Kitchen Manager Resume Sample
Shana C. Farnsworth
Address: 4147 Prosper Road, Charlotte, NC.
Phone: (916) 878 9134
Email: [email protected]
Current Job: Chicken ‘n’ Egg; Charlotte, NC
Objective Statement
Kitchen Manager with 3 years of work experience managing kitchens in both casual dining and fast-food type of restaurants is interested in assuming the open position at The Griddle Fry.
Strengths/Special Skills
- Associate Degree in Restaurant Management
- Bilingual; English and Spanish
- Knowledge of SellSmart and RetailWiz POS systems.
- Knowledge and experience in Digital Marketing
- Physically-fit
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
- Well-organized
Certifications
- Food Handling and Safety
- Inventory Management
- Customer Service
Work Experience
Kitchen Manager; 2018 to Present
Chicken ‘n’ Egg; Charlotte, NC
Responsibilities:
- Review daily inventory of the kitchen; look for variances.
- Cross-reference inventory with the scheduled deliveries of ingredients.
- Prepare the production schedule for the restaurant’s meat menu items.
- Discuss the production schedule with the kitchen staff.
- Check on the quality of all products to be used in the day’s operations.
- Provide assistance to stations that lack manpower or are lagging behind.
- Stay on top of all food orders being prepared in the kitchen.
- Maintain output standard of 10 to 15 minutes.
- Ensure cleanliness and hygiene standards are consistently followed.
Kitchen Manager; 2016 to 2018
Cheeseburger Castle; Charlotte, NC.
Responsibilities
- Inspect the quality of the beef products in the refrigerator.
- Ensure that FIFO guidelines are strictly followed.
- Check the state of readiness of the grill and fry area by inspecting the inventory of meats, cheeses, bacon, and sauces in their low boy refrigerator.
- Review the previous night’s inventory.
- Conduct pre-shift meeting with kitchen staff.
- Attend pre-peak hour meeting with Restaurant Manager.
- Guarantee that all wastes and trash are disposed of properly.
Education
College
Associate Degree
Restaurant Management
Charlotte Community College
Charlotte, NC
2012 to 2016
High School
Audrey Kell High School
Charlotte, NC
2008 to 2012
How To Write A Good Kitchen Manager Resume
The biggest mistake job seekers make is to underestimate the value of a well-written resume. You have to make a lasting impression with the recruiter. Therefore, don’t settle for submitting a mediocre resume.
Here are 5 helpful tips on how to write a good Kitchen Manager resume – one that will attract interest.
Highlight Your Kitchen Skills
The kitchen is composed of several areas of responsibilities:
- Food Preparation
- Grill
- Fryer
- Expediting Station
- Dessert Preparation
- Rotisserie/Oven Baking
- Stock Keeping/Inventory
- Manpower/Scheduling
- Dishwashing
- Cleanliness/Sanitation
If you acquired specialized training or received certifications from courses related to the above-mentioned kitchen skills, you can include these under the “Strengths” section or create another category, “Certifications/Advanced Training”.
Think of “Resume Presentation”
An experienced recruiter can create assumptions about the applicant simply by looking at your resume.
For example, if you use a font style such as Comic Sans, the recruiter might assume you’re not serious about the job or that you have a lackadaisical approach in the kitchen.
Another example is if the recruiter comes across glaring errors in spelling and grammar. Think of it as a customer who finds a strand of hair in his soup.
Similar to food presentation, make sure your resume is presentable to the recruiter. It should look professional and show that you are responsible enough to be trusted in the kitchen.
Impress With Your Achievements
Recruiters love to see numbers on a resume because they qualify your achievements and lend substance to your value proposition as a Kitchen Manager.
What achievements are usually included in the resume? Here are a few examples:
- Lower food cost from 36% to 18% by switching to powdered sauce mixes.
- Reduce the incidence of wastage and pilferage by 21% by running random inventory audits.
- Improve the gross profit of the restaurant by lowering production costs by 11%.
Include Differentiators
Differentiators are skills and abilities that make you stand out from the rest of the applicants who are applying for the Kitchen Manager position.
You will have applicants who have a Bachelor’s Degree or an Associate Degree in Restaurant Management or a related field. There are applicants who have 3 to 5 years of work experience and others who make up for their lack of experience by acquiring advanced training.
Good examples of differentiators that can enhance your value include:
- Multi-lingual; having the ability to speak more than one language.
- Knowledge of troubleshooting kitchen equipment.
- Knowledge of Point-of-Sale (POS) equipment and other forms of technology.
- Experience and acquired training in Digital Marketing.
Keep Your Resume Relevant
If you think you will impress a recruiter with a 5-page resume, think again. Recruiters don’t spend a ton of time reviewing resumes. Keep your resume short. The accepted standard is one page for every 10 years of work experience.
Even if your work experience exceeds 10 years, it’s always a good idea to keep it within one page. You can do this by including only the relevant information.
Kitchen Manager Skills List
It’s great to have extensive experience. The question is, did you acquire useful and relevant skills during those years working as a Kitchen Manager? Experience is not overrated but you should have the abilities in your Kitchen Manager skills list to back it up.
Formal Training/Education
You can become a Kitchen Manager based on your extensive work experience in the profession. However, HR officers of the best restaurants will place a premium on education because it lowers the cost of training.
Accepted college degrees are Hotel and Restaurant Management, Business Management, Economics, Food Technology, Culinary Science, and Tourism. Having an Associate Degree in any of these courses is also acceptable.
Relevant Certifications
It’s also a big plus on your resume if you took advanced courses and received certifications in subjects that are related to the restaurant business.
