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Line cook, prep cook resume examples from 2025

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Updated March 26, 2025
6 min read
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How to write a line cook, prep cook resume

Craft a resume summary statement

Your resume summary sums up your experience and skills, making it easy for hiring managers to understand your qualifications at a glance. Here are some tips to writing the most important 2-4 sentences of your resume:

Step 1: Start with your professional title, or the one you aspire to.

Step 2: Detail your years of experience in line cook, prep cook-related roles and your industry experience.

Step 3: What are your biggest professional wins? Here is your opportunity to highlight your strongest accomplishments by placing them at the start of your resume.

Step 4: Don't forget, your goal is to summarize your experience. Keep it short and sweet, so it's easy for recruiters to quickly understand why you're a great hire.

Hiring managers spend under a minute reviewing resumes on average. This means your summary needs to demonstrate your value quickly and show why you are the perfect fit for the line cook, prep cook position.

Please upload your resume so Zippia’s job hunt AI can draft a summary statement for you.

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List the right project manager skills

Use your Skills section to show you have the knowledge and technical ability to do the job. Here is how to make the most of your skills section and make sure you have the right keywords:

  1. Look at the job listing and skills listed. You need to include the exact keywords from the job description to get your resume in front of an actual human. Do you have those skills? Fantastic! Be sure to list them.
  2. Include as many relevant hard or technical line cook, prep cook skills as possible for each job you apply to.
  3. Be specific with the skills you have and be sure you are using the most up to date and accurate terms.
These five steps should give you a strong elevator pitch and land you some line cook, prep cook interviews.

Here are example skills to include in your “Area of Expertise” on a line cook, prep cook resume:

  • Kitchen Equipment
  • Food Handling
  • Culinary
  • Customer Service
  • Salad Station
  • Line Cooks
  • Quality Food
  • Exceptional Dining
  • Stoves
  • Safety Standards
  • Dishwashers
  • Roasting
  • Quality Standards
  • Food Products
  • Fine Dining
  • Sanitation Standards
  • Fryers
  • Food Orders
  • Prep List
  • Broilers
  • Dinner Service
  • Saut
  • Food Preparation
  • Professional Approach
  • BOH
  • Fifo
  • Cooking Methods
  • ServSafe
  • Garnishing
  • Kitchen Sanitation

Zippia’s AI can customize your resume for you.

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How to structure your work experience

Your work experience should be structured:

  1. With your most recent roles first, followed by earlier roles in reverse chronological order.
  2. Job title, along with company name and location on the left.
  3. Put the corresponding dates of employment on the left side.
  4. Keep only relevant jobs on your work experience.

How to write line cook, prep cook experience bullet points

Effective job bullet points do more than just describe your job duties. Instead, they should be specific and measurable accomplishments. Here are some strategies to mastering job bullet points:

  • Use strong action verbs like Led, Built, or Optimized.
  • Follow up with numbers when possible to support your results. How much did performance improve? How much revenue did you drive?
  • Wrap it up by explaining the actions you took to achieve the result and how you made an impact.

Here are examples from great line cook, prep cook resumes:

Work history example #1

Prep Person

Chipotle Mexican Grill

  • Prepped for service * Served customers * Operated/used deep fryer * Frequent knife use
  • Cooked and prepared food using time-sensitive communication amongst my team.
  • Prepared items required for work station according to standards established by Sous Chef.
  • Worked grill Prep/ Dishwasher Preparing food on line
  • Acted as a prep cook, grill cook, and dishwasher.

Work history example #2

Line Cook, Prep Cook

Cracker Barrel

  • Operated dish washing equipment, distributed and stored clean pots, dishes and utensils.
  • Operated dishwasher in a fast pace environment.
  • Cleaned and sanitized dishes Prepare/grill food for customer orders Clean supplies, grills and fryers Unload food truck/stock inventory
  • Ensured proper communication through several channels of restaurant to tend to guests.
  • Started out washing dishes and then cross trained to cooking and grill team.

Work history example #3

Assistant Chef

Hilton Worldwide Holdings

  • Prepared a variety of casual American cuisine Critical team player in back house operations.
  • Worded on menu development, and worked with chefs in executing food and labor cost and recipe production
  • Worked and excelled in all departments of the kitchen by delivering the best quality food.
  • Supervised 2 junior sous chefs.
  • Attended Culinary Arts Achieved Sous Chef

Work history example #4

Line Cook, Prep Cook

McDonald's

  • Worked full time made, prepared, and served food, ran register, stocked supplies, washed dishes.
  • Sanitized and washed dishes for next use.
  • Grilled meat on grill and prepared orders customers did dishes
  • Worked at a fast pace while keeping an open line of communication Worked as a team
  • Red Lobster I was also trained as a Dishwasher and a Baked so I can help any way I can.

Zippia’s AI can customize your resume for you.

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Add an education section to your resume

Here is the best way to format your education section:

  • Display your highest degree first.
  • If you graduated over 5 years ago, put this section at the bottom of your resume. If you lack relevant work experience, the education section should go to the top.
  • If you have a bachelor's or master's degree, do not list your high school education.
  • If your graduation year is more than 15-20 years ago, it's better not to include dates in this section.

Here are some examples of good education entries from line cook, prep cook resumes:

Doctoral Degree in computer science

DeVry University, Oakbrook Terrace, IL

2014 - 2017

Associate's Degree in business

American InterContinental University, Chandler, AZ

2011 - 2013

Highlight your line cook, prep cook certifications on your resume

Certifications are a great way to showcase special expertise or niche skills. Some jobs even require certifications to be hired.

Start simple. Include the full name of the certification. It's also good to mention the organization that issued the certification. Next, specify when you obtained the certification.

If you have any of these certifications, be sure to include them on your line cook, prep cook resume:

  1. OSHA Safety Certificate
  2. ServSafe Food Protection Manager Certification
  3. Certified Food Manager (CFM)
  4. Certified Professional - Food Safety (CP-FS)
  5. Food Safety Manager Certification
  6. EPA Amusement Operators Safety Certification (EPA)
  7. Certified Fundamentals Cook (CFC)
  8. Certified Nutrition Specialist (CNS)
  9. First Aid, CPR and AED Instructor
  10. Certified Food Protection Professional (CFPP)

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