Cooks, Restaurant

Overview

Cooks, Restaurant has a national median salary of $37,390 per year, with +12.1% projected job growth from 2025–2035. The Bureau of Labor Statistics lists no formal educational credential as the typical education needed to enter this occupation.

Description

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.

Work Values

• Support
• Relationships
• Independence

Work Styles

Responsibilities

Tasks

• 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.

Work Activities

• Handling and Moving Objects
• Performing General Physical Activities
• Getting Information
• Monitoring Processes, Materials, or Surroundings
• Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or Subordinates
• Organizing, Planning, and Prioritizing Work
• Identifying Objects, Actions, and Events
• Judging the Qualities of Objects, Services, or People
• Training and Teaching Others
• Processing Information

Detailed Work Activities

• Using hands and arms in handling, installing, positioning, and moving materials, and manipulating things.
• Performing general physical activities includes doing activities that require considerable use of your arms and legs and moving your whole body, such as climbing, lifting, balancing, walking, stooping, and handling materials.
• Observing, receiving, and otherwise obtaining information from all relevant sources.
• Monitoring and reviewing information from materials, events, or the environment, to detect or assess problems.
• Providing information to supervisors, co-workers, and subordinates by telephone, in written form, e-mail, or in person.
• Developing specific goals and plans to prioritize, organize, and accomplish your work.
• Identifying information by categorizing, estimating, recognizing differences or similarities, and detecting changes in circumstances or events.
• Assessing the value, importance, or quality of things or people.
• Identifying the educational needs of others, developing formal educational or training programs or classes, and teaching or instructing others.
• Compiling, coding, categorizing, calculating, tabulating, auditing, or verifying information or data.

T-A-S-K

Technology, Abilities, Skills & Knowledge

Education

Education Levels of Current Workers

The Bureau of Labor Statistics lists no formal educational credential as the typical education needed to enter this occupation. The chart below shows the highest level of education held by people already working in this field, ages 25 and older. It includes workers who earned more education than the job requires and workers who entered the field under earlier requirements, so the largest bar is not the entry requirement. For example, if someone finished an associate's degree and then started working in this field, they are counted under “Associate's degree” here, but the job itself typically asks for no formal educational credential.

Certificates

Certifications applicable to Cooks, Restaurant:

Video Resources