How to Add Restaurant Skills to Your Resume Like a Pro

If you’re in the market for a new job, you’ll want to embellish your resume with a pinch of restaurant skills. Whether you’re an expert server, a savvy manager, or a chef extraordinaire, you should show your prowess to recruiters and potential employers who haven’t had the opportunity to see you in action.

In this article, we’ll show you how to be precise when adding restaurant skills to your resume, yet to do it with a dash of flair and creativity. So, sharpen your knives and pencils, and let’s find out how to use your skills to write a five-star resume!

What Are Restaurant Skills?

Restaurant skills are distinct abilities and competencies used by professionals in the fast-paced and customer-centric food service industry. They encompass a wide array of hard and soft skills that range from communication to math and knife skills.

For example, servers and waiters need to have exceptional customer service skills, attention to detail, and communication prowess, among other abilities. On the flip side, restaurant manager skills include time management skills, problem-solving, and organization.

These abilities are crucial to ensuring the proper operation of restaurants and providing customers with exceptional experiences. They are involved in everything from resource and food procurement to food preparation, customer serving, and more.

Since the emphasis of the restaurant business is on food and service quality, these skills often have a direct impact on the organization’s reputation, the loyalty of their patrons, and, ultimately, business success.

Whether you’re looking for a gig in a fast-food venue or a position in a Michelin 3-star establishment, knowing how to add restaurant skills to your resume can make or break your job application.

How to Present Restaurant Skills on Your Resume

There are two main methods of presenting restaurant skills on your resume, and using a combination of both maximizes your chances of impressing hiring managers.

The first method is to create a dedicated section with a list of restaurant skills for your resume. The trick here is to research the restaurant that’s hiring and their job ad to figure out which skills they are looking for. That way, you’ll be able to create a tailored collection of abilities you know hiring managers want to see in candidates.

It’s also important to keep hard and soft skills separate. Restaurant skills encompass both of these, but they are quite different in nature. So, highlight job-specific, hard skills first, and then include several highly sought-after soft, transferable skills.

The second way of presenting skills on your resume includes mentioning them throughout the document. When you connect a relevant skill to a specific accomplishment, you make it concrete and believable. The best places for it are your resume summary and work experience sections.

Here’s an example of a candidate emphasizing a notable skill alongside one of their prominent accomplishments:

9+ Restaurant Skills For Your Resume

Let’s check out some of the most prominent restaurant skills. You’ll learn why they are important for your resume and how to showcase them best.

#1. Customer Service

Customer service is the core restaurant skill in the line of work that revolves around interacting with patrons and ensuring they get the best possible experience. This ability is utilized every step of the way, from receiving reservations and greeting visitors to serving them food, catering to their needs, and finally issuing receipts.

Professionals with strong customer service skills can help their organization improve its reputation and build a loyal customer base. Patrons who leave with positive impressions can further increase the restaurant’s revenue through word-of-mouth marketing.

Finally, optimally highlighting your customer service skills also indicates a strong work ethic, communication skills, patience, attentiveness, and several other valuable abilities.

Here’s an example of how you can emphasize your customer service skills in your resume:

#2. Communication

Communication skills for restaurant professionals are essential for interaction with both customers and coworkers.

For example, a waiter needs to be able to properly convey details about the menu while addressing any potential questions or concerns a patron may have. After that, they need to relay the necessary information to the kitchen or the bar.

On the other hand, restaurant managers leverage their communication skills to ensure smooth operations and a harmonious work environment for the staff. Therefore, effective communication is the core teamwork skill that contributes to the overall efficiency of the entire restaurant.

Here’s one way to highlight it on a resume:

#3. Multitasking

Fast-paced restaurant environments often result in employees having to juggle multiple tasks at any given moment. That makes multitasking one of the key skills needed in restaurants. For instance, the ability to simultaneously serve food, take orders, and address any inquiries is a vital ability for servers.

This skill is all the more important during peak hours, when there are tight schedules and plenty of customers. Professionals adept at multitasking can ensure that everyone receives timely service while evenly distributing the workload between different staff members.

