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General Cooking & Culinary Arts Major

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General Cooking & Culinary Arts

831 Associates's Degrees Annually
4 Bachelor's Degrees Annually
#46 in Popularity (Associate's)
$30,360 Median Salary

Types of Degrees General Cooking & Culinary Arts Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many general cooking and related culinary arts graduations there were in 2020-2021 for each degree level.

Education Level Number of Grads
Undergraduate Certificate 1,499
Associate Degree 831
Basic Certificate 822
Bachelor’s Degree 4

What General Cooking & Culinary Arts Majors Need to Know

In an O*NET survey, general cooking and related culinary arts majors were asked to rate what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important in their occupations. These answers were weighted on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the most important.

General Cooking and Related Culinary Arts majors often go into careers in which the following knowledge areas are important:

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  • 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.

The following list of skills has been highlighted as some of the most essential for careers related to general cooking and related culinary arts:

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  • 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.
  • Management of Personnel Resources - Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.

Some of the most crucial abilities to master while a general cooking and related culinary arts student include the following:

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  • Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • 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.
  • Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Speech Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.

What Can You Do With a General Cooking & Culinary Arts Major?

People with a general cooking and related culinary arts degree often go into the following careers:

Job Title Job Growth Rate Median Salary
Chefs and Head Cooks 9.6% $48,460
Cooks 9.0% $28,650
Cooks, Institution and Cafeteria 7.7% $26,860
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 General Cooking & Culinary Arts?

831 Associate's Degrees Annually
62% Percent Women
65% Percent Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
This major is dominated by women with about 62% of recent graduates being female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

At the countrywide level, the racial-ethnic distribution of general cooking and related culinary arts majors is as follows:

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Race/Ethnicity Number of Grads
Asian 116
Black or African American 133
Hispanic or Latino 225
White 243
International Students 17
Other Races/Ethnicities 97

Geographic Diversity

General Cooking & Related Culinary Arts appeals to people across the globe. About 2.0% of those with this major are international students.

How Much Do General Cooking & Culinary Arts Majors Make?

Salaries According to BLS

General Cooking and Related Culinary Arts majors often go into careers where salaries can range from $28,290 to $36,190 (25th to 75th percentile). This range includes all degree levels, so you may expect those with a more advanced degree to make more while those with less advanced degrees will typically make less.

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.

Median Salary for a General Cooking & Culinary Arts Major  ( 28290 to 36190 )
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Median Salary for a High School Graduate  ( 30000 to 57900 )
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Median Salary for a Bachelor's Degree Holder  ( 45600 to 99000 )
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Median Salary for an Advanced Degree Holder  ( 55600 to 125400 )
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Some careers associated with general cooking and related culinary arts require an advanced degree while some may not even require a bachelor’s. 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 general cooking and related culinary arts have obtained the following education levels.

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Education Level Percentage of Workers
Less than a High School Diploma 14.2%
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED) 46.2%
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) 16.0%
Some College Courses 7.0%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree) 11.9%
Bachelor’s Degree 4.6%
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. 0.7%
Post-Doctoral Training 0.8%

Online General Cooking & Culinary Arts Programs

In 2020-2021, 155 schools offered a general cooking and related culinary arts program of some type. 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) 100 0
Certificate (2-4 Years) 0 0
Associate’s Degree 84 0
Bachelor’s Degree 0 0
Post-Baccalaureate 0 0
Master’s Degree 0 0
Post-Master’s 0 0
Doctor’s Degree (Research) 0 0
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice) 0 0
Doctor’s Degree (Other) 0 0

Is a Degree in General Cooking & Culinary Arts Worth It?

The median salary for a general cooking and related culinary arts grad is $30,360 per year. This is based on the weighted average of the most common careers associated with the major.

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You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to general cooking and related culinary arts.

Major Number of Grads
Culinary Arts/Chef Training 9,052
Baking & Pastry Arts/Baker/Pastry Chef 4,322
Restaurant, Culinary, & Catering Management/Manager 1,380
Food Preparation/Professional Cooking/Kitchen Assistant 801
Other Culinary Arts & Related Services 411
Culinary Science/Culinology 196
Bartending/Bartender 183
Institutional Food Workers 157
Food Service, Waiter/Waitress, & Dining Room Management/Manager 84
Meat Cutting/Meat Cutter 35
Wine Steward/Sommelier 7

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.

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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