What is a Head Chef?

A head chef is a professional cook who deals with directing and controlling food preparations and approval before they are served. Head chefs are generally responsible for everything that goes on in the employer's kitchen or restaurant. As a head chef, not only will you be required to create menu items, you will also need to coordinate and monitor the activities of other cooks. You will be tasked with hiring, training, and firing the kitchen staff. Furthermore, you will be held accountable for any defects or problems concerning the restaurant or food served.

To land a job as a head chef, you need to have proven experience in kitchen management. You must have very good leadership and communication skills and adequate knowledge of the latest kitchen processes and culinary trends. You also need a degree in culinary science or a related field. Head chefs earn an average salary of $44,181 annually or $21.24 every hour.

What Does a Head Chef Do

There are certain skills that many head chefs have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed business skills, communication skills and creativity.

Learn more about what a Head Chef does

How To Become a Head Chef

If you're interested in becoming a head chef, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 23.7% of head chefs have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 1.4% of head chefs have master's degrees. Even though some head chefs have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Learn More About How To Become a Head Chef

Top Head Chef Jobs Near You

Head Chef Career Paths

As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a head chef can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as executive chef, progress to a title such as general manager and then eventually end up with the title director of food and beverage.

Average Salary for a Head Chef

Head Chefs in America make an average salary of $45,470 per year or $22 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $71,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $28,000 per year.

Average Head Chef Salary

$45,470 Yearly

$21.86 hourly

$28,00010%

$45,000Median

$71,00090%

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What Am I Worth?

Roles and Types of Head Chef

The role of a head chef includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general head chef responsibilities:

Training, and coaching employees, planning, assigning
The head chef& kitchen lead leads preparation
The head chef shall be responsible for food service related business

There are several types of head chef, including:

Chef

Role:

MMM, do you smell that? Working as a chef comes with some good-smelling perks, especially if you're good at what you do. Chefs are in charge of preparing food for establishments where food is served, typically restaurants.

The schedule of a chef varies widely depending on where you're cooking. Sometimes they work early mornings, late evenings, weekends and even holidays. Yes, people still want to eat your delicious food on Christmas

Average Salary: $46,824
Degree: Associate Degree

Overview How To Become Job Description Jobs

Sous Chef

Role:

Chefs are often considered artists, who create culinary masterpieces pleasing to vision and palate alike. Sous chefs are there at every step of the process, assisting the head chef, in a professionally run kitchen, in making the magic happen.

They contribute to creating the menu, making sure every necessary ingredient is in stock and fresh, supervise sanitation, and do everything in their power to reach the expected quality standard of the meals.

Defying stereotypical gender roles, or perhaps adhering to less obvious ones, the sous chef position is primarily filled by men, especially in high-end kitchens. With all the long hours, heat, and a high-pressure working environment, prejudice against women has them framed as not being physically and emotionally strong enough to work in kitchens, and receive fewer opportunities to hold high-status jobs as cooks.

Restaurants behind the scenes are apparently not just the site for exquisite food preparation but prove to be an excellent field for institutionalized sexism as well. Go sous chefettes, it is high time to change this demographic!

Average Salary: $48,716
Degree: Associate Degree

Overview How To Become Job Description Jobs

Head Cook

Role:

A Head Cook, aka the chef, is responsible for running a kitchen, usually in a high-end establishment. They delegate tasks and oversee the work of everyone involved in food preparation, making sure that the result is nothing but exquisite delicacies. They come up with new recipes, create the menu, and make sure the necessary ingredients are always in stock.

Head cooks are deeply passionate about cooking. They live and die for tasty food and know a lot about other countries' culinary cultures. They consider their profession art, rather than anything else, and just like a poet has a favorite pen, you will recognize an authentic head cook by the fact that he/she favors one knife over all others.

Not that salaries matter to a real artist; just for your information, head cooks in the U.S. make an average of $48,098 per year.

Average Salary: $44,412
Degree: High School Diploma

Overview How To Become Job Description Jobs

States With The Most Head Chef Jobs

Mouse over a state to see the number of active head chef jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where head chefs earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.

Average Salary: Job Openings:

