Under the direction of a head chef, you'll know exactly what to prepare for as a prep cook. It is essentially your job to make sure the food and kitchen area is prepped for the creation of delicious meals.
Typically, this is a part-time job. But you might be able to find a full-time position somewhere. In your position, you'll be working in a restaurant, hotel, or another establishment that serves food.
As a prep cook, you won't need much education to get by. In fact, the position doesn't require any formal education, but you will need to go through some training, once you're hired. And when we say training, we mean several weeks of on-the-job training. By the end of it, you'll be a sharp prep cook, ready to slice and dice.
Prep Cook Overview
Prep Cook Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a prep cook. For example, did you know that they make an average of $12.23 an hour? That's $25,441 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 Prep Cook Do
There are certain skills that many prep 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 dexterity, physical stamina and sense of taste and smell.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a prep cook, we found that a lot of resumes listed 15.1% of prep cooks included sanitation standards, while 12.4% of resumes included kitchen equipment, and 8.2% of resumes included high volume. 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 prep cook job title. But what industry to start with? Most prep cooks actually find jobs in the hospitality and retail industries.
How To Become a Prep Cook
If you're interested in becoming a prep cook, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 12.4% of prep cooks have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 0.7% of prep cooks have master's degrees. Even though some prep 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 prep cook. When we researched the most common majors for a prep cook, we found that they most commonly earn high school diploma degrees or associate degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on prep cook resumes include bachelor's degree degrees or diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a prep cook. In fact, many prep cook jobs require experience in a role such as cashier. Meanwhile, many prep cooks also have previous career experience in roles such as cook or line cook.
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Prep Cook 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 prep cook can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as line cook, progress to a title such as sous chef and then eventually end up with the title general manager.
Prep Cook
General Manager
6 Years
Director Of Food And Beverage
9 Years
Food Service Director
9 Years
Business Owner
6 Years
Assistant General Manager
5 Years
Food And Beverage Manager
5 Years
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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 Prep Cook
Prep Cooks in America make an average salary of $25,441 per year or $12 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $31,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $20,000 per year.
Average Salary
$25,441
Best Paying Cities
City
Average Salary
$16k
$39k
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Upward Projects Prep Cook-Co Postino 9CO Prep Cook-Co Postino 9CO | Upward Projects Upward Projects | 01/31/2021 01/31/2021 | $33,39201/31/2021 $33,392 |
Maverik Food Service/Prep Cook Food Service/Prep Cook | Maverik Maverik | 01/30/2021 01/30/2021 | $20,87001/30/2021 $20,870 |
Drury Plaza Hotel Nashville Downtown Prep Cook Prep Cook | Drury Plaza Hotel Nashville Downtown Drury Plaza Hotel Nashville Downtown | 01/30/2021 01/30/2021 | $31,30501/30/2021 $31,305 |
Peopleready Prep Cook Prep Cook | Peopleready Peopleready | 01/29/2021 01/29/2021 | $25,04401/29/2021 $25,044 |
Peopleready Prep Cook Prep Cook | Peopleready Peopleready | 01/29/2021 01/29/2021 | $22,95701/29/2021 $22,957 |
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Prep 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 Prep 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 Prep Cook Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Prep 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 InformationJob type you want
Full Time
Part Time
Internship
Temporary
Top Skills For a Prep 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, 15.1% of prep cooks listed sanitation standards on their resume, but soft skills such as dexterity and physical stamina are important as well.
- Sanitation Standards, 15.1%
- Kitchen Equipment, 12.4%
- High Volume, 8.2%
- Positive Attitude, 6.4%
- Communication, 5.3%
- Other Skills, 52.6% See All Prep Cook Skills
Best States For a Prep Cook
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a prep cook. The best states for people in this position are Hawaii, Washington, Alaska, and Massachusetts. Prep cooks make the most in Hawaii with an average salary of $37,079. Whereas in Washington and Alaska, they would average $33,242 and $32,237, respectively. While prep cooks would only make an average of $30,847 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. Alaska
Total Prep Cook Jobs:
119
Highest 10% Earn:
$38,000
Location Quotient:
0.8
Location Quotient is a measure used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to determine how concentrated a certain industry is in a single state compared to the nation as a whole. You can read more about how BLS calculates location quotients here
$32,237
Avg. Salary
2. Hawaii
Total Prep Cook Jobs:
107
Highest 10% Earn:
$50,000
Location Quotient:
0.72
Location Quotient is a measure used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to determine how concentrated a certain industry is in a single state compared to the nation as a whole. You can read more about how BLS calculates location quotients here
$37,079
Avg. Salary
3. Washington
Total Prep Cook Jobs:
697
Highest 10% Earn:
$43,000
Location Quotient:
0.53
Location Quotient is a measure used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to determine how concentrated a certain industry is in a single state compared to the nation as a whole. You can read more about how BLS calculates location quotients here
$33,242
Avg. Salary
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