Food Service Resume Guide [w/ Objective, Summary, Skills Examples]

Food Service Resume
Created by Cake

Food is a basic need for human survival, making the foodservice industry a crucial industry worldwide. Depending on the type of job, a candidate might be required to prepare food for consumption, serve food to customers, keep kitchens and dining areas clean, or wash dishes for future use. 

Because of how crucial this industry is, depending on the type of job, it can be very cut-throat. If you’d like to land a great job within the foodservice industry, you first have to make sure that you have a stellar food service resume that will impress recruiters.

How to write a great food service resume?

Tip 1: Adopt an ATS-friendly food service resume format. 

Competitiveness in the industry means that recruiters will try to simplify the recruitment process by employing tools and technology. Software that they might use to help ease the recruitment process is the ATS (applicant tracking software), which filters and ranks the food service resume they receive.

💡 Tip: To ensure that your resume won’t be discarded by the software, choose an ATS-friendly food service resume format (i.e., little visuals, adopting keywords from the job ad).

Tip 2: Refer to online food service resume templates and food service resume examples.

It’s a good idea to find food service resume templates and food service resume examples from the internet to serve as a guide. These online templates and examples may contain great points that you can implement on your own food service resume.

Remember to tailor them according to your background and the job context though!

Tip 3: Tailor your food service resume for the job position and adopt keywords.

As previously mentioned in Tip 1, adopting keywords and implementing them into your food service resume can help you bypass the filter. Keywords can make your resume more relevant to job ads.

Another way to increase your food service resume relevancy is to tailor it for the specific job position you’re applying for instead of having an all-purpose resume.

Tip 4: Quantify results on your food service resume.

Employers aim to hire candidates that can bring value and help their business improve. One way to show that you are that candidate is by quantifying your previous results and achievements on your food service resume. Numbers can make them look more convincing and apparent to recruiters.

Tip 5: Show that you are capable of working in a fast-paced environment.

Jobs in the foodservice industry tend to put a lot of focus on customer service. Most customers would want their food to be delivered or prepared quickly. Thus, this will affect the working environment as well.

Your knowledge of the business is one thing, but if you fail to show that you are a candidate capable of working in a high-pressure and fast-paced environment, recruiters may be more reluctant to proceed with the hiring process.

Whether it’s from your extracurricular activities or even personal hobbies, you need to highlight in your food service resume how you can fit and work effectively in such a demanding environment.

What is a good food service resume objective?

A food service resume objective is designed to convey your career objective and aspirations to recruiters, allowing them to get to know you through your food service resume better.

Keep your food service resume objective concise and remember to highlight your positive traits and the career goals you wish to achieve.

Food service resume objective examples:

  • Customer-oriented waitress with 2+ years in fine dining restaurants. Seeking to leverage my customer service skills and wine knowledge for the head waitress position in Fuchsia Gardens.
  • Motivated and responsible culinary graduate seeking a position as a chef in Le Bistro.
  • Experienced food server seeking to deliver outstanding service as a head server in Blue Plate.

How to write a professional food service resume summary?

A food service resume objective is too short to fully convince recruiters of your ability and potential. Aside from a resume objective, you should also include a food service resume summary.

Your resume summary should be within one to two sentences long and should include a brief description of yourself, your qualifications, skills, and background. 

As with your food service resume, you should always tailor your food service resume summary for every job position you apply for.

Food service resume summary examples:

  • Efficient and friendly hostess offering more than 4 years of experience working in a Michelin star fine dining restaurant. Proven ability to maintain professional relationships with regular customers.
  • Professional and skilled chef with 5 years of extensive experience preparing authentic French cuisine. Awarded the Outstanding Chef award by the James Beard Foundation.
  • Reliable hostess with proven ability to seat guests 25% faster than the average hostess. In-depth knowledge of wine and spirits.

Cake provides the best food service resume templates & examples for talents to demonstrate your qualifications. Let us help you land the dream as a food service with a strong resume (free download)!

What are some great food service resume skills?

Your food service resume skills will be closely examined by recruiters. The skills that you possess can serve as an indicator of your fit in the position and your performance level.

