Fast food cook vs grill cook

The differences between fast food cooks and grill cooks can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both a fast food cook and a grill cook. Additionally, a grill cook has an average salary of $31,895, which is higher than the $26,093 average annual salary of a fast food cook.

The top three skills for a fast food cook include food handling, safety standards and customer service. The most important skills for a grill cook are sanitation standards, kitchen equipment, and safety standards.

Fast food cook vs grill cook overview

	Fast Food Cook	Grill Cook
Yearly salary	$26,093	$31,895
Hourly rate	$12.54	$15.33
Growth rate	16%	16%
Number of jobs	275,335	184,603
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	High School Diploma, 51%	High School Diploma, 48%
Average age	38	38
Years of experience	4	4

What does a fast food cook do?

Fast-food cooks maintain utensils, food preparation areas, and cooking surfaces. Besides cooking and serving beverages, fast food cooks also perform their daily duties as per the safety standards and health standards. Their other duties include ordering and taking supply deliveries, cleaning, preparing meals ingredients, and running cooking equipment such as griddles, deep fat fryers, or grills.

What does a grill cook do?

A grill cook's primary role is to take charge of grilling food in restaurants or a similar establishment. Aside from grilling different kinds of food, they are also responsible for the plating, ensuring that it looks presentable and mouth-watering. Moreover, grill cooks have other duties such as preparing supplies and ingredients, maintaining the cleanliness of the work area, and training new members of the workforce. It is also essential to coordinate with other restaurant staff at all times as the operations can be fast-paced and will require accuracy and speed.

Fast food cook vs grill cook salary

Fast food cooks and grill cooks have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Fast Food Cook	Grill Cook
Average salary	$26,093	$31,895
Salary range	Between $19,000 And $34,000	Between $25,000 And $39,000
Highest paying City	Boston, MA	Seattle, WA
Highest paying state	Massachusetts	Washington
Best paying company	Dell	St. Petersburg Yacht Club
Best paying industry	Hospitality	Hospitality

Differences between fast food cook and grill cook education

There are a few differences between a fast food cook and a grill cook in terms of educational background:

	Fast Food Cook	Grill Cook
Most common degree	High School Diploma, 51%	High School Diploma, 48%
Most common major	Business	Culinary Arts
Most common college	-	-

Fast food cook vs grill cook demographics

Here are the differences between fast food cooks' and grill cooks' demographics:

	Fast Food Cook	Grill Cook
Average age	38	38
Gender ratio	Male, 74.2% Female, 25.8%	Male, 76.9% Female, 23.1%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 10.4% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 18.5% Asian, 8.6% White, 56.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.1%	Black or African American, 10.5% Unknown, 4.8% Hispanic or Latino, 16.2% Asian, 8.5% White, 58.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.2%
LGBT Percentage	6%	6%

Differences between fast food cook and grill cook duties and responsibilities

Fast food cook example responsibilities.

Operate mixers and manage ingredients to meet product quality and uniformity standards.
Execute daily operations of filtering of the fryers.
Leverage teamwork to fully utilize kitchen staff to generate remarkable food and service to ensure customer satisfaction.
Can make and food at mcdonalds.

Grill cook example responsibilities.

Manage portions of grill food items and garnish them, regulate temperature of broilers, grills and roasters.
Operate mixers and manage ingredients to meet product quality and uniformity standards.
Utilize for relief management, new hire training, inventory control and profitable aspects of people and service.
Maintain station clean food preparation areas; operate large volume cooking equipment such as grills, deep fryers, or griddles.
High-Pace business catering to the consumer needs using hospitality and culinary expertise to provide proper customer satisfaction.
Cook foods by baking, roasting, broiling, frying, saut? ing, steaming and grilling.

Fast food cook vs grill cook skills

Common fast food cook skills

Food Handling, 18%
Safety Standards, 17%
Customer Service, 10%
Grills, 6%
Kitchen Equipment, 5%
Culinary, 4%

Common grill cook skills

Sanitation Standards, 16%
Kitchen Equipment, 14%
Safety Standards, 13%
Food Handling, 9%
Math, 7%
Dexterity, 5%

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Fast Food Cook vs Grill Cook

Updated January 8, 2025

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