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.
Fast food cook responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real fast food cook resumes:
- 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.
Fast food cook skills and personality traits
We calculated that 18% of Fast Food Cooks are proficient in Food Handling, Safety Standards, and Customer Service. They’re also known for soft skills such as Comprehension, Sense of taste and smell, and Dexterity.
We break down the percentage of Fast Food Cooks that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Food Handling, 18%
Interpret and enforce State safety guidelines related to food handling and kitchen procedures and equipment.
- Safety Standards, 17%
Clean, stock, and restock workstations, maintain sanitation, health, and safety standards.
- Customer Service, 10%
Provided excellent internal & external customer service.
- Grills, 6%
Operated large volume cooking equipment such as grills, deep fryers, and griddles.
- Kitchen Equipment, 5%
Performed inventory & order control* Operated industrial kitchen equipment.
- Culinary, 4%
Certified Culinary Personnel/ Certified Corporate Trainer
Most fast food cooks use their skills in "food handling," "safety standards," and "customer service" to do their jobs. You can find more detail on essential fast food cook responsibilities here:
Sense of taste and smell. Many fast food cook duties rely on sense of taste and smell. "cooks must have a keen sense of taste and smell to prepare meals that customers enjoy.," so a fast food cook will need this skill often in their role. This resume example is just one of many ways fast food cook responsibilities rely on sense of taste and smell: "take food and drink orders. "
Dexterity. Another skill that relates to the job responsibilities of fast food cooks is dexterity. This skill is critical to many everyday fast food cook duties, as "cooks should have excellent hand–eye coordination." This example from a resume shows how this skill is used: "wash hands prep food to be cooked. "
The three companies that hire the most fast food cooks are:
- McDonald's46 fast food cooks jobs
- Aramark5 fast food cooks jobs
- Rane (risk Assistance Network + Exchange)3 fast food cooks jobs
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Compare different fast food cooks
Fast food cook vs. Pizza maker
As the name entails, pizza makers are the individuals who prepare pizza at restaurants and stores that include pizza in their menus. Besides preparing pizza, they also help with other kitchen operations such as packaging food items, cooking different menus, and maintaining the kitchen and kitchen equipment. Pizza makers are also responsible for training other staff members on how to prepare pizza. There are several requirements needed to become a pizza maker: basic cooking knowledge, having a relevant food certification or license, and the ability to operate kitchen equipment.
There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, fast food cook responsibilities require skills like "food handling," "grills," "culinary," and "workstations." Meanwhile a typical pizza maker has skills in areas such as "clean kitchen," "delivery orders," "food safety," and "phone orders." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.
Pizza makers tend to make the most money working in the technology industry, where they earn an average salary of $29,588. In contrast, fast food cooks make the biggest average salary, $24,399, in the hospitality industry.The education levels that pizza makers earn slightly differ from fast food cooks. In particular, pizza makers are 0.8% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than a fast food cook. Additionally, they're 0.2% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Fast food cook vs. Cook/dishwasher
Cooks/dishwashers must develop kitchen skills to excel in this line of job. Each cook or dishwasher must learn to develop skills in food preparation, sanitation, and customer service. Cooks or dishwashers can be assigned to different areas, either in the kitchen area, food preparation, or in washing dishes. The scope of their responsibilities may include the cooking surface area, specific food items, or menu items. Also, they are expected to maintain the cleanliness of the kitchen, assist in preparing food, and may do any other duties demanded by the chef.
While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that fast food cook responsibilities requires skills like "food handling," "grills," "culinary," and "workstations." But a cook/dishwasher might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "wash dishes," "prep food," "mop floors," and "bus tables."
On average, cook/dishwashers earn a higher salary than fast food cooks. Some industries support higher salaries in each profession. Interestingly enough, cook/dishwashers earn the most pay in the hospitality industry with an average salary of $27,723. Whereas fast food cooks have higher pay in the hospitality industry, with an average salary of $24,399.In general, cook/dishwashers achieve similar levels of education than fast food cooks. They're 1.0% less likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 0.2% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Fast food cook vs. Line cook, prep cook
A line cook/prep cook is responsible for assisting with food preparations, ensuring that all ingredients are readily available and stored safely. Line cook/prep cook tasks also include reviewing and updating menus to keep the customers' patronization. Their duties also include researching the current food industry trends, managing customers' inquiries, resolving serving complaints, monitoring food supplies and inventories, and complying with sanitary regulations. A line cook/prep cook must have excellent time-management and multi-tasking skills to perform various tasks under strict time demands and a fast-paced environment.
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, fast food cooks are more likely to have skills like "grills," "workstations," "food service," and "customer complaints." But a line cook, prep cook is more likely to have skills like "salad station," "line cooks," "quality food," and "exceptional dining."
Line cooks, prep cook earn the highest salary when working in the retail industry, where they receive an average salary of $33,354. Comparatively, fast food cooks have the highest earning potential in the hospitality industry, with an average salary of $24,399.line cooks, prep cook typically earn similar educational levels compared to fast food cooks. Specifically, they're 0.7% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.2% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Fast food cook vs. Cook/trainer
Even though a few skill sets overlap between fast food cooks and cook/trainers, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a fast food cook might have more use for skills like "grills," "food service," "restock workstations," and "drink orders." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of cook/trainers require skills like "cleanliness," "food safety," "haccp," and "cash handling. "
The average resume of cook/trainers showed that they earn similar levels of education compared to fast food cooks. So much so that theyacirc;euro;trade;re 0.3% less likely to earn a Master's Degree and less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree by 0.2%.Types of fast food cook
Updated January 8, 2025