There are four ways you can structure your food service resume skills section, they are:

  • Simple bullet list:
    S
    imple and easy to craft, desired skills are very visible. Its simplistic format, though, limits further explanation of your skills. 
  • Expanded bullet list:
    The simple bullet list with extra explanation of your skills. This format consumes more space so you should limit it to listing 5 skills. 
  • Integrated with work experience:
    This format can explain your food servicing competency well because it integrates your work experience section with your food service resume skills. However, it requires you to possess extensive employment history, so it’s unsuitable for an entry-level food service resume.
  • Categorized skills section:
    This format helps with organizing your skills by categorizing them. Like the integrated work experience format, though, a food service resume with no experience or an entry-level food service resume might not benefit much from it.

As with other section formats, there’s no one best format. Specific formats will suit different people according to their skill level, their background, and job context. Before you settle on a format for your food service resume skills, make sure you go over the job ad thoroughly.

💡 Tip: Keep your skill section short and coherent, and remember to include both hard skills and soft skills.

Food service resume skills examples:

  • Hard skills
    - Menu knowledge
    - Resolving complaints
    - POS system
    - Knife work
    - Knowledge on wine and spirits
  • Soft skills
    - 
    Time management
    - Stress tolerance
    - Communication
    - Multitasking
    - Leadership

How to write an entry-level food service resume with no experience?

✅ Advice 1: Choose the right food service resume format.

Choosing the right food service resume format can help accentuate your strengths, making your food service resume look more appealing to recruiters.

There are three food service resume formats you can choose to adopt, they are: chronological, functional, and hybrid/combination. As with most things, there is no one-size-fits-all format, its suitability will differ from candidate to candidate, depending on their skill level, background, and previous experience.

✅ Advice 2: Adopt a career objective for your food service resume.

It’s understandable for someone with an entry-level food service resume to feel nervous about their lack of experience. Instead of fretting over it, you can choose to adopt a food service resume objective to redirect the recruiter’s attention to your career aspirations. Convey your passion and enthusiasm for the job and industry and highlight your most defining skills.

✅ Advice 3: Highlight your education.

Some jobs in the food service industry won’t require you to possess a postgraduate degree, although some do. If you happen to possess one though, be sure to highlight it in your food service resume. An education degree, especially if it’s related to the industry, can help in instilling confidence in your skills and knowledge.

Here, list your:

  • educational institution
  • degree(s)
  • major(s)
  • year of graduation
  • honors & awards
  • extracurricular activities (when applicable)

✅ Advice 4: Include your portfolio, side project, or personal website.

If you have a side project, personal website, and/or portfolio that is food-related, including them in your food service resume can be a testament to your knowledge and passion.

✅ Advice 5: Write a sincere food service cover letter.

Due to limited space, your food service resume should only contain necessary and relevant information. Of course, this won’t be enough to fully convey your potential to recruiters. This is where a food service cover letter will come in useful for you.

Your food service cover letter should be a page long and should contain a short introduction of who you are, your contact details, and a brief summary of your qualifications, background, skills, interest in the job or industry, and your motivation for applying. Close off your food service cover letter politely, thanking the recruiter for taking the time to read your cover letter.

👍 Reminder: As with your food service resume, your food service cover letter should also be tailored to the job you’re applying for.

Food service resume sample

Jean McIntyre

Adaptable Fine Dining Server with 5+ Years of Experience in Delivering Excellent and Prompt Service

+1- 415-523-3462

[email protected]
linkedin.com/in/jeanmcintyre

Professional Summary

Adaptable and extroverted server with 5+ years of experience working in fine dining restaurants. Proven history of delivering excellent and prompt service and extensive knowledge of wine and spirits.

Work Experience

Head Server

La Planche


Jan. 2018 – Present     

  • In charge of training newly hired servers.
  • Consistently earned 97% positive customer feedback by establishing professional relationships and rapport with regulars.
  • Has been awarded the best staff award for 6 consecutive months.

Server

Blue Plate

Jan. 2015 – Dec. 2017

  • Greeted guests warmly, took orders, and suggested food and beverage pairing.
  • Quickly cleaned and cleared tables 10% faster than average.

Education

2010 – 2014, B.S. in Hospitality & Tourism Management
San Diego State University 

Minor: Restaurant Management
GPA: 3.84/4.0

Skills

  • Extensive Knowledge of Wine and Spirits
  • POS System
  • French (fluent)
  • Menu Knowledge
  • Food and Beverage Pairing
  • Communication
  • Teamwork
  • Stress Tolerance
  • Adaptability
  • Patience

--- Originally written by Patricia Rosita ---

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