The full example
Everything below is fictional. The venues are described rather than named, and the achievements are the kind of thing a real catering manager does — written the way they should appear on a CV, not inflated.
Catering manager CV — example
Header
[Full Name] [Town, UK] · [phone] · [email]
Professional summary
Catering manager with eight years in contract catering, currently running a workplace restaurant and hospitality service producing around 900 meals a day for a single corporate client. Accountable for the food cost, the labour budget, the client relationship and the audit trail behind all three. Level 3 food safety and IOSH Managing Safely. Looking for a larger multi-site contract or a general catering manager role.
Core skills
Contract catering operations · Client reviews and KPI reporting Menu planning and costing · Food cost against a per-head budget Volume production planning · Hospitality and event catering for 20–400 HACCP and allergen management · Internal and client audits Supplier ordering and nominated supplier compliance · Staff scheduling Dietary and special diet provision · Procure Wizard · Nutritics
Experience
Catering Manager — corporate workplace restaurant, Reading Jan 2022 – present · Run a staff restaurant, coffee bar and hospitality service for a 1,400-head office, with a team of 16 across kitchen, counter and hospitality. · Hold the food cost to a per-head budget agreed with the client, reviewing weekly purchasing in Procure Wizard against the production plan. · Present a monthly client review covering spend, uptake, waste and feedback, and agree the following month’s promotions and menu changes. · Deliver hospitality for board lunches, all-hands events and a 400-guest summer party, costed and staffed from the same team. · Took the site through two unannounced internal audits and an environmental health inspection, owning the HACCP file and the allergen matrix. Deputy Catering Manager — secondary school contract, Oxford Sep 2019 – Dec 2021 · Oversaw lunch production for around 1,100 pupils a day to school food standards, with a four-week cycle menu costed in Nutritics. · Managed allergen and medical diet provision, keeping a named-pupil register reviewed each term with the school office. · Wrote the rota for 11 staff around term dates and inset days. Chef Manager — care home group, Swindon Mar 2017 – Aug 2019 · Ran a single-site kitchen producing three meals a day for 60 residents, including texture-modified and fortified diets. · Ordered from nominated suppliers within a weekly budget and reported variance to the regional manager. · Completed daily HACCP records, temperature logs and cleaning schedules.
Education and certifications
Level 3 Award in Supervising Food Safety in Catering — 2020 Level 3 Award in HACCP for Food Manufacturing and Catering — 2021 IOSH Managing Safely — 2022 COSHH Awareness — 2022 Level 2 Award in Allergen Awareness — 2023 First Aid at Work (3-day) — 2024 NVQ Level 3 in Professional Cookery — 2016
Additional
Systems: Procure Wizard (purchasing), Nutritics (allergen and nutrition data), Microsoft Excel (costing and uptake reporting) Checks: Enhanced DBS (schools), full UK driving licence
Templates that suit this example
- Executive — Competency groups suit a CV that is led by volumes, budgets and audit results rather than a skills list.
- Compact Scan — Dense and scannable, for a contract catering history with several sites and client changes.
- Classic — Formal enough for public sector and healthcare contracts, where the reader is often a procurement team.
Want this structure with your own experience in it?
Build your catering manager CVWhy each section is written that way
Professional summary
- Why it matters.
- Contract catering is sold on numbers, and the person reading your CV is usually an operations manager who thinks in meals per day, cost per head and contract value. The summary has to put you on that scale within two lines.
- A strong version.
- Sector, daily volume, team size, what sits on your budget, and the certifications that are a condition of the role. Then the kind of contract you want next.
- Common mistake.
- Describing yourself as a chef. If your last three roles were management, the summary should say so — a reader who sees "chef" first will assume you want a kitchen.
Core skills
- Why it matters.
- Catering managers are distinguished from restaurant managers by the client. Client reviews, KPI reporting, nominated supplier compliance and per-head budgets are the vocabulary that shows you have worked inside a contract.
- A strong version.
- The commercial controls you hold, the compliance you own, the volume range you have catered for, and the purchasing and nutrition systems you have actually used.
- Common mistake.
