Food Service35-2014.00Specialization

Cooks, Restaurant

Prepare, season, and cook dishes such as soups, meats, vegetables, or desserts in restaurants. May order supplies, keep records and accounts, price items on menu, or plan menu.

$35,780

Median Pay

Less than 6 months

Training

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AI-Resilient

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This is a specialization of

Cooks

Career Overview Video

AI Impact Assessment

AI Resilience Score

Score 5/6: low AI task exposure, growing job demand provides strong protection from AI displacement

🟢AI-Resilient

How we calculated this:

AI Exposure

Low+2

9% of tasks can be accelerated by AI

Job Growth

Growing+2

+15% projected (2024-2034)

Human Advantage

Moderate+1

EPOCH score: 12/25

Total Score5/6

Methodology: v2.0 - GPTs are GPTs / BLS / EPOCH Additive ScoringUpdated: 2026-01-09

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Key Responsibilities

Ensure food is stored and cooked at correct temperature by regulating temperature of ovens, broilers, grills, and roasters.
Inspect and clean food preparation areas, such as equipment, work surfaces, and serving areas, to ensure safe and sanitary food-handling practices.
Portion, arrange, and garnish food, and serve food to waiters or patrons.
Ensure freshness of food and ingredients by checking for quality, keeping track of old and new items, and rotating stock.
Season and cook food according to recipes or personal judgment and experience.
Coordinate and supervise work of kitchen staff.
Bake, roast, broil, and steam meats, fish, vegetables, and other foods.
Weigh, measure, and mix ingredients according to recipes or personal judgment, using various kitchen utensils and equipment.
Turn or stir foods to ensure even cooking.
Observe and test foods to determine if they have been cooked sufficiently, using methods such as tasting, smelling, or piercing them with utensils.

Education & Training

Typical Entry Education

High school diploma or equivalent

Time to Job Ready

0-1 years

Based on Job Zone 2. For formal education duration only, see education_duration.

Technology Skills

POS systemsRecipe managementInventory softwareKitchen display systems

Key Abilities

Near VisionManual DexterityProblem SensitivityOral ComprehensionOral ExpressionInformation OrderingPerceptual SpeedSelective AttentionTime SharingArm-Hand Steadiness

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Compensation Details

$26,980

10th Percentile

$35,780

Median

$46,420

90th Percentile

Based on 1,412,350 employed workers

Also Known As

Back Line CookBack of House Team Member (BOH Team Member)Banquet CookBreakfast CookBroiler CookChef De PartieCookForeign Food Specialty CookFry CookGrill Cook

Data from O*NET 30.1 and BLS Occupational Employment Statistics

O*NET Code: 35-2014.00