How To Become A Chef De Cuisine: What It Is and Career Path

What is a chef de cuisine and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

A chef de cuisine leads a kitchen team and manages food preparation in a restaurant or culinary establishment. They handle menu planning, food quality and presentation, staff training and supervision, and maintaining kitchen safety and sanitation. The chef de cuisine must possess excellent culinary skills, creativity, and leadership abilities. They work with restaurant managers to increase customer satisfaction and profitability, and may also order supplies, manage inventory, and control costs.

ScoreChef De CuisineUS Average

Salary

4.1

Avg. Salary $51,926

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

9.2

Growth rate 15%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

7.3

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.84%

Asian 11.21%

Black or African American 9.85%

Hispanic or Latino 18.92%

Unknown 5.53%

White 53.65%

Gender

female 10.36%

male 89.64%

Age - 41

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 41

Stress level

9.2

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

7.4

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

0.2

Work life balance is

6.4 - fair

What are the pros and cons of being a chef de cuisine?

Pros

Ability to train and mentor junior chefs
Ability to work in a variety of settings, from fine dining restaurants to catering companies
Ability to build a loyal customer base
Opportunity to travel and experience different cuisines
High demand for skilled chefs in the industry

Cons

Pressure to constantly create new dishes and maintain quality
Dealing with difficult customers or food critics
Working holidays can be difficult for personal life and family time
Financial risk of opening a restaurant or business
Difficulty finding qualified staff to work under chef's direction

Key steps to become a chef de cuisine

Explore chef de cuisine education requirements

Most common chef de cuisine degrees

Associate

55.5 %

Bachelor's

27.0 %

High School Diploma

6.0 %

Start to develop specific chef de cuisine skills

Skills	Percentages
Culinary	15.41%
Fine Dining	6.91%
Kitchen Operations	6.18%
Food Preparation	5.68%
Customer Service	5.25%

Complete relevant chef de cuisine training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New chef de cuisines learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a chef de cuisine based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real chef de cuisine resumes.

Gain additional chef de cuisine certifications

Chef de cuisine certifications can show employers you have a baseline of knowledge expected for the position. Certifications can also make you a more competitive candidate. Even if employers don't require a specific chef de cuisine certification, having one may help you stand out relative to other applicants.

The most common certifications for chef de cuisines include Certified Culinary Administrator (CCA) and Certified Food Manager (CFM).

More About Certifications

Research chef de cuisine duties and responsibilities

Manage the staff to insure the consistency and quality of this Chicago style bistro.
Manage BOH operations for this Michelin recommend restaurant in silicon valley
Manage cold kitchen production for a luxury hotel with a Michelin star restaurant
Train and manage kitchen personnel for both locations, supervised/coordinate all relate culinary activities; purchasing, inventory, butchering.

Prepare your chef de cuisine resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your chef de cuisine resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a chef de cuisine resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable chef de cuisine resume templates

Build a professional chef de cuisine resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your chef de cuisine resume.

Apply for chef de cuisine jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a chef de cuisine job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do chef de cuisines rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Chef de cuisine reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on May 2020

Pros

Design & creating food making customer happy cooking every area as line, prep, steam, broil, grill, creating comfort food desserts and catering. Ordering and managing a kitchen

Cons

Nothing to complain about love being a chef

A zippia user wrote a review on Mar 2019