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What Does it Take to Be a Restaurant Cook?
Position 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.
List of Restaurant Cook Job Duties
- Bake, roast, broil, and steam meats, fish, vegetables, and other foods.
- Season and cook food according to recipes or personal judgment and experience.
- Prepare relishes and hors d’oeuvres.
- Bake breads, rolls, cakes, and pastries.
- Turn or stir foods to ensure even cooking.
- Ensure freshness of food and ingredients by checking for quality, keeping track of old and new items, and rotating stock.
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What a Restaurant Cook Should Know
Restaurant Cooks state the following job skills are important in their day-to-day work.
Monitoring: Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
Active Listening: Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
Speaking: Talking to others to convey information effectively.
Critical Thinking: Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
Coordination: Adjusting actions in relation to others’ actions.
Time Management: Managing one’s own time and the time of others.
Types of Restaurant Cook
- Broiler Cook
- Ice Cream Chef
- Railroad Cook
- Breakfast Cook
- Banquet Cook
Are There Job Opportunities for Restaurant Cooks?
There were about 1,231,900 jobs for Restaurant Cook in 2016 (in the United States). New jobs are being produced at a rate of 11.8% which is above the national average. The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts 145,300 new jobs for Restaurant Cook by 2026. The BLS estimates 195,300 yearly job openings in this field.
The states with the most job growth for Restaurant Cook are Colorado, Utah, and Texas. Watch out if you plan on working in Ohio, West Virginia, or Maine. These states have the worst job growth for this type of profession.
Salary for a Restaurant Cook
The salary for Restaurant Cooks ranges between about $19,420 and $37,630 a year.
Restaurant Cooks who work in District of Columbia, Washington, or New Jersey, make the highest salaries.
How much do Restaurant Cooks make in different U.S. states?
| State | Annual Mean Salary |
|---|---|
| Alabama | $24,080 |
| Alaska | $30,230 |
| Arizona | $28,330 |
| Arkansas | $22,980 |
| California | $30,620 |
| Colorado | $29,490 |
| Connecticut | $30,450 |
| Delaware | $27,430 |
| District of Columbia | $33,840 |
| Florida | $27,740 |
| Georgia | $24,280 |
| Hawaii | $34,330 |
| Idaho | $24,880 |
| Illinois | $27,720 |
| Indiana | $24,570 |
| Iowa | $24,700 |
| Kansas | $23,640 |
| Kentucky | $22,920 |
| Louisiana | $23,230 |
| Maine | $28,780 |
| Maryland | $28,220 |
| Massachusetts | $32,430 |
| Michigan | $25,550 |
| Minnesota | $29,120 |
| Mississippi | $22,340 |
| Missouri | $25,180 |
| Montana | $25,230 |
| Nebraska | $28,280 |
| Nevada | $31,960 |
| New Hampshire | $29,200 |
| New Jersey | $33,200 |
| New Mexico | $24,100 |
| New York | $30,440 |
| North Carolina | $24,950 |
| North Dakota | $28,130 |
| Ohio | $25,560 |
| Oklahoma | $24,000 |
| Oregon | $29,340 |
| Pennsylvania | $26,510 |
| Rhode Island | $30,890 |
| South Carolina | $23,680 |
| South Dakota | $26,630 |
| Tennessee | $24,370 |
| Texas | $25,400 |
| Utah | $27,350 |
| Vermont | $31,180 |
| Virginia | $26,590 |
| Washington | $32,370 |
| West Virginia | $23,520 |
| Wisconsin | $25,910 |
| Wyoming | $29,750 |
What Tools do Restaurant Cooks Use?
Below is a list of the types of tools and technologies that Restaurant Cooks may use on a daily basis:
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Word
- Microsoft Office
- Inventory management software
- Menu planning software
How do I Become a Restaurant Cook?
What education is needed to be a Restaurant Cook?
What work experience do I need to become a Restaurant Cook?
Where Restaurant Cooks Work
Restaurant Cooks work in the following industries:
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References:
Image Credit: U.S. Army Europe Images via Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic
More about our data sources and methodologies.
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