Lead Cook Overview
Working as a Lead Cook
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a lead cook. For example, did you know that they make an average of $15.77 an hour? That's $32,793 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 11% and produce 282,000 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Lead Cook Do
There are certain skills that many lead cooks 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 comprehension, dexterity and physical stamina.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a lead cook, we found that a lot of resumes listed 17.7% of lead cooks included customer service, while 13.6% of resumes included food service, and 12.9% of resumes included kitchen equipment. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the lead cook job title. But what industry to start with? Most lead cooks actually find jobs in the hospitality and health care industries.
How To Become a Lead Cook
If you're interested in becoming a lead cook, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 15.3% of lead cooks have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 1.2% of lead cooks have master's degrees. Even though some lead cooks have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a lead cook. When we researched the most common majors for a lead cook, we found that they most commonly earn high school diploma degrees or associate degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on lead cook resumes include bachelor's degree degrees or diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a lead cook. In fact, many lead cook jobs require experience in a role such as cook. Meanwhile, many lead cooks also have previous career experience in roles such as line cook or sous chef.
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Lead Cook Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of kitchen manager you might progress to a role such as general manager eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title district manager.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for a Lead Cook
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Olive U Grill Lead Cook Lead Cook | Olive U Grill Olive U Grill | 01/29/2021 01/29/2021 | $41,74001/29/2021 $41,740 |
Sodexo Lead Cook Lead Cook | Sodexo Sodexo | 01/29/2021 01/29/2021 | $27,65301/29/2021 $27,653 |
The Reserves Network Cook 1St. Shift Cook 1St. Shift | The Reserves Network The Reserves Network | 01/28/2021 01/28/2021 | $29,21801/28/2021 $29,218 |
Salvation Army USA Lead Cook Lead Cook | Salvation Army USA Salvation Army USA | 01/28/2021 01/28/2021 | $22,95701/28/2021 $22,957 |
South Suburban Parks and Recreation Lead Cook Lead Cook | South Suburban Parks and Recreation South Suburban Parks and Recreation | 01/28/2021 01/28/2021 | $28,88401/28/2021 $28,884 |
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Lead Cook Resumes
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming a Lead Cook. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write a Lead Cook Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Lead Cook resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationTop Skills For a Lead Cook
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, 17.7% of lead cooks listed customer service on their resume, but soft skills such as comprehension and dexterity are important as well.
- Customer Service, 17.7%
- Food Service, 13.6%
- Kitchen Equipment, 12.9%
- Menu Items, 12.1%
- Storage Areas, 7.3%
- Other Skills, 36.4% See All Lead Cook Skills
Best States For a Lead Cook
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a lead cook. The best states for people in this position are Rhode Island, Vermont, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. Lead cooks make the most in Rhode Island with an average salary of $38,325. Whereas in Vermont and New Jersey, they would average $37,983 and $37,743, respectively. While lead cooks would only make an average of $37,330 in Massachusetts, 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. Nevada
$34,774
Avg. Salary
2. Florida
$34,129
Avg. Salary
3. Rhode Island
$38,326
Avg. Salary
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