How To Become A Master Chef: What It Is and Career Path

What is a master chef and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a master chef. For example, did you know that they make an average of $20.44 an hour? That's $42,525 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 15% and produce 23,600 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreMaster ChefUS Average

Salary

3.3

Avg. Salary $42,525

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

9.2

Growth rate 15%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

7.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.85%

Asian 12.43%

Black or African American 11.20%

Hispanic or Latino 17.00%

Unknown 5.55%

White 52.97%

Gender

female 33.19%

male 66.81%

Age - 41

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 41

Stress level

9.2

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

7.4

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

0.2

Work life balance is

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a master chef

Explore master chef education requirements

Most common master chef degrees

Bachelor's

36.3 %

Associate

26.5 %

Diploma

13.7 %

Start to develop specific master chef skills

Skills	Percentages
Dinner Service	31.86%
Food Products	23.70%
Cuisine	23.66%
Food Service	12.16%
BBQ	8.63%

Complete relevant master chef training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New master chefs learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a master chef based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real master chef resumes.

Research master chef duties and responsibilities

Integrate key culinary leaders into casino and food and beverage operations, achieving positive results and industry awards.
Serve American traditional cuisine in a family, shared-plate orientation while providing excellent customer service and mingling with high priority customers.
Specialize in Italian, Mediterranean and French/Classical bistro establishments.

Prepare your master chef resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your master chef resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a master chef resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable master chef resume templates

Build a professional master chef resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your master chef resume.

Apply for master chef jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a master chef job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do master chefs rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Master chef reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on May 2020

Pros

Design & creating food making customer happy cooking every area as line, prep, steam, broil, grill, creating comfort food desserts and catering. Ordering and managing a kitchen

Cons

Nothing to complain about love being a chef