20 restaurant and food service skills for workers (2023)

Working in a restaurant is something more than11 million people in the United StatesYes. It's one of the most hands-on jobs you can have — and therefore equips employees with a wide range of restaurant skills.

As with any job, a restaurant job provides skills and processes that you can add to your resume, as well as soft skills that will make you a better worker and a more well-rounded person.

If you're new to the industry and wondering what experience you'll gain in a restaurant job, or if you're an industry vet looking to clearly communicate your skills and abilities on a restaurant resume, read on for 20 Different Skills Learned Working in a Restaurant. Plus tips on how to write a great restaurant resume to land the job in the first place.

5 restaurant and food service skills for your resume

If you're applying for a new restaurant job and need to outline and organize your tenure in a single resume, consider applying your experience to these five restaurant skill areas.

1. Training and certification in health, allergens and food safety

cross contamination. pours. undercooked Commercial cookware safety. food allergies. Misunderstanding any one of them in a specific role can be disastrous.

Many restaurant employees are required or choose to become certified in one or more of these areas. Examples are aTIPS Certification,ServSafe Allergen, or a locally recognized restaurant safety course. If you've already done this, list the courses you took, the certification you earned, and/or the name of your educator/institution for added credibility.

2. Gastronomy, cuisine and hotel technology

In the constant expansionTechnology by Restaurantlandschaft, Employees are qualified to some extent with aVariety of different technologies and softwaretools in the workplace. What these technologies are depends entirely on the role, but here are some of the more well-known examples:

• Server and front-of-house roles tend to be familiar with point-of-sale (POS) technology,planning software, online ordering integrations, and maybe even booking software.
• Chefs and back-of-house staff are often involvedinventory management softwareand kitchen display technology.
• Managers have to deal with all of the above, plus restaurant accounting software, managing online reviews, and more.

3. Cooking and preparing food

Back-of-house roles involve constant time spent hovering over a grill, standing next to an oven, and busy conjuring a cutting board. A resume for a kitchen or chef job should include specific experience and familiarity in the following areas, where applicable:

• Food preparation of certain menu items
• Cook specific menu items
• Creating recipe cards
• Menu item creation and menu creation

4. Flavor profile

Restaurants are starting to realize that education is one of the best ways to motivate and retain employees. For examplebranchin Watertown, Massachusetts, employees not only attend industry-relevant courses, but also take turns teaching them.

These increasingly popular courses and programs for restaurant staff complement traditional training and equip staff with broad taste profiles for different types of foods and dishes, as well as beer, wine and spirits tastings. This allows employees to provide informed opinions on these topics and offer targeted recommendations and matches.

Whether in a formal class or just years of experience, most restaurant workers go home on their last day with a little more experience in flavor profiles. Even if you picked up the skill at a fast food restaurant, you probably know more about spices, meat, condiments, and certain types of cooking oil than the average person.

5. Business knowledge

Restaurants offer a unique upward dynamic, where hustle and hard work before the right eye is immediately noticed and rewarded. One of the best ways to advance in hospitality is through experience.

The more industry experience you have, the more likely you are to improve your business skills and be able to put them to practical use on the job. You can think of this skill in two different ways:

overall experience: Refers to less formal business education. Examples are general understanding of finance, customer satisfaction, organizational hierarchy, and career progression.

Practice experience: This is where it gets more technical. For example - business classes orrestaurant course, restaurant experienceopen book management, or practical business projects assigned to you. Basically, if your experience led to direct changes in the company or if you involve a crowd, this skill fits there.

Literature recommendations: 17 Restaurant Interview Questions (and How to Answer Them)

Restaurant Resume Sample and Resume Template

Do not know where to start? Here are some examples of resumes geared towards restaurant positions. You can download these resume templates for your own job search. These are real resumes from real restaurant employees, but we've changed the names and locations.

A simple and modern resume template design. Edit and download theNon-Canva model.

Or use a more traditional but easy to read restaurantresume template designfor Google Docs.

Download sample restaurant resume

15 "soft" food service skills for your resume [list]

In addition to the technical skills you'll acquire while working in a restaurant, there are many complementary "soft skills" you'll acquire on the job. This includes the way you interact with others and how quickly you learn new things and complete tasks. While it may seem "cute" to list soft skills on your resume, you can use your past accomplishments to show that you possess these traits.

If you are just starting out in restaurant work, make sure you brush up on those restaurant skills. At the very least, basic comfort with everyone is required the first day, but don't worry - you'll quickly get better at each one every time you log in.

