Skilled Trades
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 salary
$36,830
Typical range
$28k – $47k
Job outlook
+15% (much faster than average)
AI exposure
Plan a path to Cooks, Restaurant
Education
Typical entry: No degree required
Plan my path to this →Typical progression
Junior Cooks, Restaurant
Entry / Junior
$28,010
~2 yrs to advance
Cooks, Restaurant
Established
$36,830
~3 yrs to advance
Senior Cooks, Restaurant
Senior
$42,085
Key skills
A typical day
- •Ensure food is stored and cooked at correct temperature by regulating temperature of ovens, broilers, grills, and roasters.
- •Inspect and clean food preparation areas, such as equipment, work surfaces, and serving areas, to ensure safe and sanitary food-handling practices.
- •Portion, arrange, and garnish food, and serve food to waiters or patrons.
- •Ensure freshness of food and ingredients by checking for quality, keeping track of old and new items, and rotating stock.
- •Season and cook food according to recipes or personal judgment and experience.
Fields of study
Any field
Top colleges for Skilled Trades
Explore all- Purdue University50% admit · $78,000 grad pay
- Ohio State University53% admit · $68,000 grad pay
- Pennsylvania State University55% admit · $70,000 grad pay
Reputation-based selection; stats shown are outcome data per school.