The full example
Everything below is fictional. The venues are described rather than named, and the achievements are the kind of thing a real food and beverage manager does — written the way they should appear on a CV, not inflated.
Food and beverage manager CV — example
Header
[Full Name] [Town, UK] · [phone] · [email]
Professional summary
Food and beverage manager with nine years in branded and independent hotels, currently heading the department at a 200-bedroom city hotel with a restaurant, lobby bar, room service and conference and banqueting for up to 300. Accountable for the departmental budget, food and beverage GP, a team of 48 and brand audit results. Looking for a larger F&B operation or a cluster role across two properties.
Core skills
Departmental budget and monthly P&L review · Food and beverage GP Banqueting and conference delivery from function sheet to invoice Menu engineering with the head chef · Beverage list and supplier terms Forecasting outlet covers from occupancy and the events diary Rota and labour planning across four outlets · Recruitment and appraisals HACCP ownership, allergen matrix and brand standards audits Systems: Opera PMS, Simphony EPOS, Fourth (purchasing and labour)
Experience
Food and Beverage Manager — 200-bedroom branded city hotel, Leeds
Feb 2022 – present
· Run four outlets — 110-cover restaurant, lobby bar, room service and
conference and banqueting for up to 300 — with four outlet managers
reporting in and a total team of 48.
· Own the departmental budget, reviewing the monthly P&L with the finance
manager and explaining labour, GP and revenue variances to the GM.
· Forecast outlet covers each week from the occupancy report in Opera and the
events diary, and set the labour plan in Fourth against it.
· Reworked the banqueting menus and beverage packages with the head chef and
the events team, so each tier priced to a known GP before it was sold.
· Lead the department through the brand standards audit and the annual
environmental health inspection, holding the HACCP and allergen records.
Restaurant and Bars Manager — 120-bedroom hotel, York Aug 2019 – Jan 2022
· Ran the restaurant, bar and terrace across breakfast, lunch and dinner,
with a team of 22 and two supervisors.
· Held beverage GP to target through weekly stock counts, a line-by-line
variance review and a renegotiated wine list with the supplier.
· Took over room service during a restructure and rewrote the order and
delivery procedure so trays reached rooms within the quoted time.
Banqueting Supervisor — conference hotel, Harrogate May 2017 – Jul 2019
· Set up and ran dinners and conferences for up to 250 from the function
sheet, briefing casual staff and managing the running order on the night.
· Reconciled bar takings and consumption against the function invoice.Education and certifications
Personal Licence (APLH Level 2) — 2018 Level 3 Award in Supervising Food Safety in Catering — 2020 Level 3 Award in HACCP for Catering — 2021 IOSH Managing Safely — 2022 WSET Level 2 Award in Wines — 2019 First Aid at Work (3-day) — 2023 Foundation Degree in Hospitality Management — 2017
Additional
Systems: Opera PMS, Simphony EPOS, Fourth, function sheet software Availability: full flexibility; willing to relocate within the North
Templates that suit this example
- Executive — Competency groups suit a CV that has to cover four outlets, a budget and a team of forty in one page.
- Classic Formal — Each role in its own card, which reads well for a branded hotel group with a formal hiring process.
- Compact Ledger — A dense, ruled layout for a long hotel history that would otherwise spill onto a third page.
Want this structure with your own experience in it?
Build your food and beverage manager CVWhy each section is written that way
Professional summary
- Why it matters.
- An F&B manager is hired by a general manager or a regional director who is thinking in outlets, revenue and headcount. Give them the shape of the operation you run in the first two lines.
- A strong version.
- Bedroom count, the outlets you run, banqueting capacity, team size and what you are accountable for — budget, GP, audits. Then the move you want.
- Common mistake.
- Writing it like a restaurant manager summary. If the summary only mentions one restaurant, the reader will assume you have never run a bar, room service or a banqueting floor alongside it.
Core skills
- Why it matters.
- The vocabulary that places you at department-head level is budget, P&L, GP, forecasting from occupancy, and banqueting delivery. A skills list without those words reads as an outlet manager CV.
- A strong version.
- The commercial controls you hold, the systems you hold them in, and the compliance you own. Name the PMS, the EPOS and the labour or purchasing system — hotel groups search for them.
- Common mistake.
- A list of soft skills — "leadership", "communication", "guest focus". They are assumed at this level. The reader is checking you can be handed a budget and an audit.