1. Patience

We wouldn't keep you waiting. Patience is a crucial skill in a restaurant. Between customer complaints, mistakes by coworkers, and long stretches without interruption, any restaurant job requires you to be physically and emotionally patient. All while keeping a smile on your face and a welcoming manner.

Remember, the customer is always right! Keeping a cool head when things escalate prevents things from getting worse. It also helps disgruntled customers save face and get their shit together.

2. Multitasking

Whether you're preparing multiple dishes in the kitchen or seating multiple people at their tables, you'll never be "doing just one thing" in your restaurant job - which is why multitasking is one of the most important restaurant skills.

Accomplishing these tasks is a lifelong skill that can be valuable for any career, but this is easier said than done. "Multitasking is not an innate skill.. We think we're better at multitasking than we really are. That's why it's so important to practice it,” says Dotan Egozi, Senior Project Manager at monday.com.

Waiters, bartenders and managers have to deal with numerous customer requests. The trick is to dedicate yourself to all of them without losing focus on any one of them. Not exactly for the faint of heart, but when mastered, multitasking maximizes efficiency and productivity without sacrificing the dining experience.

3. Mental arithmetic

One of the most valuable but underrated restaurant skills learned on the job is the ability to do quick mental math. Cashiers and waiters reading this sentence can probably tell that change on a $6.78 check on a $20 bill is ten, three ones, two dimes, and two cents before someone with no restaurant experience reads it. this sentence to the end.

Even at the back of the house, staff must routinely check incoming orders to ensure there aren't too many steaks on the grill or enough chicken wings in the fryer.

And you thought you would never use math after graduating from school.

4. Communication

Communication skills are essential if you want to survive working in a restaurant. This ability has two facets, both of which are extremely important:

employee communication: The constantly moving parts in a restaurant can still get confusing due to a lack of communication from the staff. Servers need to know the best way to let other servers know that a table is calling them. You need to be able to tell the kitchen staff that the boy at table four has a severe soy allergy.

Meanwhile, the back of the house needs to know to let the staff knowwhat became 86'ed. The server can then avoid upsetting the woman who cannot eat the swordfish she so craved. Understanding and adhering to these best employee communication methods and channels is critical to smoothing restaurant operations.

guest communication: Guests need to know they are welcome and valued, and it's every employee's job to make sure the truth comes out clearly. Things you don't think are important, like tone of voice, facial expressions or word choice, can have a big impact on a guest's experience. That's why customer service skills are essential when working on the front of house.

5. Attention to detail

It's your job to ask the customer who hasn't touched the plate if there's anything you can do to improve their experience. It's your job to ask the waiter if he meant pickles when he added peppers to the burger order.

Triple checking orders, don't forget to send that extra order to the kitchen, add that final garnish before it becomes ingrained in your muscle memory - it's all part of the job.

6. speed

Efficient service not only makes guests happy, it also increasesRestaurant table turnaround time- This means that the restaurant can serve even more customers at each shift.

The trick to mastering this time management skill is to be quick without being pushy. Preparing a guest's plate too quickly can compromise the appearance and quality of the meal. Immediately showing up at a table and asking what they want seems pushy. Find the sweet spot between aggressive and lazy to achieve optimal restaurant speed.

7. Kindness

Unless you work inDick's last resort, Being kind to your customers is a plus in any restaurant job—or any job in the service industry.⁶

Of course, if guests are intentionally unpleasant, rude, or confrontational, it's time to involve management to try to defuse the situation. But in all other cases, a positive tone of voice, a smiling face and a helpful, first-guest attitude will take you far in this industry.

8. Listen

There's a lot of noise in a restaurant, but that doesn't stop active listening.

All restaurant staff need to listen to customers during their visit, but there's more to it than that. Everyone with authority to make decisions in a restaurant needs to listen andCollect guest feedback, reviews and employees to ensure the business runs smoothly and continues to grow. Waiters and chefs need to listen to feedback from their managers to ensure they are doing their jobs well and to know where they can improve.

9. Confidence

In this industry, professional success depends a lot on others. Back of House must trust Front of House to send correct orders and clarify changes. The front of house must rely on the back of house to cook delicious meals consistently and without errors. Management must trust that everyone takes their job seriously to keep the business running.

The key here is to always adopt positive intentions. If something doesn't feel right about a colleague who isn't on their best game, it could be more of a personal issue than laziness. Again, if something is interfering with your job performance, you should trust your manager enough to explain what's going on so you don't seem unfocused or disinterested.

10. Stress management

Anyone who has ever worked an hour in a restaurant knows how stressful it can be. A shift can quickly evolve from a slow night to a queue at the door without warning. You have to be able to smile and deliver exceptional results either way.

