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

What is a culinary worker and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a culinary worker. For example, did you know that they make an average of $14.71 an hour? That's $30,606 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 2% and produce 17,700 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreCulinary WorkerUS Average

Salary

2.4

Avg. Salary $30,606

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

4.8

Growth rate 2%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.27%

Asian 7.34%

Black or African American 10.78%

Hispanic or Latino 13.55%

Unknown 5.80%

White 61.25%

Gender

female 38.74%

male 61.26%

Age - 34

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 - 34

Stress level

4.8

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

6.2

Complexity level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.6

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a culinary worker

Explore culinary worker education requirements

Most common culinary worker degrees

Bachelor's

45.7 %

High School Diploma

19.6 %

Associate

13.0 %

Start to develop specific culinary worker skills

Skills	Percentages
Dishes	29.82%
Food Carts	21.78%
Cooking Equipment	12.93%
Food Preparation	11.92%
Culinary	11.24%

Complete relevant culinary worker training and internships

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

Research culinary worker duties and responsibilities

Work the grill and fryers ensuring the food is cooked to the proper temperatures.
Work well with other employees-Maintain cleanliness of areas assigned-perform a variety of services-follow property policies and procedures-oversee own responsibilities
Work with equipment such as steamers, ovens, coffee machines, grills, slicers, mixers, and kettles.
Stack washable items for dishwasher and operate dishwasher according to department guidelines.

Prepare your culinary worker resume

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

Choose from 10+ customizable culinary worker resume templates

Build a professional culinary worker 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 culinary worker resume.