience
Sous Chef
Brasserie du Rhône, Lyon, France
Apr 2019 – Present
- Run the line in service as second-in-command of a 75-cover kitchen with a brigade of eight.
- Step up as head chef on days off and holidays, holding the same standards and consistency.
- Manage prep, mise en place and ordering, controlling food cost through tight portioning and stock rotation.
- Hold every plate to spec at the pass, keeping consistency through the busiest dinner services.
- Train the chefs de partie and commis on station standards and classical French technique.
- Enforce HACCP hygiene and temperature discipline across the whole kitchen on every shift.
Chef de Partie
Le Jardin Restaurant, Lyon, France
Aug 2012 – Mar 2019
- Ran sauce and meat sections to a high standard in a busy restaurant kitchen.
- Developed dishes and prep systems that improved consistency and speed.
- Mentored commis chefs and covered the sous chef when needed.
- Earned the sous-chef role on the strength of skill and reliability.
Commis Chef
Lyon Bistro, Lyon, France
Jun 2010 – Jul 2012
- Worked the larder and prep sections as a commis chef in a busy bistro kitchen.
- Learned knife skills, stock-making and classical French technique from the brigade.
- Kept stations stocked and supported service through busy lunch and dinner shifts.
- Built the speed and grounding that led into a chef-de-partie role.
Education
CAP Cuisine (Professional Culinary Diploma), Culinary Arts
Lycée Hôtelier de Lyon
Sep 2008 – Jun 2010
- Completed France's professional culinary qualification covering classical technique, hygiene and kitchen organisation, with restaurant apprenticeships. Trained under demanding chefs who set the standard for consistency. Worked up through commis and chef de partie roles afterwards.
HACCP Food Safety Certification, Food Safety
French Food Safety Authority
Jan 2014 – Mar 2014
- Certification in HACCP food-safety systems and safe kitchen practice for senior kitchen staff. It underpins the hygiene and temperature discipline enforced on the line. Maintained and used to train junior chefs.
Certifications
CAP Cuisine & HACCP
Lycée Hôtelier de Lyon
Jun 2010 – Present
- France's professional culinary qualification plus current HACCP food-safety certification. Together they cover the technique and hygiene discipline a sous chef is responsible for. Used to train and hold the brigade to standard.
Advanced Cuisine & Wine Pairing
Lycée Hôtelier de Lyon
Apr 2018 – Present
- Advanced culinary course in modern technique and wine-and-food pairing beyond the core qualification. It supports menu development and the consistency held across the brigade at the pass.
Highlights
Trusted to run the kitchen
- Steps up as head chef on days off without any drop in quality or consistency. That trust is the clearest sign a sous chef is ready for the next role.
Held food cost in check
- Controlled food cost through disciplined portioning, ordering and stock rotation across a busy kitchen. Tight costs kept the restaurant profitable without cutting quality on the plate.
Continued Development
Pastry & Patisserie
Culinary Institute
May 2020 – Present
- Course in pastry and patisserie technique covering doughs, desserts and plating. It broadened his range beyond the savoury sections and strengthened the dessert offering at the pass.
Kitchen Management & Food Costing
Culinary Institute
Jun 2021 – Present
- Course in kitchen management and food costing covering rotas, ordering, gross-profit control and supplier management. It supports running the kitchen and protecting margin as second-in-command.
Languages
- French — Native or Bilingual Proficiency
- English (UK) — Professional Working Proficiency
Technical Skills
- Running the Line
- Classical French Technique
- Mise en Place & Prep
- Food Cost Control
- Brigade Leadership
- Menu Development
- HACCP & Food Safety
- Ordering & Stock
- Plating & Consistency
- Staff Training
Personal Skills
- Composure
- Consistency
- Leadership
- Discipline
- Reliability
Activities & Interests
- On Phone
- Yoga
- Dreaming
- Movies
- Table Tennis
What Matters Most
Before the detail, here's what actually decides a strong sous chef résumé:
- Lead with the size of kitchen you run: covers per service, brigade headcount, and whether you step up as head chef on days off.
- Prove you own food cost, not just cooking. GP percentage held, portion control, ordering and stock rotation are what separate a sous chef from a senior chef de partie.
- Name the cuisine and calibre honestly. French fine-dining, gastropub, hotel banqueting and high-volume casual are different jobs, and hiring chefs screen for the right fit.
- Show you can hold the pass under pressure and train the sections beneath you, because a sous chef is judged on the brigade's consistency, not just their own station.
- Put HACCP and food-safety discipline on the page. It is table stakes for anyone running a kitchen, and its absence gets noticed.
