How To Become A Meal Cook: What It Is and Career Path

What is a meal cook and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

The average meal cook salary is $33,089. The most common degree is a high school diploma degree with an culinary arts major. It usually takes 2-4 years of experience to become a meal cook. Meal cooks with a Certified Nurse Assistant (CNA) certification earn more money. Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 16% and produce 419,300 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreMeal CookUS Average

Salary

2.6

Avg. Salary $33,089

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.2

Growth rate 16%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

9.3

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.42%

Asian 7.47%

Black or African American 8.31%

Hispanic or Latino 18.52%

Unknown 5.22%

White 59.06%

Gender

female 67.97%

male 32.03%

Age - 37

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 - 37

Stress level

6.2

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

4.3

Complexity level is basic

7 - challenging

Work life balance

7.4

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a meal cook

Explore meal cook education requirements

Most common meal cook degrees

High School Diploma

40.1 %

Associate

29.0 %

Bachelor's

15.4 %

Start to develop specific meal cook skills

Skills	Percentages
Food Safety	28.82%
Food Preparation	21.88%
Companionship	9.60%
Doctor Appointments	8.01%
Food Orders	6.04%

Complete relevant meal cook training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New meal cooks 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 meal cook based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real meal cook resumes.

Research meal cook duties and responsibilities

Develop ability to manage multiple stations simultaneously while maintaining high levels of culinary excellence.
Assist with heavy lifting and drive car to help with groceries and other supplies.
Verify patient information, new medications and allergies educate patients by providing medication and diet information.
Create pizzas for customers as listed or request and run a large pizza oven.

Prepare your meal cook resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your meal cook 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 meal cook resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable meal cook resume templates

Build a professional meal cook 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 meal cook resume.