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

What is a culinary chef and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Patti Stobaugh

The average culinary chef salary is $49,417. The most common degree is a associate degree degree with an culinary arts major. It usually takes 4-6 years of experience to become a culinary chef. Culinary chefs with a Certified Culinary Administrator (CCA) certification earn more money. Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 15% and produce 23,600 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a culinary chef?

Patti Stobaugh

Owner, PattiCakes Bakery and Stoby's Restaurant

Being humble and willing to learn will take you far in your career, not just in the beginning. If you have the desire to open your own food service business, go to work for a business that has a great reputation. That will give you the opportunity to learn so much.

ScoreCulinary ChefUS Average

Salary

3.9

Avg. Salary $49,417

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

9.2

Growth rate 15%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

7.2

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.66%

Asian 11.28%

Black or African American 11.00%

Hispanic or Latino 17.33%

Unknown 5.16%

White 54.57%

Gender

female 36.10%

male 63.90%

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

Key steps to become a culinary chef

Explore culinary chef education requirements

Most common culinary chef degrees

Associate

45.5 %

Bachelor's

29.6 %

High School Diploma

12.2 %

Start to develop specific culinary chef skills

Skills	Percentages
Culinary	30.10%
Fine Dining	10.22%
Food Service	7.63%
Cuisine	7.49%
Kitchen Equipment	5.96%

Complete relevant culinary chef training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New culinary chefs 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 culinary chef based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real culinary chef resumes.

Research culinary chef duties and responsibilities

Manage a kitchen of military personal and Japanese civilian chefs.
Provide informative culinary instruction and product knowledge to create exceptional customer experiences.
Balance emerging trends and culinary creativity with cost, utilization and operational execution.
Develop seasonal menus focusing on classical French cuisine with consideration to customer base, product availability and cost.

Apply for culinary chef jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a culinary chef 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 culinary chefs rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Culinary chef 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