Line Cook Resume Bullet Points
17 examples, each shown weak and strong
A strong line cook bullet names the kitchen, your station and the covers on a busy night, then shows how your tickets, prep and waste held up. Ticket times, waste logs, clean inspections and the cooks you trained tell a chef whether you can hold a station on a Saturday.
How to use these
- Every [X%], [N] and [$X] is a blank for your own figure. Fill it from your records, or a careful estimate you could explain in an interview. If you have no number, describe the result in words.
- Only use a bullet for work you actually did. Change the details until it describes your job, not this page.
- The ticks are three plain checks done in code: it opens with an action verb, it has a number, and it says what changed. Strong bullets pass all three; weak ones miss at least one.
Station and volume
Chefs read for the stations you worked, the covers on a busy night and how your tickets held up through the push.
Weak
Worked the line in a busy restaurant.
- ✗ Action verb
- ✗ Number
- ✗ Result
Strong
Ran saute on a [N]-station line through [N]-cover Saturday nights, holding average ticket time under [N] minutes and cutting refires on my station by [X%].
- ✓ Action verb
- ✓ Number
- ✓ Result
Weak
Cooked on the grill station.
- ✓ Action verb
- ✗ Number
- ✗ Result
Strong
Cooked steaks and chops to temp on grill for [N] covers a night, reducing temperature send-backs from [N] a week to [N] by probing every thick cut.
- ✓ Action verb
- ✓ Number
- ✓ Result
Weak
Able to work multiple stations.
- ✓ Action verb
- ✗ Number
- ✗ Result
Strong
Cross-trained on fry, flat-top and garde manger within [N] months, covering [N] call-outs a month so the kitchen avoided closing a station on short-staffed nights.
- ✓ Action verb
- ✓ Number
- ✓ Result
Weak
Kept up with tickets during the dinner rush.
- ✓ Action verb
- ✗ Number
- ✗ Result
Strong
Fired and called back tables with expo on the kitchen display during the push, lowering average ticket time from [N] to [N] minutes over [N] weeks.
- ✓ Action verb
- ✓ Number
- ✓ Result
Prep and mise en place
A chef wants to see that your station is ready before service and that your prep is built to what the kitchen actually sells.
Weak
Responsible for daily prep.
- ✗ Action verb
- ✗ Number
- ✗ Result
Strong
Built day-by-day prep lists with par levels for [N] menu items, cutting mid-service runs to the walk-in and reducing end-of-night prep waste by [X%].
- ✓ Action verb
- ✓ Number
- ✓ Result
Weak
Strong knife skills.
- ✓ Action verb
- ✗ Number
- ✗ Result
Strong
Broke down [N] cases of produce and [N] pounds of protein a week to portion specs, lowering trim loss by [X%] against the chef's yield sheet.
- ✓ Action verb
- ✓ Number
- ✓ Result
Weak
Made sauces and soups from scratch.
- ✓ Action verb
- ✗ Number
- ✗ Result
Strong
Made [N] scratch sauces and stocks a week in batches sized to sales, eliminating the [N] quarts a week that used to be dumped at close.
- ✓ Action verb
- ✓ Number
- ✓ Result
Food cost and waste
Waste logs, yields and orders are numbers a chef watches every week, and a cook who moves them stands out.
Weak
Helped reduce food waste.
- ✗ Action verb
- ✗ Number
- ✓ Result
Strong
Started a shift waste log on my station and moved slow items into specials, cutting weekly food waste by [$X] and food cost by [X%] over [N] months.
- ✓ Action verb
- ✓ Number
- ✓ Result
Weak
Rotated stock using FIFO.
- ✓ Action verb
- ✗ Number
- ✗ Result
Strong
Labeled and dated every walk-in delivery for first in, first out rotation, reducing spoiled product from [$X] a month to [$X].
- ✓ Action verb
- ✓ Number
- ✓ Result
Weak
Placed food orders with vendors.
- ✓ Action verb
- ✗ Number
- ✗ Result
Strong
Took over the produce and dairy order for [N] vendors, ordering to par so that weekly spend dropped [X%] with no item running out during service.
- ✓ Action verb
- ✓ Number
- ✓ Result
Food safety and allergens
Chefs check for the food safety training your area requires, clean inspections and a careful system for allergy tickets.
Weak
Followed all food safety guidelines.
- ✓ Action verb
- ✗ Number
- ✗ Result
Strong
Kept temperature and cooling logs for the line every shift, closing out [N] health inspections with no critical violations on my stations.
- ✓ Action verb
- ✓ Number
- ✓ Result
Weak
Careful with food allergies.
- ✓ Action verb
- ✗ Number
- ✗ Result
Strong
Set up a separate allergy pan, board and tongs for flagged tickets and taught the line to use them, preventing any allergen incident across about [N] covers.
- ✓ Action verb
- ✓ Number
- ✓ Result
Weak
ServSafe certified.
- ✓ Action verb
- ✗ Number
- ✗ Result
Strong
Earned ServSafe Food Protection Manager certification and ran the opening line check [N] days a week, raising our internal audit score from [X%] to [X%].
- ✓ Action verb
- ✓ Number
- ✓ Result
Training and leading the line
Training new cooks, running the pass and getting specials onto the menu are what move a line cook to lead or sous chef.
Weak
Trained new cooks.
- ✓ Action verb
- ✗ Number
- ✗ Result
Strong
Trained [N] new line and prep cooks on station setup and plating specs, shortening their time to working a station alone from [N] weeks to [N].
- ✓ Action verb
- ✓ Number
- ✓ Result
Weak
Created daily specials.
- ✓ Action verb
- ✗ Number
- ✗ Result
Strong
Developed [N] specials with the sous chef, [N] of which made the seasonal menu and grew weekly sales by [$X].
- ✓ Action verb
- ✓ Number
- ✓ Result
Weak
Ran the kitchen when the chef was off.
- ✓ Action verb
- ✗ Number
- ✗ Result
Strong
Ran the pass [N] nights a week when the sous chef was off, calling tickets and checking plates so that comped dishes fell by [X%].
- ✓ Action verb
- ✓ Number
- ✓ Result
Weak
Opened and closed the kitchen.
- ✓ Action verb
- ✗ Number
- ✓ Result
Strong
Opened the line [N] days a week with a full line check before lunch, and closed with every station broken down in under [N] minutes, saving [N] labor hours a week.
- ✓ Action verb
- ✓ Number
- ✓ Result
Action verbs for line cook resumes
- Cooked
- Fired
- Prepped
- Seared
- Plated
- Portioned
- Butchered
- Labeled
- Expedited
- Opened
- Trained
- Developed
More in the full list of resume action verbs.
Next steps
Rewrite your own bullet →
The Bullet Surgeon gives one of your lines three rewrites, free.
A complete line cook resume →
A graded example, with notes on why each line works.
What line cook reviewers check first →
Common mistakes and specific fixes for this role.
Would they interview you? →
Paste a line cook posting and five readers vote on your resume.