How To Become A Cold Meat Cook: What It Is and Career Path

What is a cold meat cook and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a cold meat cook. For example, did you know that they make an average of $15.07 an hour? That's $31,354 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 16% and produce 419,300 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreCold Meat CookUS Average

Salary

2.4

Avg. Salary $31,354

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.2

Growth rate 16%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

8.4

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.99%

Asian 9.03%

Black or African American 9.30%

Hispanic or Latino 18.96%

Unknown 4.47%

White 57.24%

Gender

female 36.50%

male 63.50%

Age - 37

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 - 37

Stress level

6.2

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

4.3

Complexity level is basic

7 - challenging

Work life balance

7.4

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a cold meat cook

Explore cold meat cook education requirements

Most common cold meat cook degrees

High School Diploma

34.2 %

Associate

30.6 %

Bachelor's

18.0 %

Start to develop specific cold meat cook skills

Skills	Percentages
Kitchen Equipment	29.06%
Food Handling	14.26%
HACCP	13.64%
Food Products	9.31%
Safety Standards	8.52%

Complete relevant cold meat cook training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New cold meat cooks 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 cold meat cook based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real cold meat cook resumes.

Research cold meat cook duties and responsibilities

Operate mixers and manage ingredients to meet product quality and uniformity standards.
Empty fryers and replace with cleaner or new grease.
Leverage teamwork to fully utilize kitchen staff to generate remarkable food and service to ensure customer satisfaction.
Cook food to order; prep cook and stock; clean and sanitize tables; customer service

Prepare your cold meat cook resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your cold meat cook 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 cold meat cook resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable cold meat cook resume templates

Build a professional cold meat cook 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 cold meat cook resume.