- Quantify wherever you can: covers, brigade size, GP held, waste cut, EHO or hygiene score. Numbers turn a job description into evidence.
Why This Sous Chef Resume Works
This sample is a mid-to-senior sous chef in French and modern-European kitchens. Read how its structure signals readiness for a head-chef role:
- The summary leads with the scale of the job (second-in-command of a 75-cover restaurant, brigade of eight) rather than a personality claim, so a hiring chef sizes up the candidate in the first line.
- It foregrounds stepping up as head chef on days off, the single clearest signal that a sous is ready for the next role, instead of burying it in a bullet.
- Food cost is treated as a core responsibility, tied to concrete levers (portion control, ordering, stock rotation), which is what distinguishes a sous chef from a strong chef de partie.
- The experience is ordered by responsibility, not just chronology: running the line, deputising, controlling cost, holding the pass, then training the brigade, so each bullet answers a different thing a head chef worries about.
- It carries HACCP and food-safety discipline explicitly, showing the candidate owns hygiene for the whole kitchen rather than assuming it is understood.
- The career arc from commis to chef de partie to sous is visible down the page, so the progression reads as earned rather than claimed.
How to Write a Sous Chef Resume
A sous chef résumé has to prove two things at once: that you can cook to standard and that you can run a section of the operation. Here's how to make both land:
Open with the kitchen you run, not an adjective
Your first line should tell a hiring chef the scale and style in one read: cuisine, covers per service, brigade size, and whether you deputise as head chef. "Sous chef running an 80-cover modern-British kitchen with a brigade of ten, stepping up as head chef two days a week" says more than any string of soft skills. If you build from a template, use the sample here as your model and start from a layout built for kitchen roles so the structure is already right.
Make food cost a headline, not an afterthought
The jump from senior chef de partie to sous chef is the jump into owning numbers. Put GP percentage held, food-cost percentage, waste reduction, portion control and supplier ordering on the page with figures. "Held food cost at 28% across a £45k-a-week kitchen through portion control and daily stock takes" is the kind of line that gets a sous chef shortlisted for head chef.
Show you run the pass and the brigade
A sous chef is judged on the whole section's output, not one station. Spell out what you own in service: expediting, checking every plate to spec, calling the line, covering any station when it goes down. Then show you develop people, because training chefs de partie and commis on station standards is half the job and a signal you can hold consistency when you are not on shift.
Name the cuisine and calibre precisely
French fine-dining, Italian trattoria, gastropub, hotel banqueting and high-volume casual dining are genuinely different jobs, and a hiring chef screens for the match in seconds. State the style, the covers, and any recognition (AA Rosettes, a Bib Gourmand, a good EHO score) so the reader places you correctly rather than guessing.
Prove your food-safety discipline
For anyone running a kitchen, HACCP is not optional and its absence is a red flag. State your food-hygiene level, that you run and document HACCP controls, and any hygiene rating you helped hold. It reassures an owner you can be left in charge of the kitchen without the certificate on the wall slipping.
Let the career arc do the talking
Order your experience so the climb from commis to chef de partie to sous is obvious, and keep the deeper history tight: one or two lines on early roles is enough. The recent sous chef entry carries the weight; the earlier ones just prove you learned the sections properly on the way up.
What to Include in a Sous Chef Resume
Beyond the standard experience and skills blocks, these are the sections that carry real weight for a sous chef and the ones a hiring chef looks for:
A summary line stating cuisine, covers per service and brigade size, plus whether you deputise as head chef.
Food-cost and GP figures: percentage held, waste cut, or a costing win with a number attached.
HACCP and food-hygiene certification level, kept current, near the top rather than buried.
Recognition tied to a kitchen you worked in: AA Rosettes, a Bib Gourmand, a Michelin listing, or a strong EHO / food-hygiene score.
A short skills block that mixes craft (larder, sauce, butchery, pastry) with the management side (rotas, ordering, costing, training).
A culinary qualification (CAP Cuisine, NVQ Professional Cookery, culinary diploma) so the classical grounding is on record.
Sous Chef Resume Summary Examples
The sample's summary is pitched at a fine-dining sous ready for head chef. These add other angles, an earlier-career sous and a high-volume operator, so you can see how the same section flexes to your context:
Pitching this opening line for a step up to head chef is where a lot of sous chefs undersell the scale they already run. If you want that summary and your food-cost figures shaped by someone who writes for kitchen roles, you can have a professional write it with you.
