Explore by Career/Food Preparation and Serving Related
Cooks, Restaurant
Prepare, season, and cook dishes such as soups, meats, vegetables, or desserts in restaurants. May order supplies, keep records and accounts, price items on menu, or plan menu.
- Median pay
- $36,830
- per year
- 10-year outlook
- +14.9%
- Growing
- Typical entry
- No formal educational credential
Key skills
- Monitoring
- Active Listening
- Speaking
- Critical Thinking
- Coordination
- Time Management
- Reading Comprehension
- Social Perceptiveness
What they do
- Inspect and clean food preparation areas, such as equipment, work surfaces, and serving areas, to ensure safe and sanitary food-handling practices.
- Ensure freshness of food and ingredients by checking for quality, keeping track of old and new items, and rotating stock.
- Ensure food is stored and cooked at correct temperature by regulating temperature of ovens, broilers, grills, and roasters.
- Season and cook food according to recipes or personal judgment and experience.
- Turn or stir foods to ensure even cooking.
- Observe and test foods to determine if they have been cooked sufficiently, using methods such as tasting, smelling, or piercing them with utensils.
- Portion, arrange, and garnish food, and serve food to waiters or patrons.
- Weigh, measure, and mix ingredients according to recipes or personal judgment, using various kitchen utensils and equipment.
- Bake, roast, broil, and steam meats, fish, vegetables, and other foods.
- Wash, peel, cut, and seed fruits and vegetables to prepare them for consumption.
Majors that lead here
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (OEWS, Employment Projections) and O*NET, used under CC BY 4.0.