Chef and waiter CV for Norway: what the restaurant manager checks

A head chef or restaurant manager reads your CV between shifts, often on a phone. What decides the outcome is not phrasing but four things: which stations you have worked, whether you can start soon, whether you have food hygiene training, and whether you're available evenings and weekends. Everything else is noise.

The most common mistake among foreign applicants is not weak Norwegian — it's a CV that lists "worked at a restaurant" without saying what kind of kitchen, which station, or how many covers. Norwegian restaurants and hotels hire on concrete experience with volume and pace, and that needs to be on the page, not just in your head.

What the employer actually looks for

Station and volume. "Cook" says little. Did you work hot section, cold section, dessert, breakfast, à la carte or catering? How many covers per shift? A line like "à la carte, 60–80 covers a night, responsible for cold starters" says more than three lines about "passion for food".

Food hygiene training and certificates. Food hygiene / internal control (IK-mat) training is standard in Norwegian kitchens and should be clearly listed. If you hold a foreign chef qualification, write the title in the original language, country and year.

Age rules relevant to serving alcohol (waiters). Selling or serving beer and wine (group 1 and 2) requires a minimum age of 18; spirits (group 3) requires 20 — with an exception for minors who hold a chef or waiter trade certificate (alkoholloven § 1-5, checked 24 September 2026). If you're under 20 and applying for a waiter role that includes spirits, mention your age or certificate in the CV — it saves the employer a question.

Availability. The restaurant industry runs on evenings, weekends and holidays. State plainly which shifts you can take — it's often what decides before skills are even assessed.

The skeleton: a clean cook/waiter CV

One column, PDF, one to two pages, file named after yourself.

Name · phone · email · location · availability (evenings/weekends)
Short profile (2–3 lines)
Certificates and courses (food hygiene, trade certificate, age relevant to serving)
Work experience (most recent first, with station and volume)
Education
Languages
References

A constructed example — the numbers are made up and should not be copied, the point is the form:

Cook — Bistro Havna, Bergen (2023–2025)
À la carte kitchen, 60–80 covers a night, responsible for cold starters
Involved in stock planning and waste reduction
Food hygiene certificate (2023)
Worked independently on station under weekend pressure

Notice what's missing: no "passion for food" or "guest-focused". A restaurant manager needs to know you've handled 70 covers on a Friday night, not that you love the craft.

Keywords from the ad

If the ad says "à la carte", write à la carte — not "restaurant food". If it says "catering", don't write "events" if you mean the same thing. Applicant tracking systems and busy managers scan for the ad's own words, not synonyms. Only use words that actually describe something you've done.

Pay level: what the statistics say

The median salary for cooks is NOK 41,610 a month, with the middle half earning between 37,410 and 47,640. For waiters/servers the median is NOK 37,350, middle half between 34,100 and 41,190 (Statistics Norway, table 11418, 2025 figures, all sectors).

Separately, the accommodation, restaurant and catering sector has a legally mandated minimum wage — a statutory hourly rate that applies to every employee in the sector regardless of whether the employer has a collective agreement: from 15 June 2025 it is NOK 204.79/hour for employees over 20, or 18 with at least four months of experience in the sector. Employees under 18 have separate, lower age-based rates (Norwegian Labour Inspection Authority, regulation on the generally applicable collective agreement for accommodation, restaurant and catering, checked 24 September 2026). This is a floor, not a target — but worth knowing before you negotiate an hourly rate below it.

Five mistakes that cost you the interview

"Worked at a restaurant" with no station or volume. Say what kind of kitchen and how many covers.
Food hygiene training left out. It's standard in the industry — put it early in the CV, not at the bottom.
No stated availability. Write plainly whether you can work evenings, weekends and holidays.
Three pages of job descriptions. Norwegian CVs are short. One to two pages.
The same CV everywhere. Applying for an à la carte role? Put your à la carte experience first — not the catering job from three years ago.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a trade certificate to work as a cook in Norway? No, but it's the shortest route to trust. If you have a foreign qualification, state the title, country and year — and whether you've started a recognition process. Without a certificate but with solid experience, describe it concretely: station, volume, responsibility.

Is foreign restaurant experience worth anything here? Yes, but it needs context a Norwegian manager recognises: kitchen type, number of covers, team size. "Worked at a restaurant for five years" says less than "à la carte, 80 covers/night, team of six".

Do I need fluent Norwegian to work in a kitchen? Kitchen language is often simpler than in many other jobs, but safety instructions and communication with front of house happen in Norwegian in most places. See working in Norway without fluent Norwegian for more.

Next step

Set up your CV following the skeleton above, then run it against the actual job ad for free — you get a score and concrete fixes before you send it. Before an interview, read Norwegian job interview culture and the general Norwegian CV format guide.