Experience
- Why it matters.
- Hotel F&B jobs differ enormously by property. A 200-bedroom conference hotel and a 40-bedroom country house both have an F&B manager, and they are not the same job. Outlets, capacities and reporting lines are what distinguish you.
- A strong version.
- Each role with bedrooms, outlets, banqueting capacity and team size, then what you own: budget, GP, forecasting, menus, audits. Where a figure is a target you worked to, say so.
- Common mistake.
- Describing a single busy night instead of the operation. "Delivered a 300-cover gala dinner" is a banqueting supervisor bullet; the manager bullet is how the department prices, staffs and delivers them every week.
Banqueting and events
- Why it matters.
- In most hotels the conference and banqueting side is where the F&B profit is, and it is the part of the job that outlet managers have usually not done. Show it explicitly.
- A strong version.
- Capacity, the range of events, how you work from the function sheet, how packages are priced to GP, and the handover with the sales and events team.
- Common mistake.
- Leaving banqueting to a single word in the skills list. If you have run it, it deserves bullets; if you have not, say what you have done nearest to it.
Compliance and certifications
- Why it matters.
- A department head holds the HACCP plan, the allergen matrix, the licence and the health and safety duty for forty-odd people. Hotel groups need to see each of them.
- A strong version.
- APLH, Level 3 food safety, HACCP, IOSH or an equivalent health and safety qualification, first aid, and WSET if you own the beverage list, each with a year.
- Common mistake.
- Listing Level 2 food safety at department-head level. It signals you have not moved past floor-level training, even if you manage people who hold Level 3.
If your experience looks different
Most people are not the candidate in the example. Three common situations, and what to change for each.
First department-head role — moving up from outlet or restaurant manager
Your summary. Say what you run now and what you are applying for: "Restaurant and bars manager at a 120-bedroom hotel, looking for a first F&B manager role." The reader will assess you on the breadth you have already covered.
What to emphasise. Every outlet you have run or covered beyond the restaurant — bar, room service, breakfast, terrace, banqueting cover — plus any budget, forecasting or audit work you did for the department head.
Bullets you could adapt
- ·Covered the F&B manager for [X] weeks, including the monthly P&L review and the labour forecast for four outlets.
- ·Ran room service and the lobby bar alongside the restaurant, with a combined team of [X].
- ·Prepared the department for the brand standards audit, owning the restaurant and bar checklists.
Certifications. Level 3 Food Safety and a HACCP qualification before you apply, plus APLH if you do not already hold it. They are the three a GM will check first.
Experienced F&B manager — going for cluster, director or a flagship property
Your summary. Shift from running the department to shaping it. Lead with revenue band, the number of outlets and properties, the managers you have developed and any concept or refurbishment you delivered.
What to emphasise. Multi-property or cluster responsibility, capital projects, new outlet openings, supplier contract negotiation at group level, and the outlet managers you promoted.
Bullets you could adapt
- ·Opened a new [X]-cover restaurant concept within the hotel, from kitchen design sign-off to launch week rota.
- ·Covered F&B across two properties for [X] months, standardising the beverage list and the ordering process.
- ·Developed [X] outlet managers, two of whom moved into F&B manager roles within the group.
Certifications. WSET Level 3 if beverage is a large share of revenue, a Level 4 food safety or HACCP qualification, and any revenue or finance training the group offers.
Moving into hotel F&B from contract catering, restaurants or events
Your summary. Lead with the parts that transfer — budget, GP, volume, team size, compliance — and name what is new: usually room service, the PMS and the relationship with rooms and events. A contract catering site manager is closer to this job than the title suggests.
What to emphasise. Budget and GP accountability, multi-unit or multi-service delivery, large-scale event catering, HACCP ownership and the team you ran.
Bullets you could adapt
- ·Managed a contract catering site serving [X] meals a day across a restaurant, café and hospitality service, accountable for the site P&L.
- ·Delivered event catering for up to [X] guests, pricing menus to a target GP and running the floor on the day.
- ·Held HACCP and allergen responsibility for a unit with a team of [X], with a clean audit record.
Certifications. APLH if you have not held a licence, Level 3 Food Safety and HACCP. If you can, add a short PMS familiarisation course so the hotel vocabulary is not new on day one.
Next steps
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