- A generic hospitality list — "customer service, teamwork, leadership". None of it tells an operations manager whether you can run a site they visit once a month.
Experience
- Why it matters.
- A workplace restaurant, a school and a care home are three different jobs with the same title. The sector, the volume and who the client is are what let a reader place you.
- A strong version.
- Meals per day, head count served, team size, the budget you worked to and the audits you took the site through. Where a figure was a target rather than a result, say so.
- Common mistake.
- Writing the kitchen bullets and leaving out the client. If you presented a monthly review, handled a complaint from the client, or retained a contract, that is the management evidence.
Compliance and certifications
- Why it matters.
- Contract caterers are audited by their own compliance teams, by the client and by environmental health. Level 3 food safety, HACCP and a health and safety qualification are usually expected before you are given a site.
- A strong version.
- Level 3 food safety, Level 3 HACCP, IOSH or an equivalent health and safety award, COSHH, allergen awareness and first aid, each dated. Mention any audit result you can attribute to your own site.
- Common mistake.
- Listing a Level 2 food safety certificate from ten years ago and nothing since. A reader will assume the rest has lapsed.
Additional
- Why it matters.
- Schools and healthcare need an enhanced DBS check, and multi-site roles need a driving licence. Saying so saves the reader a question.
- A strong version.
- Systems you can use on day one, the checks you already hold, and anything about mobility or availability that affects which contracts you can take.
- Common mistake.
- Listing hobbies here. On a management CV this space is for the practical things that decide whether you can start on a given site.
If your experience looks different
Most people are not the candidate in the example. Three common situations, and what to change for each.
First management role — moving up from chef or supervisor
Your summary. Say what you are stepping up from and to: "Chef manager with five years in care catering, looking for a first catering manager role on a single-site contract." A reader will assess you on the budget and compliance you already hold.
What to emphasise. Ordering within a budget, HACCP records you have owned, rotas you have written, dietary registers you have kept, and any time you covered the manager or spoke to the client.
Bullets you could adapt
- ·Ordered from nominated suppliers within a weekly budget of [X] and reported the variance to the regional manager.
- ·Covered the catering manager for [X] weeks, including the monthly client review and the staff rota.
- ·Kept the HACCP file, allergen matrix and special diet register for a site serving [X] meals a day.
Certifications. Level 3 Supervising Food Safety and Level 2 HACCP, then IOSH Managing Safely if the employer will fund it. They are the three most common conditions on a catering manager job advert.
Experienced manager — going for multi-site or general catering manager
Your summary. Shift the emphasis from running a site to running contracts. Lead with the number of sites, the combined contract value, the managers you have developed and the renewals or mobilisations you have been part of.
What to emphasise. Mobilising a new contract, retaining a contract at tender, managing site managers rather than staff, client escalations you resolved, and any P&L that was yours rather than a budget you were given.
Bullets you could adapt
- ·Mobilised a new [X]-site contract over [X] weeks, including recruitment, HACCP set-up and the first client review.
- ·Managed [X] site managers across [X] contracts with a combined annual value of [X].
- ·Prepared the operational section of a retender submission, and the contract was retained for a further [X] years.
Certifications. Level 4 Food Safety or a NEBOSH General Certificate carry weight at this level, alongside an ILM Level 3 or 5 in leadership and management if your employer offers it.
Moving into catering management from restaurants or another sector
Your summary. Lead with the budget, team and compliance responsibility you already hold, then state the move plainly. A restaurant manager or a hospital facilities supervisor is closer to this job than the title suggests; say what is new to you.
What to emphasise. Food cost or stock control, team size, rotas, health and safety duties, and any client or stakeholder reporting. Then the catering-specific training you have taken ahead of the move.
Bullets you could adapt
- ·Managed food and drink GP for a [X]-cover restaurant, with weekly stock counts and supplier ordering.
- ·Produced a monthly performance report for [X] stakeholders covering spend, service levels and complaints.
- ·Completed Level 3 Supervising Food Safety and Level 2 HACCP ahead of moving into contract catering.
Certifications. Level 3 Supervising Food Safety and Level 2 HACCP before you apply. Contract caterers can rarely give a site to someone without both.
Next steps
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