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!
Sous Chef Overview
Sous Chef Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a sous chef. For example, did you know that they make an average of $21.96 an hour? That's $45,673 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 11% and produce 15,400 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Sous Chef Do
There are certain skills that many sous 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.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a sous chef, we found that a lot of resumes listed 10.5% of sous chefs included food preparation, while 9.0% of resumes included kitchen equipment, and 8.3% of resumes included customer service. 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 sous chef job title. But what industry to start with? Most sous chefs actually find jobs in the hospitality and retail industries.
How To Become a Sous Chef
If you're interested in becoming a sous chef, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 20.8% of sous chefs have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 1.6% of sous chefs have master's degrees. Even though some sous chefs 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 sous chef. When we researched the most common majors for a sous chef, we found that they most commonly earn associate degree degrees or bachelor's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on sous chef resumes include high school diploma degrees or diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a sous chef. In fact, many sous chef jobs require experience in a role such as line cook. Meanwhile, many sous chefs also have previous career experience in roles such as cook or chef.
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Sous Chef 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 executive chef you might progress to a role such as general manager eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title director of food and beverage.
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 Sous Chef
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Goodwin Recruiting Restaurant Sous Chef Restaurant Sous Chef | Goodwin Recruiting Goodwin Recruiting | 01/31/2021 01/31/2021 | $70,00001/31/2021 $70,000 |
Goodwin Recruiting Sous Chef Sous Chef | Goodwin Recruiting Goodwin Recruiting | 01/30/2021 01/30/2021 | $58,00001/30/2021 $58,000 |
Goodwin Recruiting Sous Chef Sous Chef | Goodwin Recruiting Goodwin Recruiting | 01/30/2021 01/30/2021 | $31,30501/30/2021 $31,305 |
Goodwin Recruiting Sous Chef/Cook Sous Chef/Cook | Goodwin Recruiting Goodwin Recruiting | 01/30/2021 01/30/2021 | $41,74001/30/2021 $41,740 |
Holiday Retirement Sous Chef Sous Chef | Holiday Retirement Holiday Retirement | 01/29/2021 01/29/2021 | $39,65301/29/2021 $39,653 |
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Sous Chef 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 Sous Chef. 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 Sous Chef Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Sous Chef 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 Colleges for Sous Chefs
1. Drexel University
Philadelphia, PA • Private
2. University of Cincinnati
Cincinnati, OH • Public
3. Cornell University
Ithaca, NY • Private
4. University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX • Public
5. Boston University
Boston, MA • Private
6. Southwest Minnesota State University
Marshall, MN • Public
7. Inter American University of Puerto Rico Ponce
Mercedita, PR • Private
Top Skills For a Sous Chef
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, 10.5% of sous chefs listed food preparation on their resume, but soft skills such as business skills and communication skills are important as well.
- Food Preparation, 10.5%
- Kitchen Equipment, 9.0%
- Customer Service, 8.3%
- High Volume, 8.2%
- Menu Items, 6.9%
- Other Skills, 57.1% See All Sous Chef Skills
Best States For a Sous Chef
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a sous chef. The best states for people in this position are Hawaii, Rhode Island, Delaware, and Washington. Sous chefs make the most in Hawaii with an average salary of $71,633. Whereas in Rhode Island and Delaware, they would average $60,211 and $60,196, respectively. While sous chefs would only make an average of $58,585 in Washington, 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. District of Columbia
$60,458
Avg. Salary
2. Nevada
$51,371
Avg. Salary
3. Hawaii
$71,633
Avg. Salary
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