What does a culinary manager do?
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.
Culinary manager responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real culinary manager resumes:
- Manage front-end operations to ensure friendly and efficient customer service and manage culinary to ensure product quality and waste management.
- Oversee total operation of BOH including production, receiving, cleanliness, and presentation of food from truck to plate.
- Monitor operational efficiency and profitability of culinary operations.
- Supervise the cleanliness, presentation, and operation of food production of the buffet tables.
- Work closely with management to coordinate monthly in store trainer meetings and recognize and celebrate hourly associates performance contributions.
- Monitor operational efficiency and profitability of culinary operations.
Culinary manager skills and personality traits
We calculated that 24% of Culinary Managers are proficient in Culinary, Food Safety, and Kitchen Operations. They’re also known for soft skills such as Business skills, Communication skills, and Customer-service skills.
We break down the percentage of Culinary Managers that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Culinary, 24%
Supervised staff and inventory while providing progressive food and culinary expertise within a variety of settings.
- Food Safety, 9%
Streamlined operation to maximize efficiency of the kitchen ensuring proper food safety and rotation.
- Kitchen Operations, 7%
Supervised all aspects of kitchen operations.
- Food Preparation, 6%
Managed food preparation and presentation.
- Kitchen Equipment, 6%
Maintained and utilized all kitchen equipment.
- Cleanliness, 5%
Supervised the cleanliness, presentation, and operation of food production of the buffet tables.
"culinary," "food safety," and "kitchen operations" are among the most common skills that culinary managers use at work. You can find even more culinary manager responsibilities below, including:
Business skills. The most essential soft skill for a culinary manager to carry out their responsibilities is business skills. This skill is important for the role because "food service managers must understand all aspects of the restaurant business, including how to budget for supplies, comply with regulations, and manage workers." Additionally, a culinary manager resume shows how their duties depend on business skills: "identified and championed opportunities to integrate culinary into r&d;/oscar mayer business unit. "
Communication skills. Many culinary manager duties rely on communication skills. "food service managers must give clear orders to staff and be able to convey information effectively to employees and customers.," so a culinary manager will need this skill often in their role. This resume example is just one of many ways culinary manager responsibilities rely on communication skills: "opened the door to better communication between boh and foh-a restaurant cannot survive without it. "
Customer-service skills. This is an important skill for culinary managers to perform their duties. For an example of how culinary manager responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "food service managers must be courteous and attentive when dealing with patrons." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of a culinary manager: "manage front-end operations to ensure friendly and efficient customer service and manage culinary to ensure product quality and waste management. ".
Leadership skills. A commonly-found skill in culinary manager job descriptions, "leadership skills" is essential to what culinary managers do. Culinary manager responsibilities rely on this skill because "managers must establish good relationships with staff to maintain a productive work environment." You can also see how culinary manager duties rely on leadership skills in this resume example: "coached one culinary assistant through the foundations of leadership management training program. "
Organizational skills. While "organizational skills" is last on this skills list, don't underestimate its importance to culinary manager responsibilities. Much of what a culinary manager does relies on this skill, seeing as "managers have many different responsibilities, including scheduling and overseeing staff, budgeting, and maintaining financial records." Here is a resume example of how this skill is used in the everyday duties of culinary managers: "exceeded work ethic and organizational skills. "
The three companies that hire the most culinary managers are:
- Fricker'S44 culinary managers jobs
- Bloomin' Brands41 culinary managers jobs
- American Senior Benefits13 culinary managers jobs
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Compare different culinary managers
Culinary manager vs. Assistant manager/shift manager
An assistant manager/shift manager assists managers in maintaining an establishment's smooth workflow. Although the extent of their responsibilities depends on their company or industry of employment, it usually includes participating in setting goals and guidelines, establishing budgets and schedules, delegating tasks among staff, and monitoring operations, solving issues should there be any. They also perform administrative support tasks such as coordinating with internal and external parties, preparing and processing documents, handling calls and correspondence, organizing files, and implementing policies and regulations. In the absence of the manager, an assistant manager assumes their responsibilities to maintain efficient operations.
