Career
Cooks, restaurant
Cook the dishes on a restaurant's menu.
$37,390
Median pay
+12.1%
Job growth, 2025–35
218,600
Openings a year
No formal educational credential
Typical education
None required
Typical time after high school
Here's what you actually need to know.
The work
What people in this job do
- 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.
The outlook
How the forecast changed this year
The deeper question
What kind of person does this path ask you to become?
What this work centers on
O*NET interest profile, scored 1–7.
The work
Do you want most of your days spent on objects & tools, then information & systems?
Responsibility
Are you willing to be the one responsible for this?
“Ensure food is stored and cooked at correct temperature by regulating temperature of ovens, broilers, grills, and roasters.”
Development
What would you need to build over the next 5–10 years?
Monitoring, Critical Thinking, Speaking, Time Management.
Trade-offs
What does it ask of you in exchange?
No degree beyond high school, though moderate-term on-the-job training is typical, for a median of $37,390 a year and 218,600 openings nationally each year.
Paths in
Degrees that lead here
- Cooking and Related Culinary Arts, GeneralCIP 12.0500
- Culinary Arts/Chef TrainingCIP 12.0503
Paths across
Careers that use similar skills
- Cooks, Short Order$35,880 · -5.2%
- Cooks, Institution and Cafeteria$37,450 · +2.8%
- Food Preparation Workers$35,320 · -3.0%
- Bakers$37,160 · +5.5%
- Cooks, Fast Food$30,890 · +0.6%
Ask anything about this career.
“Would this make sense if I don't want to sit at a desk all day?” Answers will come from the sources on this page, with citations. Coming soon.
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Sources
- BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- BLS Employment Projections, 2024–34 (archived), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- O*NET 31.0 Database (August 2026), National Center for O*NET Development / U.S. Department of Labor. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 Crosswalk, NCES and BLS. Retrieved 2026-10-01.