Restaurant Cook: Craft, Plate & Perfect Dishes

Course Advisor; United States; On-site; USD 30,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job summary

Course Advisor is seeking a Restaurant Cook responsible for preparing, seasoning, and cooking a diverse menu in restaurants. The ideal candidate will ensure food quality and safety, manage cooking temperatures, and present dishes beautifully. Key skills include monitoring, active listening, and time management. This role is essential to uphold culinary standards and enhance the dining experience.

Qualifications

• Prepare, season, and cook a variety of dishes in restaurants.
• Manage food storage and cooking at the correct temperature.
• Portion, arrange, and serve food effectively.

Responsibilities

• Ensure food is stored and cooked at correct temperatures.
• Portion, arrange, and serve food.
• Bake breads, cakes, and pastries.

Skills

Monitoring

Active Listening

Speaking

Time Management

Critical Thinking

Coordination

Job 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.

The core tasks performed by cooks, restaurant include:

• 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.
• Coordinate and supervise work of kitchen staff.
• Bake, roast, broil, and steam meats, fish, vegetables, and other foods.
• Weigh, measure, and mix ingredients according to recipes or personal judgment, using various kitchen utensils and equipment.

Skills and Knowledge

Top cooks, restaurant combine a mix of skills and domain knowledge.

Top Skills

The abilities most important for this role, rated on an importance scale of 0 to 5:

Critical Thinking 3.0 / 5

0

5

Monitoring 3.0 / 5

0

5

Time Management 3.0 / 5

0

5

Speaking 3.0 / 5

0

5

0

5

0

5

Top Knowledge Areas

Food Production 3.4 / 5

0

5

0

5

Customer and Personal Service 2.6 / 5

0

5

Production and Processing 2.3 / 5

0

5

Education and Training 2.2 / 5

0

5

Mathematics 2.1 / 5

0

5

Related Job Titles

People in this occupation may also be known by titles such as:

• Back Line Cook
• Back of House Team Member (BOH Team Member)
• Breakfast Cook
• Cook
• Foreign Food Specialty Cook

How Many Cooks, Restaurant Are There?

There are about 1,741,328 cooks, restaurant working in the United States today. This occupation is expected to grow by +0.9% over the projection horizon.

How Much Do Cooks, Restaurant Make?

Statistic

Value

Annual median $41,438

Hourly median $19.92

10th percentile $22,981

25th percentile $32,209

75th percentile $50,667

90th percentile $59,896

Wages vary widely based on experience, location, and industry.

Pay for cooks, restaurant shift depending on where you work. The following regions pay the most:

Region

Median annual wage

Share of U.S. jobs

Far Western US $43,157 17.4% 1.10

New England $42,908 4.6% 0.97

Middle Atlantic $38,088 12.3% 0.83

Rocky Mountains $37,739 4.5% 1.18

Plains States $36,198 6.3% 0.94

Great Lakes $35,970 13.8% 0.97

Southeast $34,761 27.5% 1.16

Southwest $34,428 12.9% 1.03

Where the Jobs Cluster

State

Median annual wage

Employment

Kahului-Wailuku, HI HI $48,320 1,840

Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH MA $46,970 24,410

Portland-South Portland, ME ME $46,960 2,590

San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA CA $46,960 8,460

Napa, CA CA $46,270 1,350

Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA WA $46,180 19,820

Barnstable Town, MA MA $45,920 1,890

Burlington-South Burlington, VT VT $45,450 1,020

Industry Breakdown

The largest employers of cooks, restaurant are found across these industries:

Employment

Median annual wage

Accommodation and Food Services 1,356,300 $36,750

Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation 49,840 $39,320

Retail Trade 13,000 $37,470

Manufacturing 9,490 $36,960

Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services 9,260 $38,600

Other Services (except Public Administration) 7,250 $36,900

Health Care and Social Assistance 2,000 $37,520

Real Estate and Rental and Leasing 1,520 $38,680

Cooks, Restaurant work in the following industries:

Software Cooks, Restaurant Use

• Web page creation and editing software: Facebook (hot technology)
• Spreadsheet software: Microsoft Excel (hot technology)
• Office suite software: Microsoft Office software (hot technology)
• Electronic mail software: Microsoft Outlook (hot technology)
• Word processing software: Microsoft Word (hot technology)

Daily working conditions for cooks, restaurant reflects the following characteristics:

• Wear Common Protective or Safety Equipment such as Safety Shoes, Glasses, Gloves, Hearing Protection, Hard Hats, or Life Jackets
• Spend Time Standing
• Indoors, Environmentally Controlled
• Spend Time Using Your Hands to Handle, Control, or Feel Objects, Tools, or Controls
• Contact With Others

How to Become Cooks, Restaurant

Most cooks, restaurant positions require a high school diploma or equivalent as the typical entry-level education. This occupation sits in Some Preparation Needed (Job Zone 2), signaling the level of preparation typically expected.

Students preparing for cooks, restaurant often complete programs in:

Data on this page comes from the following authoritative sources:

• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) for employment and wage data by state and industry.
• BLS Employment Projections for total employment and growth forecasts.
• O*NET (Occupational Information Network) for skills, knowledge, tasks, work activities, work context, technology, and education-zone data.

SOC code: 35-2014.00 (Cooks, Restaurant).

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