What Does a Food Service Specialist Do?

In this section, we compare the average food service specialist annual salary with that of a pastry cook. Typically, pastry cooks earn a $5,572 higher salary than food service specialists earn annually.

While their salaries may differ, one common ground between food service specialists and pastry cooks are a few of the skills required in each craft. In both careers, employees bring forth skills like kitchen equipment, customer service, and cleanliness.

These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. A food service specialist responsibility is more likely to require skills like "preventive maintenance," "mos," "patients," and "servsafe." Whereas a pastry cook requires skills like "culinary," "quality standards," "food safety," and "food preparation." Just by understanding these different skills you can see how different these careers are.

Pastry cooks tend to make the most money in the hospitality industry by averaging a salary of $36,443. In contrast, food service specialists make the biggest average salary of $39,427 in the government industry.

On average, pastry cooks reach similar levels of education than food service specialists. Pastry cooks are 1.5% less likely to earn a Master's Degree and 0.0% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

Now we're going to look at the line cook profession. On average, line cooks earn a $3,608 higher salary than food service specialists a year.

Not everything about these jobs is different. Take their skills, for example. Food service specialists and line cooks both include similar skills like "kitchen equipment," "customer service," and "cleanliness" on their resumes.

But both careers also use different skills, according to real food service specialist resumes. While food service specialist responsibilities can utilize skills like "preventive maintenance," "mos," "patients," and "servsafe," some line cooks use skills like "culinary," "team work," "quality food," and "quality standards."

Line cooks may earn a higher salary than food service specialists, but line cooks earn the most pay in the hospitality industry with an average salary of $32,363. On the other side of things, food service specialists receive higher paychecks in the government industry where they earn an average of $39,427.

On the topic of education, line cooks earn similar levels of education than food service specialists. In general, they're 1.7% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.0% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Let's now take a look at the chef/kitchen manager profession. On average, these workers make higher salaries than food service specialists with a $20,129 difference per year.

Using food service specialists and chef/kitchen managers resumes, we found that both professions have similar skills such as "kitchen equipment," "servsafe," and "sanitation standards," but the other skills required are very different.

As mentioned, these two careers differ between other skills that are required for performing the work exceedingly well. For example, gathering from food service specialists resumes, they are more likely to have skills like "preventive maintenance," "mos," "customer service," and "cleanliness." But a chef/kitchen manager might have skills like "kitchen operations," "culinary," "wine," and "quality standards."

Chef/kitchen managers make a very good living in the hospitality industry with an average annual salary of $44,258. Whereas food service specialists are paid the highest salary in the government industry with the average being $39,427.

Chef/kitchen managers are known to earn similar educational levels when compared to food service specialists. Additionally, they're 1.1% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.0% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Now, we'll look at shift leaders, who generally average a higher pay when compared to food service specialists annual salary. In fact, the difference is about $4,555 per year.

While both food service specialists and shift leaders complete day-to-day tasks using similar skills like customer service, cleanliness, and patients, the two careers also vary in other skills.

Even though a few skill sets overlap, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a food service specialist might have more use for skills like "kitchen equipment," "preventive maintenance," "mos," and "food handling." Meanwhile, some shift leaders might include skills like "customer complaints," "cash handling," "management," and "store operations" on their resume.

In general, shift leaders make a higher salary in the manufacturing industry with an average of $36,581. The highest food service specialist annual salary stems from the government industry.

Shift leaders reach similar levels of education when compared to food service specialists. The difference is that they're 0.9% more likely to earn a Master's Degree less, and 0.0% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.