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The differences between culinary managers and restaurant managers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both a culinary manager and a restaurant manager. Additionally, a restaurant manager has an average salary of $52,202, which is higher than the $51,100 average annual salary of a culinary manager.
The top three skills for a culinary manager include culinary, food safety and kitchen operations. The most important skills for a restaurant manager are customer service, guest satisfaction, and food handling.
| Culinary Manager | Restaurant Manager | |
| Yearly salary | $51,100 | $52,202 |
| Hourly rate | $24.57 | $25.10 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 104,953 | 225,340 |
| Job satisfaction | - | 1 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 48% | Bachelor's Degree, 50% |
| Average age | 39 | 39 |
| Years of experience | 4 | 4 |
Culinary managers oversee the organization's, institution's, or restaurant's foodservice operations. They ensure food service operations meet the federal requirements and state requirements and follow the required procedures and policies. Besides planning for and purchasing the required food, culinary managers also keep the required records like personal records, meal counts, income or expense, food production, and inventory. Other duties performed by culinary managers include planning menus, preparing and serving food, planning budgets for future food, hiring, recruiting, and training employees.
A restaurant manager is responsible for handling the overall restaurant operations. These include monitoring revenues and daily restaurant sales, checking inventories and supplies, negotiating with third-party vendors, and managing customers' inquiries and complaints. Other duties include creating promotional offers, developing and improving sales strategies, organizing staff duties, maintaining the highest sanitary standards for everyone's strict compliance, and controlling operational expenses. A restaurant manager must have excellent communication and leadership skills and exceptional knowledge of food industry management.
Culinary managers and restaurant managers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Culinary Manager | Restaurant Manager | |
| Average salary | $51,100 | $52,202 |
| Salary range | Between $37,000 And $69,000 | Between $39,000 And $69,000 |
| Highest paying City | Newark, NJ | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | New Jersey | New Hampshire |
| Best paying company | Boston Public Schools | Hillstone Restaurant Group |
| Best paying industry | Hospitality | Hospitality |
There are a few differences between a culinary manager and a restaurant manager in terms of educational background:
| Culinary Manager | Restaurant Manager | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 48% | Bachelor's Degree, 50% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | Cornell University | Cornell University |
Here are the differences between culinary managers' and restaurant managers' demographics:
| Culinary Manager | Restaurant Manager | |
| Average age | 39 | 39 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 74.4% Female, 25.6% | Male, 54.5% Female, 45.5% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 11.9% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 16.3% Asian, 8.8% White, 57.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.6% | Black or African American, 10.6% Unknown, 5.5% Hispanic or Latino, 17.9% Asian, 9.4% White, 55.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.6% |
| LGBT Percentage | 10% | 10% |