Mid-level resume summary example
Sous chef with six years in busy gastropub and neighbourhood-restaurant kitchens, the last two as second-in-command of a 90-cover site with a brigade of six. Runs the sauce and grill sections in service and expedites the pass on the head chef's days off, holding ticket times under twelve minutes through Saturday-night rushes. Controls food cost through daily stock takes, tight portioning and weekly supplier ordering, holding gross profit around 68 percent without dropping plate quality. Trains commis and kitchen porters on prep standards and HACCP, and holds a Level 3 food-hygiene certificate. Looking to grow into a senior sous or junior head-chef role in a kitchen with real ambition about its food.
Senior-level resume summary example
Senior sous chef with fourteen years across hotel, banqueting and high-volume à la carte kitchens, currently second-in-command of a 200-cover operation running restaurant, bar and events service. Leads a brigade of eighteen across every section, builds the prep and mise en place systems that keep 400-plate banquets on time, and covers the head chef across full weeks without a drop in standards. Owns the kitchen's numbers end to end: food cost held at 29 percent, weekly ordering across four suppliers, and waste cut by a quarter through better forecasting. Drives HACCP compliance and has held a five-star food-hygiene rating through three consecutive EHO inspections. Ready for a head-chef or executive-sous role in a serious multi-outlet operation.
Sous Chef Work Experience Examples
Strong sous chef bullets carry the context, the number and the outcome in one line. These sets show how the same achievements read across three different kinds of kitchen, so you can borrow the shape closest to yours:
Fine-dining / à la carte sous chef
- Ran the pass across a 60-cover fine-dining service, checking every plate against spec and holding consistency through 90-cover Saturday nights, keeping average ticket times under fourteen minutes at full capacity.
- Deputised as head chef two shifts a week and across holidays, leading a brigade of nine with no measurable drop in plate standards, food cost or the AA two-Rosette level the kitchen worked to hold.
- Owned food cost for the à la carte menu, holding it at 30 percent through tight portion control, daily stock takes and negotiated supplier ordering, protecting margin without cutting quality on the plate.
- Developed four seasonal dishes with the head chef, costing each to target GP and writing the prep and plating specs the whole brigade cooked to, which improved consistency across the sauce and meat sections.
- Trained three chefs de partie and two commis on classical technique and station standards, running short pre-service briefings that cut re-fires on the meat section by roughly a third over one season.
- Documented HACCP controls and temperature logs across every section daily, helping hold a five-star food-hygiene rating through two consecutive unannounced environmental-health inspections.
Hotel / banqueting sous chef
- Led the brigade through banqueting service for functions up to 350 covers, building the prep and mise en place plan that got every plate out inside a 20-minute window without holding the room waiting.
- Ran restaurant, bar and room-service output simultaneously as second-in-command of a 180-cover hotel kitchen, coordinating a brigade of fifteen across five sections through peak weekend service.
- Controlled food cost across all outlets at 29 percent, running weekly ordering for four suppliers, monthly stock takes and portion audits that cut plate waste by around a quarter over six months.
- Covered the head chef across full weeks during holidays and sickness, owning rotas, ordering and menu execution for a kitchen turning over roughly £60,000 a week with no dip in standards.
- Rewrote the banqueting prep systems and station lists, which cut set-up time before large functions by about 40 minutes and reduced last-minute agency-chef cover across the season.
- Drove HACCP compliance and ran quarterly food-safety training for the whole department, holding a five-star hygiene rating through three consecutive unannounced council inspections across a two-year period.
Gastropub / independent restaurant sous chef
- Ran a 100-cover gastropub kitchen as second-in-command with a brigade of six, expediting the pass on the head chef's two days off and holding ticket times steady through 120-cover Sunday lunch service.
- Held gross profit at 68 percent across a changing seasonal menu through daily stock takes, tight portioning and building relationships with three local suppliers for better pricing on meat and produce.
- Butchered whole carcasses in-house and used the trim across specials and stocks, cutting the kitchen's protein cost by roughly 12 percent while adding higher-margin dishes to the specials board.
- Trained two commis chefs from entry level up to running the larder and starter sections solo, writing the prep sheets and standards that kept quality steady on the head chef's days off.
- Owned ordering, waste logging and the HACCP diary for the kitchen, holding a five-star food-hygiene rating and passing every environmental-health inspection across three years without a single action point.
Top Sous Chef Skills
A sous chef résumé should balance the craft on the sections with the management side of running a kitchen. Weight the list toward what the job you want actually needs:
Hard skills
- Running the pass / expediting
- Classical French technique
- Mise en place & prep systems
- Food cost & GP control
- Portion control
- Stock rotation & ordering
- Menu development & costing
- Butchery & fabrication
- Sauce & larder work
- Pastry basics
- HACCP & food safety
- Allergen management
- Kitchen rotas & scheduling
- Brigade leadership
- Training & station standards
- Plating & consistency
- Supplier management
- Stock takes & inventory
- High-volume / banqueting service
- Kitchen equipment & maintenance
Soft skills:
- Composure under pressure
- Consistency
- Leadership
- Discipline
- Communication
- Reliability
- Adaptability
Extra tips
Food cost gets all the attention, but holding kitchen labour cost to target through the rota is a lever few sous chefs quantify.
