Fast food cook vs kitchen cook

The differences between fast food cooks and kitchen 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 kitchen cook. Additionally, a kitchen cook has an average salary of $31,452, 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 kitchen cook are dishes, food handling, and cleanliness.

Fast food cook vs kitchen cook overview

	Fast Food Cook	Kitchen Cook
Yearly salary	$26,093	$31,452
Hourly rate	$12.54	$15.12
Growth rate	16%	16%
Number of jobs	275,335	250,354
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	High School Diploma, 51%	High School Diploma, 44%
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 kitchen cook do?

A kitchen cook prepares food for customers. Kitchen cooks help devise new menu items and methods of cooking. Their duties are to prepare food before the arrival of guests, manage employees in the kitchen, and season food according to recipe needs. They assist other cooks during the food assembly process, estimate food consumption, and organize preparation. They keep records and accounts of food purchases, prepare any necessary sauce before the meal service begins, and so on. As kitchen cooks, they must excel in organizational skills, verbal communication, culinary arts, and kitchen equipment. They should be equipped with knowledge of international cuisines, butchering, and basic computational skills.

Fast food cook vs kitchen cook salary

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

	Fast Food Cook	Kitchen Cook
Average salary	$26,093	$31,452
Salary range	Between $19,000 And $34,000	Between $25,000 And $38,000
Highest paying City	Boston, MA	Boston, MA
Highest paying state	Massachusetts	Massachusetts
Best paying company	Dell	Hilltop Ski Area
Best paying industry	Hospitality	Retail

Differences between fast food cook and kitchen cook education

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

	Fast Food Cook	Kitchen Cook
Most common degree	High School Diploma, 51%	High School Diploma, 44%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	-	-

Fast food cook vs kitchen cook demographics

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

	Fast Food Cook	Kitchen Cook
Average age	38	38
Gender ratio	Male, 74.2% Female, 25.8%	Male, 65.8% Female, 34.2%
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, 8.5% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 17.7% Asian, 9.1% White, 58.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.1%
LGBT Percentage	6%	6%

Differences between fast food cook and kitchen 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.

Kitchen cook example responsibilities.

Operate mixers and manage ingredients to meet product quality and uniformity standards.
Inspect clean and utilize ovens, grills, fryers, mixers, etc.
Experience on grills, fryers, knife handling and slicers.
Experience with fryers, weigh machines, slicers and other similarities.
Used electric ovens and electric stoves.
Regulate temperature of ovens, broilers, grills, and roasters.

Fast food cook vs kitchen cook skills

Common fast food cook skills

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

Common kitchen cook skills

Dishes, 13%
Food Handling, 11%
Cleanliness, 8%
Math, 8%
Basic Math, 8%
Culinary, 7%

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Fast Food Cook vs Kitchen Cook

Updated January 8, 2025

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