Being able to maintain composure and provide excellent service, regardless of the circumstances, develops the crucial skill of stress management. You can't last two seconds in a restaurant without them.

11. Physical resistance

Believe it or not, there are over 2 million Google search results for the term "bartender injuries".

This is because bartenders - like all restaurant workers - are on their feet for long periods of time and constantly working with their hands. Working in a restaurant is more physically demanding than you might think, so fitness and stamina are key.

12. Cleaning

My time in a restaurant has taught me one simple fact: there's always something to clean. Cleanliness affects both presentation and safety in a restaurant and is therefore one of the restaurant skills that has the greatest impact on the customer experience.

Plates, tables, surfaces, boards, grills - you name it. Working in a restaurant requires you to know how to recognize when something needs cleaning and, depending on your role, how to clean it well.

13. Care

With a constant rotation of new faces in and out of the industry, there's always an opportunity for a seasoned pro to show a novice the ropes.

Mentoring is one of the most rewarding parts of any job. A mentoring role at a restaurant – official or unofficial – can quickly qualify you for a position as a restaurant manager or staff coach. It is also personally rewarding and makes the mentor more accountable, accountable and invested in the team.

14. Memorization

Over the months or years you work in a restaurant, you begin to memorize a memorized list of everything on the menu and all the ingredients - which is useful for questions about food allergies, drink pairings,stimulating upselling ideasand replacement ideas.

On a micro level, you also need to remember the small details about the orders you send or prepare, as well as the individual guest orders that you failed to take down. When you work in a full-service restaurant, you often have to remember the daily and weekly specials.

15. Teamwork

Working in a restaurant creates a unique, familiar and collaborative dynamic between you and your colleagues. With an open mind and a great group of professionals, this leads to a solid understanding and appreciation of teamwork.

Bringing soft skills to any restaurant is more than welcome. Positive teamwork creates strong camaraderie and keeps more employees happy. This can help extend itaverage length of service three months for a restaurant workerand lower replacement costs.

Literature recommendations:

Make your food service resume special

Let's face it - managers don't read every resume word for word. Most will just glance at your resume, which is why it's important to quickly show that you're the best candidate. Here are some tips to stand out from the crowd.

Include only relevant experiences

6 seconds is all you get on averageto impress the recruiter. Narrow your CV down to the most important points. Your experience as a barista? Perfect. That summer show where you and your uncle were painting houses? Probably not.

Likewise, unless you have no other background, omit any work experience from 10-15 years ago. If this is your first time in a hospitality role, highlight transferable skills from previous jobs. Check out the ones mentioned above for inspiration.

Adapt your CV to the job advertisement

Show yourself from your best side. Don't give the same resume to 50 companies. Every restaurant has different values, expectations and levels of service. A plant-based QSR might want to hear about your passion for sustainability. An upscale steakhouse might be more interested in your wine knowledge.

Larger restaurant chains receive thousands of job seekers and often use aApplicant tracking system. These systems check job description keywords, so it's helpful to reuse the same language on your resume. If you are applying for a senior position, do the same with your cover letter.

Highlight your achievements

Rather than listing the day-to-day tasks from your previous roles, focus on the impact you've had on the company. Any form of recognition deserves to be highlighted, such as employee of the month or tip. It doesn't have to be a prize. Maybe one of your suggestions madeMore efficient kitchen layout. Perhaps your quick thinking helped to smooth out an argument with a VIP guest.

Make it easy on the eyes

People eat with their eyes first. The same idea applies to reading. When information is organized in a visually appealing way, it is easier to digest. You can findfree resume templates on canvaif you are not artistically inclined. A rule of thumb:

• Don't use too many fonts. Two should be enough.
• Don't use too many colors that can be distracting.
• Make it easy to find important information like headlines and job titles. Make them bold or increase the font size. (However, don't overdo it with bolding, italics or underlining)!
• White space is important. Your resume shouldn't feel cramped, which brings me back to the first point: relevance. The information. Just.

The first impression counts. You only have a short amount of time to get the hiring manager to notice you, so get his attention. Awaken their curiosity so that they read and invite you for an interview.

Hard work and experience build your skills

Although millions of people call a restaurant their workplace, the restaurant workforce suffers from a notoriously high turnover rate and often low levels of expertise and education.

Those who make it their mission to learn and develop new restaurant skills stand out from the crowd of restaurant workers. You can enjoy a long, happy and prosperous career in the hospitality industry.

If you are interested in working in a restaurant, read our blog post to learn more about the different positions, what to expect, how to choose the right restaurant to work for and how to land the job:Working in a restaurant: everything you need to know