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.
Most important skills
- Speaking
- Critical Thinking
- Monitoring
- Time Management
- Active Listening
- Reading Comprehension
- Active Learning
- Coordination
Key knowledge
- Food Production
- English Language
- Customer and Personal Service
- Production and Processing
- Education and Training
- Mathematics
- Administration and Management
- Sales and Marketing
What the work involves
- Turn or stir foods to ensure even cooking.
- Season and cook food according to recipes or personal judgment and experience.
- Observe and test foods to determine if they have been cooked sufficiently, using methods such as tasting, smelling, or piercing them with utensils.
- Weigh, measure, and mix ingredients according to recipes or personal judgment, using various kitchen utensils and equipment.
- Portion, arrange, and garnish food, and serve food to waiters or patrons.
- Substitute for or assist other cooks during emergencies or rush periods.
- Bake, roast, broil, and steam meats, fish, vegetables, and other foods.
- Wash, peel, cut, and seed fruits and vegetables to prepare them for consumption.
Strongest interest areas (O*NET): Realistic, Conventional, Enterprising.
Qualifications and licensing
- Most common education
- High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) (47.3% of respondents)
- Related experience
- None (37.1%)
- On-the-job training
- Anything beyond short demonstration, up to and including 1 month (61%)
- Preparation level
- O*NET job zone 2: Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed
- Licensing
- Not yet verified. Check your state licensing board.
Check before planning
- Licensing for Cooks, Restaurant is not yet verified for any state: check the state licensing board before planning.
Limits
- Distributions show what current workers or occupational experts report, not legal minimums.
- Requirements vary by employer and state; time to qualify is not estimated.
Source: O*NET 31.0 Database (USDOL/ETA, CC BY 4.0); BLS Employment Projections · dataset 2026.10.8 · method e3-qualification-1.0.0
Work environment
How the typical conditions of this occupation compare with 911 occupations in O*NET (very low = the lowest fifth).
Levels are relative. Most occupations involve a lot of contact with people, for example, so “very low” can still mean regular contact; the last column shows what workers actually reported.
| Condition | Level | Compared with other occupations | Most common answer (O*NET survey) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contact with others | Low | Lower on contact with others than 69% of occupations compared | 46% of surveyed respondents chose “Constant contact with others” |
| Dealing with the public | Low | Lower on dealing with the public than 77% of occupations compared | 30% of surveyed respondents chose “Fairly important” |
| Teamwork | Low | Lower on teamwork than 65% of occupations compared | 51% of surveyed respondents chose “Very important” |
| Freedom to make decisions | Low | Lower on freedom to make decisions than 77% of occupations compared | 37% of surveyed respondents chose “A lot of freedom” |
| Time pressure | Very low | Lower on time pressure than 93% of occupations compared | 36% of surveyed respondents chose “Never” |
| Conflict situations | Low | Lower on conflict situations than 73% of occupations compared | 29% of surveyed respondents chose “Once a year or more but not every month” |
| Dealing with unpleasant or angry people | Low | Lower on dealing with unpleasant or angry people than 61% of occupations compared | 59% of surveyed respondents chose “Once a year or more but not every month” |
| Consequence of error | Low | Lower on consequence of error than 69% of occupations compared | 36% of surveyed respondents chose “Not serious at all” |
Work-pressure profile
- Time pressure: very low
- Conflict situations: low
- Dealing with unpleasant or angry people: low
- Consequence of error: low
Each part is shown on its own. There is no combined stress score, and conditions vary by employer and role.
Full answer distributions
Contact with others
- No contact with others: 0.6%
- Occasional contact with others: 14.15%
- Contact with others about half the time: 4.67%
- Contact with others most of the time: 34.43%
- Constant contact with others: 46.16%
n = 22, Incumbent 08/2025
Dealing with the public
- Not important at all: 26.06%
- Fairly important: 29.98%
- Important: 16.5%
- Very important: 5.63%
- Extremely important: 21.82%
n = 23, Incumbent 08/2025
Teamwork
- Not important at all: 0%
- Fairly important: 2.55%
- Important: 16.91%
- Very important: 50.91%
- Extremely important: 29.62%
n = 22, Incumbent 08/2025
Freedom to make decisions
- No freedom: 1.09%
- Very little freedom: 11.31%
- Limited freedom: 32.73%
- Some freedom: 17.9%
- A lot of freedom: 36.97%
n = 23, Incumbent 08/2025
Time pressure
- Never: 35.92%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 2.82%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 12.93%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 18.5%
- Every day: 29.83%
n = 22, Incumbent 08/2025
Conflict situations
- Never: 27.13%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 28.88%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 27.92%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 0.57%
- Every day: 15.49%
n = 22, Incumbent 08/2025
Dealing with unpleasant or angry people
- Never: 6.77%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 58.8%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 13.6%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 9.95%
- Every day: 10.89%
n = 23, Incumbent 08/2025
Consequence of error
- Not serious at all: 35.77%
- Fairly serious: 16.5%
- Serious: 17.7%
- Very serious: 13.34%
- Extremely serious: 16.69%
n = 23, Incumbent 08/2025
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O*NET-SOC 35-2014.00 · SOC 35-2014 (exact, high confidence) · dataset 2026.10.8