Put a percentage on it, for example 'held labour at 30 percent across a seven-day rota', to show you own both sides of the numbers.
Certifications for a Sous Chef
Food-safety certification is effectively mandatory for anyone running a kitchen, and a recognised culinary credential backs up the technique. These are the ones that carry weight for a sous chef:
-
Food Safety / HACCP Level 3
— Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) Effectively required for supervisory kitchen roles in the UK; the level a sous chef running HACCP is expected to hold.
-
ServSafe Manager
— National Restaurant Association The US management-level food-safety standard; often required to run a kitchen and widely recognised across operators.
-
HACCP Certification
— International HACCP Alliance Formal training in building and documenting the HACCP plan a sous chef owns day to day; optional but a strong signal.
-
ACF Certified Sous Chef (CSC)
— American Culinary Federation (ACF) Optional US credential that certifies sous-chef-level competence; stands out on a CV but not required to hold the role.
Sous Chef Salary Expectations
Sous chef pay swings hard with the type and scale of kitchen, so treat these as broad market ranges rather than a fixed figure:
USD 45,000 – USD 65,000 · mid · US
Higher in major metros and fine-dining; BLS median for chefs and head cooks sat around $58k in 2024.
GBP 28,000 – GBP 38,000 · mid · UK
Independent restaurants at the lower end; hotel and high-volume groups toward the top, plus service and tips.
Common Sous Chef Resume Mistakes
A few errors show up again and again on sous chef résumés and cost interviews. Avoid these:
- Reading like a senior chef de partie: all craft and technique, no ownership of food cost, ordering, rotas or training. Those management levers are what define the sous chef role.
- Hiding the scale of the kitchen. Leaving out covers per service and brigade size forces a hiring chef to guess, and they usually guess low.
- Skipping food cost and GP entirely. If you have never put a number to margin, portioning or waste, you look like you have never carried the responsibility.
- Listing every job at equal length. A ten-line commis role from a decade ago pushes your current sous chef achievements down the page.
- Omitting HACCP and food-hygiene level. For a role that runs the kitchen's safety, leaving it off reads as a gap, not an oversight.
- Vague cuisine and calibre. "Busy restaurant" tells a hiring chef nothing; state the style, the covers and any Rosette, Bib Gourmand or hygiene score.
Sous Chef Resume FAQs
The questions candidates most often ask when writing a sous chef résumé:
Balance craft and management: running the pass, classical technique, butchery, sauce and larder work on one side; food-cost control, ordering, rotas, HACCP and training on the other. A sous chef is hired for both cooking to standard and running a section of the operation, so a list that is all knife skills and no numbers reads as a chef de partie, not a sous.
Attach numbers to the levers you actually pull: GP or food-cost percentage held, waste reduction, a costing win, or supplier savings. "Held food cost at 29% through daily stock takes and tight portioning" proves ownership; "responsible for controlling costs" does not. This is the single clearest thing that separates a sous chef from a senior line cook on paper.
One page for most sous chefs, two only if you have a decade-plus across several notable kitchens. Keep the current sous chef role detailed and compress early commis and chef-de-partie jobs to a line or two each. A hiring chef spends seconds scanning, so front-load the scale, the numbers and the recent responsibility.
In practice, yes. Anyone running a kitchen is expected to hold at least a supervisory food-hygiene level (Level 3 in the UK, ServSafe Manager in the US) and to run and document HACCP. Put it on the résumé near the top; its absence on a management-level kitchen CV reads as a red flag rather than an oversight.
A chef de partie owns a station; a sous chef owns the line, the numbers and the people. Your résumé should reflect that shift: expediting the pass, deputising for the head chef, controlling food cost, running rotas and ordering, and training the brigade. If your bullets only describe cooking your section, you are underselling yourself as a sous chef.
Yes, both, on the first line. French fine-dining, gastropub, hotel banqueting and high-volume casual are different jobs, and a hiring chef screens for the match immediately. State the cuisine, the covers per service and the brigade size so the reader places you correctly instead of guessing and moving on.
Foreground the times you already did the job: stepping up as head chef on days off, owning rotas and ordering, holding food cost and menu execution without the head chef present. Pair that with hard numbers on GP, covers and brigade size. If polishing it to that standard feels high-stakes, you can have an expert writer shape it with you.
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