Free.
Chef Portfolio Builder
A clean PDF of your best plates for kitchen jobs, hotels, yachts and private households. Free, no account, nothing uploaded.
Why go professional
Great food deserves
a page that does it justice.
Get the tasting, not the pass
Hiring chefs screen photos before they book a stage. A clean portfolio puts you in the kitchen instead of the reject pile.
Show range in 30 seconds
Two large plates and eight small per page: technique, courses and dietary range read at a glance, the way recruiters skim.
Look as polished as you cook
Editorial typography, consistent crops, numbered pages. A document that reads like a menu from a serious kitchen.
Ready for any kitchen
Restaurants, hotels, catering, yachts and private households all ask for photos. One PDF works for every application.
Matches your resume
Build the resume, bio and cover letter here too, so every document carries the same name, title and finish.
Private by design
Everything happens in your browser. Your photos are never uploaded, stored or shared.
Real pages.
Built in minutes.
How it works
From phone photos
to a hiring-ready PDF.
- 1
Add your name
Type your name and the line under it, such as Chef's Portfolio or Private Chef, Miami.
- 2
Upload your dishes
Add up to 40 photos (JPG, PNG or WebP). The tool crops each one to fill its slot without stretching it.
- 3
Put your signature dish first
Drag to reorder. The first two photos on every page print large, so lead with the plates you want to be hired for.
- 4
Download the PDF
Click Download. You get an A4 PDF with numbered pages, ready to email, print or attach to an application.
100% FREE Takes about 3 minutes · no sign-up
Make your portfolio right now.
In short
A chef portfolio is a PDF of 10 to 20 of your best plated dishes that hiring chefs read before a tasting or stage. Lead with your signature dish, keep every photo consistent, and pair it with a one or two page resume that uses the same name and title line.
How hiring chefs read a portfolio
A chef reviewing applications spends well under a minute on each portfolio. In that time they look for four things:
- The first plate. It sets their opinion of everything after it.
- Consistency. Ten photos shot the same way read as a cook with standards; ten different backgrounds read as a camera roll.
- Fit. A tasting-menu kitchen wants precision; a hotel or household wants range and volume.
- Honesty. Plates that match the level of the resume. If the photos promise more than the trial shift delivers, the portfolio works against you.
If you are preparing for that trial, read what happens on a stage and the most common chef interview questions.
Chef portfolio by career stage
| You are | Photos | Lead with | Make sure to include |
|---|---|---|---|
| Culinary student | 8 to 12 | Your best practical or externship plate | Knife work, a sauce, a dessert; note the course in the subtitle |
| Line cook | 10 to 14 | The station you want to work | Plates you cooked on service, consistent across a set |
| Sous chef or chef de cuisine | 14 to 20 | A dish you created, not executed | A seasonal menu shown as 3 to 5 courses |
| Private or personal chef | 14 to 24 | A family-style spread | Weekly meal prep, dietary dishes, a dinner party table |
| Pastry chef | 12 to 20 | A plated dessert | Breads or viennoiserie, a celebration cake or showpiece |
See full layouts and what to leave out in culinary portfolio examples.
Chef portfolio checklist
- Name spelled exactly as on your resume
- Subtitle that says your role, and city if you are applying locally
- Signature dish in slot one
- Every photo sharp, in daylight, same surface
- No hands, people, logos or watermarks in frame
- At least one dietary or family-style dish
- File name with your name, for example Elena-Marquez-Chef-Portfolio.pdf (the builder does this for you)
Chef portfolio or culinary portfolio?
Same document, different audience. Working cooks and hiring chefs say chef portfolio; schools and students say culinary portfolio. If you are still in school or applying for an externship, start from the culinary portfolio builder guidance on the home page. Pastry cooks should see the pastry chef portfolio layout.
The full application
Everything a hiring chef
asks you to send.
Chef resume builderA culinary resume template, exported as PDF.Build my resume →Elena Marquez is a private chef in Miami focused on Mediterranean and seasonal family cooking…Chef bio generatorFour bio lengths from six answers.Write my bio →Dear Chef Reyes, I’m applying for the sous chef position at Harbor House. What draws me to your kitchen is…Chef cover letter generatorA short, specific letter for a chef role.Write my letter →Guides
Read before you apply.
Portfolio, photos and bioCulinary portfolio examples: 5 structures, photo rules and what to leave outCulinary portfolio examples in five layouts: signature-led, range, tasting menu, private household and pastry. Photo rules, dish count, PDF vs website.
RésumésChef resume: examples, template and skills that get interviewsChef resume examples and a free template: what to include, how to quantify food cost and covers, skills to list, and sample resumes by situation.
Getting hiredStage chef: what a kitchen stage is and how to do oneWhat a stage is in a professional kitchen, how to ask for one with an email template, what happens hour by hour, what to bring, and the legal note on pay.
Getting hiredChef interview questions: what you will be asked and how to answerChef interview questions for line cooks, sous chefs and private chefs, with what a strong answer includes, questions to ask the chef, and what to bring.People also ask
Chef portfolio questions
The questions chefs ask before they build one.
Build my portfolio freeIs this chef portfolio builder free?
Yes. There is no account, no paid tier and no watermark on your photos. You can build and download as many portfolios as you want.
How many photos should a chef portfolio have?
Ten to twenty is the working range for most applications. Fewer than eight looks thin and more than thirty starts to repeat. The builder accepts up to forty so you can upload a wider set and then remove the weakest.
Can I make a chef portfolio on my phone?
Yes. The builder works on iPhone and Android: add photos from your camera roll, switch between Edit and Preview, and download the PDF to your Files app or email it directly.
Should a chef portfolio be a PDF or a website?
Send a PDF when you apply. It opens anywhere, prints cleanly and keeps the order you chose. A website or Instagram account can support it, but hiring chefs rarely click through during a first screen.
What photos should not go in a chef portfolio?
Leave out stock images, photos with people or hands in frame, watermarked or heavily filtered shots, and dishes you did not cook or lead. Blurry or dark photos hurt more than they help; ten strong plates beat twenty mixed ones.
Your next kitchen
is one PDF away.
Free, in your browser, in a few minutes. No account, no watermark.
Build my portfolio free