Food Preparation and Serving · Holland code ERC

Chefs and Head Cooks

Direct and may participate in the preparation, seasoning, and cooking of salads, soups, fish, meats, vegetables, desserts, or other foods. May plan and price menu items, order supplies, and keep records and accounts.

Also called: Chef, Executive Chef (Ex Chef), Kitchen Manager, Sous Chef, Banquet Chef, Cook, Executive Pastry Chef, Executive Sous Chef.

O*NET 35-1011.00

At a glance

US median annual pay: $62,470; Middle half earn $48,440 to $78,750. BLS OEWS, May 2025.
Most common education: Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree; 54% of workers surveyed by O*NET report this level.
Preparation needed: Job Zone 3 of 5; Medium preparation. Zone 1 is little or none; zone 5 is graduate-level.
US employment outlook, 2024 to 2034: +7% · Much faster than average; 197,300 jobs in 2024, projected 211,300. BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, which groups this with similar roles as "Chefs and head cooks".

What the work involves

The tasks workers in this occupation rate as most important, from the O*NET survey.

Monitor sanitation practices to ensure that employees follow standards and regulations.
Instruct cooks or other workers in the preparation, cooking, garnishing, or presentation of food.
Supervise or coordinate activities of cooks or workers engaged in food preparation.
Order or requisition food or other supplies needed to ensure efficient operation.
Inspect supplies, equipment, or work areas to ensure conformance to established standards.
Check the quantity and quality of received products.
Check the quality of raw or cooked food products to ensure that standards are met.
Estimate amounts and costs of required supplies, such as food and ingredients.

Skills and knowledge it leans on

Skills

Monitoring4.0 / 5
Speaking3.9 / 5
Critical Thinking3.8 / 5
Active Listening3.6 / 5
Reading Comprehension3.5 / 5
Active Learning3.4 / 5

Knowledge areas

Food Production4.1 / 5
Production and Processing4.0 / 5
Customer and Personal Service3.9 / 5
Personnel and Human Resources3.7 / 5
Administration and Management3.7 / 5
Mathematics3.5 / 5

Importance ratings on O*NET’s 1 to 5 scale. Higher means the occupation depends on it more.

Who tends to enjoy it

How strongly this occupation draws on each of the six Holland interest types, which is the same profile the career interests test compares you against.

Realistic64
Investigative11
Artistic29
Social33
Enterprising69
Conventional56

The same work abroad

Other countries classify jobs differently, so these are the closest matches through the international ISCO-08 standard, not exact equivalents.

European occupation titles (ESCO)

chef · DE Chefkoch/Chefköchin · FR chef de cuisine
head chef · DE Küchenleiter/Küchenleiterin · FR chef cuisinier/cheffe cuisinière
private chef · DE Privatkoch/Privatköchin · FR chef privé/chef privée
cook · DE Koch/Köchin · FR cuisinier/cuisinière
diet cook · DE Diätkoch/Diätköchin · FR cuisinier diététicien/cuisinière diététicienne
fish cook · DE Fischkoch/Fischköchin · FR cuisinier poissonnier/cuisinière poissonnière

Closest UK occupation groups (SOC 2020)

Chefs (5434)222,700 employed
Cooks (5435)47,500 employed
Catering and bar managers (5436)75,500 employed

Employment is the UK Annual Population Survey for April 2025 to March 2026, all workers in the group, which can be broader than this one occupation.

Japan

Japan classifies jobs in its own way. The closest category that names the same work is “飲食物調理従事者”, which may be narrower or broader than this occupation.

Median monthly pay: ¥242,200; Middle half earn ¥202,900 to ¥299,700 a month.
Workers in the category: 439,320; Regular employees in firms of ten or more.

Scheduled monthly pay before tax, excluding overtime and bonuses, so it is not comparable to the annual figures above. Source: Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Basic Survey on Wage Structure 2025, via e-Stat, under the Japanese Government Standard Terms of Use. The category match was made by hand.

Pay across Europe, for the whole group

Median annual earnings of all employees in “Service and sales workers”. This is the broad ISCO group this occupation falls in, not the occupation itself, so treat it as context for the wage level, not as a salary for this job.

Median annual earnings, Service and sales workers, by country
Country	Median pay
Belgium	€32,957
Sweden	€32,596
Netherlands	€29,198
Austria	€29,068
Germany	€27,471
Ireland	€26,978
Italy	€24,995
France	€24,971
Spain	€18,303
Portugal	€10,656
Poland	€7,579

Eurostat Structure of Earnings Survey, businesses with ten or more employees outside public administration, in euro and not adjusted for the cost of living. Reference years differ between sources: the US, Japan and Europe figures on this page come from different survey years, so compare them as rough levels, not to the euro or yen.

Exposure to AI

This occupation sits in the middle third of the 774 occupations scored, with an exposure score of -0.27. The scores are standardized across those occupations, so 0 is the average and a score of 1 is about one standard deviation above it.

Our note on reading it: the dataset links AI applications to the abilities that occupations require, so the score reflects overlap between the two. It is a comparison between occupations, not a forecast about jobs. It does not say whether exposure means tasks are replaced or workers get more done with the tools, and it says little about one employer or one role.

Source: Felten, E., Raj, M., & Seamans, R. (2021). Occupational, industry, and geographic exposure to artificial intelligence: A novel dataset and its potential uses. Strategic Management Journal, 42(12), 2195-2217. Matched to this page by 6-digit SOC code (35-1011).

Is it a fit for you?

Interest is one input, alongside ability, pay and what is hiring near you. The career interests test takes about thirteen minutes and ranks occupations by how closely their profile matches yours.

Take the career interests test