As a pastry chef, you’ve turned the art of baking and decorating delicious pastries and cakes into the sweetest form of science. You masterfully balance different kinds of doughs, decorations, and ganaches, and your organizational skills are the icing on top.
Your baking creations are the best proof of your boundless creativity, but how do you translate that into a one-page resume?
We’re here to help. Our pastry chef resume examples and resume tips will show you how to accurately express your expertise and score the job of your dreams.
Related resume examples
What Matters Most: Your Baking Skills & Past Experience
While some of us can’t even draw a stick figure, you’re right here whipping up intricate decorations on cakes and preparing flawless meringues.
Your baking skills are unparalleled, but they’re not the only thing you bring to the table. You develop your own recipes, alter the existing ones to make room for vegan-friendly options, and manage all kinds of tools.
Just as your skill set is highly diverse, your resume skills section needs to reflect your various proficiencies. Be specific and avoid terms like “teamwork.” Instead, try to emphasize what makes you a great pastry chef.
Include various baking techniques, but also your ability to juggle inventory levels and cut costs where possible.
9 best pastry chef skills
- Cost Reduction
- Safety Regulations
- Inventory Management
- Chocolate Tempering
- Special Diets
- Menu Development
- Scheduling
- Cake Decoration
- Quality Control
Sample pastry chef work experience bullet points
In this part of your resume, stray away from the obvious day-to-day tasks and focus on your career highlights instead.
Perhaps you’ve made a niche for yourself out of preparing beautiful cakes, be it for weddings or birthdays, complete with custom decorations. Think about how that affected your workplace—were you able to increase sales or grow the social media following due to the photos of your creations being shared around?
Try to think of ways to measure your impact by adding metrics. In the above example, you could talk about how many followers your company gained or how the revenue increased by 13%.
In addition to the above, shine a light on your ability to work in a team. Talk about the number of chefs you’ve worked with, collaborating with the main kitchen, or training junior pastry chefs.
Here’s how to add measurable impact to your resume:
- Managed kitchen budget by assessing ingredient consumption, labor costs, and customer preferences, reducing production costs by 39%
- Collaborated with head pastry chef to plan budgets based on previous monthly POR ratios, saving $6K per month in expenses
- Led a team of 6 pastry cooks, increasing overall productivity by 33% through improved workflow organization with the help of ChefTec and Trello
- Developed a rotating menu of seasonal pastries, increasing customer return rates by 13% and pastry sales by 19%
Top 5 Tips for Your Pastry Chef Resume
- Add some visuals
- If you have any pastries, cakes, or other creations you’re particularly proud of, you might want to show them off right away. While your resume is text-based, you can always include a link to your personal website or Instagram profile near your contact information.
- Express your aesthetic sense
- On another note, just as your creations need to look irresistible, it’s important to let your sense of aesthetic shine through your resume, too. Pick a resume template that’s easy to read and choose colors that complement each other perfectly.
- Showcase the diversity of your work
- As a pastry chef, you’ve likely worked on cakes, cookies, candies, pastries, and every other sweet thing under the sun. Express your versatility by talking about your knowledge of international cuisine, the number of recipes you’ve developed, or even the way your experimental pastry ended up being a hit with customers.
- Tailor your resume every time
- Show that you care about this particular job by carefully reading the job description and adjusting your resume to match. For example, if the job emphasizes baked goods, highlight your expertise in specific techniques like dough laminating.
- Show off your financial chops
- Staying under budget is crucial for a pastry chef. Mention instances of juggling inventory levels, reducing food waste through efficient planning, or negotiating better deals with suppliers to cut costs.
Your experience plays the biggest role in getting hired, but certifications make a great garnish to your expertise. Include certs like the CPC, CWPC, CEPC, CMPC, or the CB.
If you’ve previously worked in the kitchen, there’s always some overlap to lean into, so focus on transferable skills, such as high-volume cooking. If your past roles weren’t in the food service industry, discuss your ability to work in a team and in high-pressure environments.
Highlight things that set you apart and find a connection to the company. For example, if the company values eco-friendly recipes, discuss your knowledge of vegan baking or knowing how to bake a delicious cake from leftover ingredients.