When underlining multitasking on your resume, you can show it through achievements that demonstrate your ability to handle different responsibilities simultaneously. Here’s an example:

#4. Organization

Alongside multitasking, organizational skills are essential in handling the numerous tasks and responsibilities that regularly occur in restaurants. These skills help restaurant staff prioritize their assignments to better account for existing conditions, coordinate with others, maintain a clean environment, and provide punctual service.

A team that consists of well-organized professionals can operate at peak efficiency with minimal chances of making mistakes. That reflects positively on the customer experience and, ultimately, on the overall performance of the restaurant.

Let’s see an example of organizational skills demonstrated in a resume:

#5. Attention to Detail

Attention to detail gives food service industry professionals the ability to manage many different aspects. It plays a vital role in everything from overseeing internal operations to serving customers, ensuring accuracy and precision.

This skill is essential to delivering outstanding service that exceeds customers’ expectations. A restaurant whose professionals have exceptional attention to detail can establish itself as a reputable venue that provides premium dining experiences.

Furthermore, attention to detail is vital in avoiding mistakes, optimizing quality control, ensuring compliance with various policies, and maximizing efficiency.

Here’s a resume example of this restaurant skill:

#6. Knife Skills

Knife skills are critical restaurant kitchen staff skills. They represent the ability to use various knives to chop, dice, slice, and cut different foods effectively. This directly impacts the quality of the dishes in terms of both taste and visual presentation.

Moreover, professionals adept at using knives can prepare food faster and with fewer mishaps, resulting in improved efficiency. Mastering knife skills contributes to consistency in the quality of food and its texture, as well as the size of the portions. It also vastly reduces the risk of accidents and injuries, which are always a concern with these sharp utensils.

Let’s see how you can demonstrate your knife skills on your resume:

#7. Math Skills

Math skills are vital in the restaurant business. Their application ranges from handling transactions and managing inventory to determining portion sizes and doing finances.

Proficiency in mathematics helps professionals accurately manage bills, costs, budgets, and more. All of that has a direct impact on the restaurant’s profitability.

Let’s check out a resume example that features math skills:

#8. Leadership

Leadership skills give individuals the ability to guide others, motivate them to work toward common goals, and manage teams to function effectively. In fast-paced restaurant environments, individuals with strong leadership prowess can quickly organize their coworkers, manage their stress levels, and maintain a positive atmosphere.

Apart from being a typical manager skill, leadership is also a good restaurant skill for chefs, waiters, and other staff members. It allows them to train less experienced individuals, delegate tasks to improve efficiency, make quick decisions during peak hours, and overall inspire everyone to perform at their best.

Here’s how you can emphasize leadership skills in your resume:

#9. Problem-Solving

Problem-solving is a necessary skill in a dynamic restaurant environment where new and unique challenges keep coming up on a daily basis. Whether there’s a problem in the kitchen or an issue with a customer, it’s problem-solving skills that allow professionals to handle errors and conflicts quickly and efficiently.

Adept problem-solvers can rapidly assess situations and come up with optimal solutions on the spot. That way, they can keep customer satisfaction at the highest level while keeping the operations running smoothly.

Here’s how you can highlight your problem-solving skills on your resume:

How to Enhance Your Restaurant Skills

Enhancing your restaurant skills is vital to boosting your employability and improving your chances of advancing your career. Here are some tips to help you start improving right away:

Closing Thoughts

Picking the right skills for your CV or resume and then adding them properly is tricky, but it can be simple once you know what you’re doing. Remember, the key is to be relevant and precise and to show solid proof of your competence through experience.

Furthermore, it’s important to keep working on your skillset and to improve continuously. Whether we’re talking about hard skills such as math knowledge and proficiency in knives or interpersonal abilities like communication and leadership, enhancing them boosts your overall competence, improves employability, and increases your chances of getting promoted.

By following the tips and strategies outlined in this article, you’ll be one step closer to an interview and then your dream job. Best of luck!