For example:
- Kitchen Sanitation and Maintenance
- Food Safety and Handling
- Customer Service
- Food and Restaurant Marketing
- Workforce Management
Knowledge of Cooking/Food Preparation
You don’t have to be trained as an Executive Chef to be a good Kitchen Manager. Having basic cooking skills and understanding of food preparation procedures will be good enough.
Included in these basic skills are the following:
- Proper cooking temperatures for various types of meat
- How to properly season and marinate meats
- Proper food storage
- Preparation of basic sauces and mixtures
- Understanding of various techniques such as boiling, frying, grilling, baking, and roasting
- Understanding of food expiration dates
- Preparing food from scratch
- How to keep vegetables fresh and crisp
- How to determine the quality of ingredients
Knowledge of Handling/Troubleshooting Kitchen Equipment
A full-scale restaurant can have a wide range of cooking equipment that includes char broilers, pressure fryers, flat iron griddle, convection ovens, rotisserie oven, ice cream makers, and multi-mixers among others.
It’s not enough to know how to operate these machines. As a Kitchen Manager, you must know how to troubleshoot them.
Imagine a scenario where the rotisserie oven breaks down at 6:00 am. You need to load the chickens by 8:00 am to get the first batch ready in time for the lunchtime crowd.
If the technician can’t be there before 8:00 am, you won’t have roasted chickens to sell. That’s money flying away from your cash registers.
Basic Business Skills
As the Kitchen Manager, you’re ⅓ of the restaurant’s management team the others being the Dining Floor Manager and the overall Restaurant Manager. All of you are tasked to manage the business side of your area of responsibility.
What business tasks are these?
- Budgeting – Managing food cost
- Manpower – Managing labour cost
- Wastage – Reducing losses due to wastage and pilferage
- Productivity – Getting your people to work at their best every day
- Sanitation – Keeping the kitchen a safe and clean place to work in
You should basic knowledge of accounting, computers and technology, workforce management, operations, communication, and customer service to help you manage the kitchen like a well-oiled machine.
Kitchen Manager Duties And Responsibilities For The Work Experience Section
The wonderful food that you just ate was the result of a kitchen running like a well-oiled machine. You can thank the Kitchen Manager for that. Think of the kitchen staff as a basketball team.
Sometimes some of the staff have an off-night and that can affect the performance of the team. The Kitchen Manager’s job is to make sure that regardless of how some are performing, food quality and service is never compromised.
Being a Kitchen Manager is tough work. You have multiple areas of responsibility and you have to deal with different personalities. Recruiters understand this and are on the lookout for someone who knows the ins and outs of kitchen management.
In your work experience section, describe your duties and responsibilities by touching on all areas of responsibility in the kitchen.
Food Preparation
- Marinate meats according to the right proportion of sauces to liquids or precise measurement of dry rub per kilo of meat then, store for maximum time for optimum flavor.
- Measure the internal temperature of meats cooked by the grill and rotisserie station to make sure they conform to industry standards.
- Ensure that all food brought to the expediting station is clean and free of unwanted debris such as hair.
Kitchen Operations
- Track all food orders and make sure they come out within the prescribed waiting time of 10-15 minutes.
- Cover the area in the kitchen that is falling behind.
- Delegate instructions to staff to get food orders moving quickly.
- Perform troubleshooting procedures on defective equipment.
Food Handling and Safety
- Inspect the personal appearance of the staff.
- Ensure all staff members are wearing the proper uniforms.
- Enforce the FIFO policy strictly.
Inventory Management
- Conduct a daily inventory to maintain par stock levels in the kitchen.
- Review the rotation schedule of all restaurant ingredients in the stock room.
Workforce Management
- Prepare staff schedules based on the labor cost target set by top management.
- Assist in the recruitment, selection, and hiring of the kitchen staff.
- Oversee the training and orientation of new kitchen staff.
Budgeting
- Review the restaurant budget provided by accounting.
- Assist the Purchasing Manager in sourcing more affordable ingredients that will not affect the quality of the food.
Entry Level Kitchen Manager Resume
You can be hired as the Kitchen Manager even with an entry-level resume if you can tick off most of the qualifications for the job.
Review the Job Ad
Are they looking for someone with experience? Will they consider entry-level Kitchen Managers? The ad will usually indicate the type of candidate the employer prefers – and not everyone needs to have work experience.
Some may prefer entry-level candidates because they are tight on funds and cannot afford to pay for experienced Kitchen Managers. Or the restaurant owner could be an equal opportunity employer who doesn’t mind taking on inexperienced newbie Kitchen Managers.
Take note of the requirements posted by the employer. Identify the skills you have qualified for and highlight these in your resume.
Include Informal Work Experience
By definition, “experience” is an opportunity to practice theory in a real-world situation. Recruiters will consider other forms of experience even if these are not in a regular restaurant or kitchen setting.
For example:
- If you managed a home-based food delivery service.
- If you volunteer your services to manage a kitchen in your school or community.
- If you participated in on-the-job training or apprenticeship programs.
Use the Functional Format
If you don’t have enough work experience but have the requisite skills, use the functional format. The functional shifts the focus of the recruiter away from work experience and emphasizes technical skills and education.
With the functional format, the sections of your resume will be presented in this manner:
- Contact Information
- Objective Statement
- Strengths
- Certifications/Advanced Training
- Education
- Work Experience
Don’t lose hope if the interviews are coming in slow. The demand for good Kitchen Managers remains high. Use the extra time to develop new skills that will make you more attractive to restaurant owners.