Number Of Head Chef Jobs By State

Rank	State	Number of Jobs	Average Salary
1	California	796	$53,633
2	Texas	658	$49,525
3	New York	587	$52,343
4	Florida	506	$44,178
5	Massachusetts	325	$56,283
6	Pennsylvania	300	$46,760
7	Georgia	295	$39,524
8	North Carolina	279	$42,447
9	Virginia	262	$44,945
10	Illinois	258	$51,230
11	Ohio	226	$42,126
12	Tennessee	225	$32,291
13	Arizona	218	$38,253
14	Colorado	207	$40,891
15	Washington	184	$52,995
16	Michigan	183	$47,146
17	New Jersey	181	$68,904
18	Indiana	152	$44,480
19	Minnesota	149	$43,850
20	Maryland	140	$47,538
21	Missouri	137	$39,371
22	South Carolina	136	$32,267
23	Utah	121	$31,743
24	Connecticut	115	$42,728
25	Oregon	97	$45,122
26	Wisconsin	94	$36,608
27	Nevada	76	$54,225
28	New Hampshire	73	$47,060
29	Kentucky	73	$39,727
30	Iowa	71	$36,593
31	Alabama	63	$41,651
32	Mississippi	61	$39,202
33	Montana	58	$35,154
34	Alaska	56	$50,198
35	Louisiana	56	$37,594
36	Oklahoma	55	$38,718
37	Rhode Island	50	$55,352
38	Kansas	41	$32,304
39	Maine	37	$45,538
40	Delaware	34	$44,833
41	New Mexico	31	$39,922
42	Idaho	31	$27,807
43	Arkansas	27	$34,736
44	Nebraska	26	$37,122
45	Wyoming	20	$43,049
46	Hawaii	16	$69,678
47	North Dakota	15	$39,323
48	South Dakota	15	$38,630
49	West Virginia	15	$37,950
50	Vermont	14	$36,628

Head Chef Education

Head Chef Majors

Culinary Arts

51.6 %

Business

11.8 %

Hospitality Management

6.5 %

Head Chef Degrees

Associate

42.9 %

The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 26.6% of head chefs listed kitchen operations on their resume, but soft skills such as business skills and communication skills are important as well.

Kitchen Operations, 26.6%

Culinary, 9.2%

Dinner Service, 6.3%

Food Service, 4.6%

Cuisine, 3.3%

Other Skills, 50.0%

Choose From 10+ Customizable Head Chef Resume templates

Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Head Chef templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Head Chef resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.

Head Chef diversity

Head Chef Gender Distribution

Male

80%

Female

20%

After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:

Among head chefs, 20.2% of them are women, while 79.8% are men.

The most common race/ethnicity among head chefs is White, which makes up 56.1% of all head chefs.

The most common foreign language among head chefs is Spanish at 39.4%.

Online Courses For Head Chef That You May Like

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Best States For a Head Chef

Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a head chef. The best states for people in this position are Hawaii, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. Head chefs make the most in Hawaii with an average salary of $69,678. Whereas in New Jersey and Massachusetts, they would average $68,904 and $56,283, respectively. While head chefs would only make an average of $55,352 in Rhode Island, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.

1. Rhode Island

Total Head Chef Jobs: 50

Highest 10% Earn:

$89,000

Location Quotient:

1.48

$55,352

Avg. Salary

View 50 Head Chef Jobs In RI

2. Nevada

Total Head Chef Jobs: 76

Highest 10% Earn:

$85,000

Location Quotient:

1.31

$54,225

Avg. Salary

View 76 Head Chef Jobs In NV

3. Massachusetts

Total Head Chef Jobs: 325

Highest 10% Earn:

$91,000

Location Quotient:

1.28

$56,283

Avg. Salary

View 325 Head Chef Jobs In MA

Full List Of Best States For Head Chefs

How Do Head Chefs Rate Their Jobs?

Top Head Chef Employers

Most Common Employers For Head Chef

Rank	Company	Average Salary	Hourly Rate	Job Openings
1	Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics	$72,267	$34.74	7
2	Goodwin Recruiting	$55,959	$26.90	10
3	Darden Restaurants	$51,419	$24.72	13
4	Hilton	$49,140	$23.63	18
5	Campus Cooks	$48,453	$23.29	7
6	College Chefs	$47,856	$23.01	9
7	Marriott International	$46,060	$22.14	8
8	Buffalo Wild Wings	$45,334	$21.80	9
9	Applebee's Canada	$44,630	$21.46	9
10	Golden Corral	$43,982	$21.15	12

Updated April 6, 2023

What is a Head Chef?

What Does a Head Chef Do

How To Become a Head Chef

Head Chef Career Paths

Average Salary for a Head Chef

Roles and Types of Head Chef

Chef

Role:

Sous Chef

Role:

Head Cook

Role:

States With The Most Head Chef Jobs

Number Of Head Chef Jobs By State

Head Chef Education

Head Chef Majors

Head Chef Degrees

Top Colleges for Head Chefs

1. Drexel University

2. University of Cincinnati

3. Cornell University

4. University of Texas at Austin

5. Boston University

6. Southwest Minnesota State University

7. Inter American University of Puerto Rico Ponce

Top Skills For a Head Chef

Choose From 10+ Customizable Head Chef Resume templates

Head Chef diversity

Head Chef Gender Distribution

Online Courses For Head Chef That You May Like

Best States For a Head Chef

How Do Head Chefs Rate Their Jobs?

Top Head Chef Employers

Most Common Employers For Head Chef

Head Chef Related Careers

Head Chef Related Jobs

What Similar Roles Do

Resume For Related Jobs