The full example
Everything below is fictional. The venues are described rather than named, and the achievements are the kind of thing a real commis chef does — written the way they should appear on a CV, not inflated.
Commis chef CV — example
Header
[Full Name] [Town, UK] · [phone] · [email]
Professional summary
Commis chef with two years in professional kitchens, currently on the veg and larder sections of a 160-cover hotel brasserie in Cardiff and in the second year of a Level 2 Professional Cookery apprenticeship. Reliable on 6am breakfast starts, quick on knife work, and used to being handed the prep list and getting through it without being chased. Looking for a commis role in a kitchen that will push me towards chef de partie.
Core skills
Knife skills and vegetable prep · Stocks, basic sauces and dressings Mise en place to a prep list · Breakfast service (eggs, grill, buffet refill) Labelling, dating and stock rotation · Receiving and checking deliveries Following spec cards and plating photos · Section support through service Cleaning and close-down to the schedule · COSHH and allergen awareness
Experience
Commis Chef — 160-cover hotel brasserie, Cardiff Apr 2025 – present · Prep the veg and larder sections for lunch and dinner from the written prep list, and hand over what is done and what is short. · Cook eggs to order and keep the hot buffet stocked through breakfast service for up to 200 residents. · Make the base stocks, dressings and purées for the day to the spec cards, and label and date everything that goes into the walk-in. · Take the morning deliveries, probe the chilled items and put the stock away with the oldest at the front. · Step onto the larder section to plate starters on the busiest Saturday nights, with the chef de partie checking the first few plates. Apprentice Chef — 90-cover gastropub, Penarth Oct 2024 – Mar 2025 · Rotated through veg, larder and the pastry fridge as part of the apprenticeship, logging hours against the course. · Portioned and wrapped the butcher’s delivery to the spec weights. · Ran the close-down checklist with the kitchen porter at the end of service. Kitchen Porter — café and bakery, Cardiff Jun 2024 – Sep 2024 · Washed up through the lunch rush and helped with sandwich prep when the counter was short.
Education and certifications
Level 2 Award in Food Safety in Catering — 2024 Level 2 Award in Allergen Awareness — 2025 COSHH Awareness — 2024 Manual Handling — 2024 Level 2 Diploma in Professional Cookery (apprenticeship) — in progress, due 2026 GCSEs including English, Maths and Food Preparation and Nutrition — 2024
Additional
Availability: early starts, split shifts and weekends Own knives and whites · Full, clean driving licence
Templates that suit this example
- Essential — One column, standard headings — easy to fill when the history is short, and nothing to distract from the certificates.
- Floor — Certificates sit in an emphasis row near the top, which is where a head chef looks first on a junior CV.
- Essential Serif — The same plain structure with a quieter typeface, for hotel kitchens that expect a formal document.
Want this structure with your own experience in it?
Build your commis chef CVWhy each section is written that way
Professional summary
- Why it matters.
- A head chef hiring a commis is checking three things: will you turn up for a 6am start, can you get through a prep list, and are you going to learn. The summary has to answer all three in a few lines.
- A strong version.
- The sections you have been on, the kitchen size, the qualification in progress with its date, and one honest line about what you are like to work with. Four or five sentences.
- Common mistake.
- "Aspiring chef with a passion for food, eager to learn". It is what every commis writes, and it tells a head chef nothing about whether you can be left with the veg prep.
Core skills
- Why it matters.
- At commis level nobody expects range. They expect the basics done properly — knife work, stocks, labelling and dating, deliveries — and the skills block is where you show you know what the basics are.
- A strong version.
- Specific, checkable things: knife skills, stocks and dressings, breakfast service, labelling and rotation, deliveries, close-down. Name the spec cards and the prep list; it shows you have worked to them.
- Common mistake.
- Listing cuisines you like cooking at home, or "creativity". A head chef wants to know you can dice an onion evenly and date a container, and will teach you the rest.
Experience
- Why it matters.
- A commis history is short, so every line has to carry something. The reader is looking for scale, early starts, deliveries handled and the first moments you were trusted on a section through service.
- A strong version.
- Covers, the sections you prepped, breakfast and service detail, deliveries and stock rotation, and the first time you plated through a service. Include the kitchen porter job — it shows you have done the hours.
- Common mistake.
- Padding a short history with a paragraph per job, or leaving out the kitchen porter and café work because it feels too junior. Short, specific bullets beat long general ones.
Certifications and qualifications
- Why it matters.
- Level 2 Food Safety is the certificate a kitchen cannot legally do without, and an apprenticeship or college course in progress tells the head chef you are not going to drift off after three months.
- A strong version.
- Level 2 Food Safety, allergen awareness, COSHH and manual handling with years, then the cookery qualification with its expected completion date if it is still in progress.
- Common mistake.
- Leaving a qualification off because it is not finished. "In progress, due 2026" is a strength on a commis CV; a blank is a question.
If your experience looks different
Most people are not the candidate in the example. Three common situations, and what to change for each.
No experience — first commis role from school or college
Your summary. Say plainly that this would be your first kitchen job and lead with the three things a head chef is checking: early starts, reliability and whether you have done any time in a working kitchen at all, even a college one.
What to emphasise. College kitchen hours, a food technology GCSE, work experience placements, family or pop-up cooking, part-time jobs with early starts, and the food safety certificate you already hold.
Bullets you could adapt
- ·Completed [X] hours of practical kitchen time on a Level 1 cookery course, covering knife skills, stocks and basic pastry.
- ·Did a [X]-week work experience placement in a [X]-cover restaurant kitchen, prepping vegetables and washing up through service.
- ·Worked [X] early-morning shifts a week in a bakery or café alongside school.
Certifications. Level 2 Food Safety before you apply — it is an afternoon online and it is often the difference between two commis applications with no experience on either.
Some experience — going for chef de partie
Your summary. Name the step: "Commis chef with two years across larder and veg, looking for a first chef de partie role." Then make the bullets prove you have already run a section on your own, even for one service.
What to emphasise. Sections you have held through service without a CDP beside you, prep lists you have written rather than followed, HACCP records you have completed, and any commis or kitchen porter you have shown the ropes.
Bullets you could adapt
- ·Held the larder section on my own through [X] covers on Saturday nights for the last [X] months.
- ·Wrote the next-day prep list for the section when the chef de partie was on leave.
- ·Completed the fridge and probe temperature logs for the section every shift.
Certifications. Level 3 Food Safety and a Level 2 HACCP award. They are the two certificates that move a commis CV onto the CDP pile.
Moving into kitchens from another job
Your summary. Name the transferable spine — early starts, pace, working to a checklist, food handling if you have done it — and state the move directly. A supermarket bakery, a sandwich production line or a care home kitchen is closer to a commis role than it sounds.
What to emphasise. Any food handling at all, shift patterns you have already worked, standards or checklists you worked to, and what you have done in a kitchen since deciding to change — a short course, a weekend shift, a trial.
Bullets you could adapt
- ·Worked [X] early shifts a week on a supermarket bakery counter, baking off and labelling to date codes.
- ·Prepared and served food for [X] residents a day in a care home kitchen, working to allergen and dietary sheets.
- ·Completed Level 2 Food Safety and [X] trial shifts in a pub kitchen ahead of applying.
Certifications. Level 2 Food Safety and allergen awareness first. If you held COSHH or manual handling in a previous job, they transfer straight across.
Next steps
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