What Do Restaurant Cook Do?

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.

Life As a Restaurant Cook: What Do They Do?

• Portion, arrange, and garnish food, and serve food to waiters or patrons.
• Carve and trim meats such as beef, veal, ham, pork, and lamb for hot or cold service, or for sandwiches.
• Keep records and accounts.
• Bake, roast, broil, and steam meats, fish, vegetables, and other foods.
• Bake breads, rolls, cakes, and pastries.
• Turn or stir foods to ensure even cooking.

Restaurant Cook Needed Skills

When polled, Restaurant Cooks say the following skills are most frequently used in their jobs:

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.

Time Management: Managing one’s own time and the time of others.

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.

Types of Restaurant Cook Jobs

• Banquet Cook
• Broil Cook
• Ice Cream Chef
• Line Cook
• Breakfast Cook

Job Opportunities for Restaurant Cooks

In 2016, there was an estimated number of 1,231,900 jobs in the United States for Restaurant Cook. 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.

Restaurant Cook Average Salary

The average yearly salary of a Restaurant Cook ranges between $19,420 and $37,630.

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?

What Tools do Restaurant Cooks Use?

Although they’re not necessarily needed for all jobs, the following technologies are used by many Restaurant Cooks:

• Microsoft Excel
• Microsoft Word
• Microsoft Office
• Facebook
• Inventory management software
• Menu planning software

How do I Become a Restaurant Cook?

What education or degrees do I need to become a Restaurant Cook?

How many years of work experience do I need?

Where Restaurant Cooks Work

Below are examples of industries where Restaurant Cooks work:

Other Jobs You May be Interested In

Career changers with experience as a Restaurant Cook sometimes find work in one of the following fields:

• Food Preparation Workers

References:

• Bureau of Labor Statistics
• College Factual
• O*NET Online

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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