Specialty foods cook vs lead cook

The differences between specialty foods cooks and lead cooks can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both a specialty foods cook and a lead cook. Additionally, a lead cook has an average salary of $35,964, which is higher than the $31,497 average annual salary of a specialty foods cook.

The top three skills for a specialty foods cook include food handling, basic math and dishes. The most important skills for a lead cook are customer service, food handling, and culinary.

Specialty foods cook vs lead cook overview

	Specialty Foods Cook	Lead Cook
Yearly salary	$31,497	$35,964
Hourly rate	$15.14	$17.29
Growth rate	16%	16%
Number of jobs	189,118	160,223
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	High School Diploma, 50%	Associate Degree, 35%
Average age	38	38
Years of experience	4	4

Specialty foods cook vs lead cook salary

Specialty foods cooks and lead cooks have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Specialty Foods Cook	Lead Cook
Average salary	$31,497	$35,964
Salary range	Between $25,000 And $39,000	Between $27,000 And $46,000
Highest paying City	Boston, MA	Seattle, WA
Highest paying state	Massachusetts	Washington
Best paying company	Ncar - The National Center For Atmospheric Research	Freeport-McMoRan
Best paying industry	Retail	Health Care

Differences between specialty foods cook and lead cook education

There are a few differences between a specialty foods cook and a lead cook in terms of educational background:

	Specialty Foods Cook	Lead Cook
Most common degree	High School Diploma, 50%	Associate Degree, 35%
Most common major	Business	Culinary Arts
Most common college	-	-

Specialty foods cook vs lead cook demographics

Here are the differences between specialty foods cooks' and lead cooks' demographics:

	Specialty Foods Cook	Lead Cook
Average age	38	38
Gender ratio	Male, 72.7% Female, 27.3%	Male, 72.6% Female, 27.4%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 9.9% Unknown, 4.8% Hispanic or Latino, 18.5% Asian, 7.0% White, 58.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.2%	Black or African American, 9.3% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 18.3% Asian, 9.4% White, 57.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.1%
LGBT Percentage	6%	6%

Differences between specialty foods cook and lead cook duties and responsibilities

Specialty foods cook example responsibilities.

Develop ability to manage multiple stations simultaneously while maintaining high levels of culinary excellence.
Operate a large volume of cooking equipment such as grills, deep fryers, and griddles.
Collect orders from customers, clean dining room, wash dishes, safely cook food to customer liking.
Ensure food are stored and cook at correct temperatures by regulating temperature of oven, broilers, grills and roasters.
Bag merchandise by following standard procedures.maintain Drive-thru times.
Leverage teamwork to fully utilize kitchen staff to generate remarkable food and service to ensure customer satisfaction.

Lead cook example responsibilities.

Manage food expo; facilitate food temp logs; creation of menu specials; management and supervision of production staff
Manage inventory and purchasing of groceries.
Operate standard cooking equipment including slicers, food choppers, fryers, refrigerators, ovens and stoves.
Operate ovens, stoves, grills, microwaves, turbo chefs, and fryers.
Use and clean commercial ovens, meat slicers, steamers, combination ovens and steam kettles.
Operate ovens, stoves, grills, microwaves, kettles, and tilt skillet.

Specialty foods cook vs lead cook skills

Common specialty foods cook skills

Food Handling, 45%
Basic Math, 35%
Dishes, 5%
Food Service, 4%
Safety Standards, 3%
Food Products, 1%

Common lead cook skills

Customer Service, 14%
Food Handling, 14%
Culinary, 11%
Food Service, 11%
Kitchen Equipment, 7%
Math, 5%

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Food Preparation and Restaurant Industry
Specialty Foods Cook
Specialty Foods Cook vs Lead Cook

Updated January 8, 2025

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