There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, culinary manager responsibilities require skills like "culinary," "kitchen operations," "kitchen equipment," and "food handling." Meanwhile a typical assistant manager/shift manager has skills in areas such as "customer service," "employee engagement," "guest service," and "food service." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.
On average, assistant manager/shift managers reach similar levels of education than culinary managers. Assistant manager/shift managers are 0.2% more likely to earn a Master's Degree and 0.1% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Culinary manager vs. Assistant general manager
An assistant general manager is responsible for supporting the daily business operations under the general manager's supervision, ensuring that the team delivers the required tasks with the highest quality and standards. Assistant general managers' duties also include managing and delegating individual tasks, addressing concerns from the staff, managing and resolving client's complaints immediately, providing recommendations and business opportunities, sharing best practices to increase revenues and profitability, and submitting reports. An assistant general manager should have excellent leadership and decision-making skills to help in managing the overall operations.
While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that culinary manager responsibilities requires skills like "kitchen operations," "kitchen equipment," "safety standards," and "servsafe." But an assistant general manager might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "customer service," "math," "strong analytical," and "guest service."
On average, assistant general managers earn a higher salary than culinary managers. Some industries support higher salaries in each profession. Interestingly enough, assistant general managers earn the most pay in the hospitality industry with an average salary of $50,180. Whereas culinary managers have higher pay in the hospitality industry, with an average salary of $52,579.In general, assistant general managers achieve similar levels of education than culinary managers. They're 1.9% more likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 0.1% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Culinary manager vs. Assistant restaurant manager
An assistant restaurant manager's role is to perform managerial support tasks and oversee restaurant operations, ensuring efficiency in workflow and customer satisfaction. Their responsibilities revolve around maintaining records of all invoices and contracts, delegating tasks, monitoring the inventory of supplies, liaising with suppliers and vendors, and addressing issues and concerns. There are also instances when one must attend to customers' needs, prepare schedules, perform regular workforce inspection, and report to the manager. Furthermore, it is essential to implement all the company's health regulations and policies, all to maintain a safe and healthy environment for everyone.
There are many key differences between these two careers, including some of the skills required to perform responsibilities within each role. For example, a culinary manager is likely to be skilled in "kitchen operations," "kitchen equipment," "servsafe," and "line checks," while a typical assistant restaurant manager is skilled in "customer service," "food service," "guest service," and "work ethic."
Assistant restaurant managers earn the best pay in the hospitality industry, where they command an average salary of $43,632. Culinary managers earn the highest pay from the hospitality industry, with an average salary of $52,579.When it comes to education, assistant restaurant managers tend to earn similar degree levels compared to culinary managers. In fact, they're 0.9% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.3% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Culinary manager vs. Restaurant general manager
A restaurant general manager is someone whose responsibility is to handle the daily operations of the restaurant. Restaurant general managers ensure compliance with the overall operations to the company's standards. They oversee the preparation and delivery of products, restaurant repair and maintenance, team management, inventory management, and customer relations. To become a restaurant general manager, one should have excellent customer relations and service skills, and commercial awareness. Good personal skills, flexibility, and strong communication skills are also necessary.
Even though a few skill sets overlap between culinary managers and restaurant general managers, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a culinary manager might have more use for skills like "food safety," "kitchen operations," "kitchen equipment," and "safety standards." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of restaurant general managers require skills like "customer service," "strong analytical," "human resources," and "strong customer service. "
The hospitality industry tends to pay the highest salaries for restaurant general managers, with average annual pay of $45,190. Comparatively, the highest culinary manager annual salary comes from the hospitality industry.restaurant general managers reach similar levels of education compared to culinary managers, in general. The difference is that they're 1.5% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.3% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Types of culinary manager
Updated January 8, 2025
