Prep Cook Resume Example & Writing Guide
Use this Prep Cook resume example and guide to improve your career and write a powerful resume that will separate you from the competition.
If you love working in a fast-paced environment where things are always changing, a job as a prep cook might be perfect for you. Prep cooks are responsible for preparing ingredients before they’re sent to the kitchen. They’re also responsible for maintaining a clean and organized workspace.
Prep cooks usually report directly to the head chef or manager of the kitchen. They’re often tasked with preparing ingredients that will be used in a variety of dishes throughout the day. This can include chopping, slicing, dicing, blanching, boiling, roasting, braising, or frying foods. Prep cooks also might be asked to assemble ingredients into platters or containers for servers to take out to customers.
Here are some tips and an example to help you write a fantastic prep cook resume that will impress hiring managers everywhere.
How to Write a Prep Cook Resume
Here’s how to write a prep cook resume of your own.
Write Compelling Bullet Points
Bullet points are the most important part of your resume because they’re the first thing recruiters and hiring managers will read. And if they’re not interesting or compelling, they’ll quickly move on to the next resume.
So it’s crucial that you use bullet points to showcase your experience, skills, and accomplishments. And the best way to do that is by using specific details and numbers. For example, rather than saying you “cooked meals for customers,” you could say you “prepared 150 meals for lunch service in busy restaurant environment.”
The second bullet point is much more specific and provides a clear sense of the scale of the project and the level of responsibility involved.
Related: What Is a Prep Cook? How to Become One
Identify and Include Relevant Keywords
When you submit your resume for a job as a prep cook, it’s likely that it will be scanned by an applicant tracking system (ATS) for certain keywords. This software looks for certain terms related to the job, like “cooking” or “food safety,” in order to determine whether you have the necessary skills and experience to be a good fit. If your resume doesn’t have enough of the right keywords, the ATS might automatically reject your application.
To make sure your resume makes it past the ATS, include keywords throughout all sections of your resume. Here are some of the most commonly used keywords for prep cook positions:
- Cooking
- Food Preparation
- Culinary Skills
- Food & Beverage
- Catering
- Restaurant Management
- Food Safety
- Food Service
- Recipe Development
- Banquet Operations
- Sanitation
- Food Quality
- Food Quality Control
- Time Management
- Inventory Management
- Culinary Management
- Teamwork
- Microsoft Access
- Customer Service
- Baking
- Bartending
- ServSafe
- Hospitality
- Restaurant Operations
- Team Leadership
- Wine
- Team Building
- Cashiering
- Communication
- Social Media
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