Culinary Arts/Chef Training

Types of Degrees Culinary Arts/Chef Training Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many culinary arts/chef training graduations there were in 2021-2022 for each degree level.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Associate Degree	4,205
Undergraduate Certificate	3,818
Basic Certificate	2,329
Bachelor’s Degree	194

What Culinary Arts/Chef Training Majors Need to Know

People with careers related to culinary arts/chef training were asked what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important for their jobs. They weighted these areas on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the highest.

Knowledge Areas for Culinary Arts/Chef Training Majors

Culinary Arts/Chef Training majors often go into careers in which the following knowledge areas are important:

• Food Production - Knowledge of techniques and equipment for planting, growing, and harvesting food products (both plant and animal) for consumption, including storage/handling techniques.
• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
• Production and Processing - Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.

Skills for Culinary Arts/Chef Training Majors

When studying culinary arts/chef training, you’ll learn many skills that will help you be successful in a wide range of jobs - even those that do not require a degree in the field. The following is a list of some of the most common skills needed for careers associated with this major:

• Monitoring - Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Coordination - Adjusting actions in relation to others’ actions.
• 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.
• Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.

Abilities for Culinary Arts/Chef Training Majors

A major in culinary arts/chef training will prepare for your careers in which the following abilities are important:

• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
• Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).

What Can You Do With a Culinary Arts/Chef Training Major?

Below is a list of occupations associated with culinary arts/chef training:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Chefs and Head Cooks	9.6%	$48,460
Cooks	9.0%	$28,650
Cooks, Private Household	5.2%	$37,590
Cooks, Restaurant	11.8%	$26,530
First-Line Supervisors of Food Preparation and Serving Workers	9.3%	$32,450

Who Is Getting an Associate’s Degree in Culinary Arts/Chef Training?

According to recent stats this major attracts about equal numbers of men and women. Roughly 53% of the graduates are women, and 47% are men.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

At the countrywide level, the racial-ethnic distribution of culinary arts/chef training majors is as follows:

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	148
Black or African American	948
Hispanic or Latino	695
White	1,843
International Students	113
Other Races/Ethnicities	458

Geographic Diversity

Americans aren’t the only ones with an interest in Culinary Arts/Chef Training. About 2.7% of those with this major are international students.

How Much Do Culinary Arts/Chef Training Majors Make?

Salaries According to BLS

Average salaries range from $30,360 to $41,240 (25th to 75th percentile) for careers related to culinary arts/chef training. This range includes all degree levels, so the salary for a person with just a bachelor’s degree may be a little less and the one for a person with an advanced degree may be a little more.

To put that into context, according to BLS data from the first quarter of 2020, the typical high school graduate makes between $30,000 and $57,900 a year (25th through 75th percentile). The average person with a bachelor’s degree (any field) makes between $45,600 and $99,000. Advanced degree holders make the most with salaries between $55,600 and $125,400.

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to Culinary Arts/Chef Training

Some degrees associated with culinary arts/chef training may require an advanced degree, while others may not even require a bachelor’s in the field. In general, the more advanced your degree the more career options will open up to you. However, there is significant time and money that needs to be invested into your education so weigh the pros and cons.

How much schooling do you really need to compete in today’s job market? People currently working in careers related to culinary arts/chef training have obtained the following education levels.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
Less than a High School Diploma	16.5%
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	34.2%
Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production)	20.3%
Some College Courses	9.4%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	17.2%
Bachelor’s Degree	2.9%
First Professional Degree - awarded for completion of a program that: requires at least 2 years of college work before entrance into the program, includes a total of at least 6 academic years of work to complete, and provides all remaining academic requirements to begin practice in a profession.	0.9%
Post-Doctoral Training	0.9%

Online Culinary Arts/Chef Training Programs

The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level	Colleges Offering Programs	Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year)	0	0
Certificate (1-2 years)	245	2
Certificate (2-4 Years)	25	1
Associate’s Degree	284	3
Bachelor’s Degree	0	0
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	1	0
Post-Master’s	1	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Is a Degree in Culinary Arts/Chef Training Worth It?

The median salary for a culinary arts/chef training grad is $36,190 per year. This is based on the weighted average of the most common careers associated with the major.

Trades Related to Culinary Arts/Chef Training

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to culinary arts/chef training.

Major	Number of Grads
Baking & Pastry Arts/Baker/Pastry Chef	5,029
General Cooking & Related Culinary Arts	3,303
Restaurant, Culinary, & Catering Management/Manager	1,394
Food Preparation/Professional Cooking/Kitchen Assistant	786
Other Culinary Arts & Related Services	335
Institutional Food Workers	204
Culinary Science/Culinology	203
Bartending/Bartender	157
Food Service, Waiter/Waitress, & Dining Room Management/Manager	82
Meat Cutting/Meat Cutter	28
Wine Steward/Sommelier	8

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• College Scorecard
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020
• Image Credit: By U.S. Army Europe Images under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.