Also called: Culinary Director (chains), VP of Culinary
Creates and tests menu items for restaurant chains or food-service companies, rolling them out to hundreds of locations.
You develop a new menu item in a test kitchen, then figure out how 400 restaurants with average cooks can make it the same way every time. You travel to locations, work with suppliers, and present to executives. It blends cooking with business strategy.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Bachelor's degree (4-year), about 4 years after high school. Culinary degree plus business experience; many have a bachelor's.
Ways in: 4-year college, 2-year college, On-the-job training. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Culinary Arts, Culinology, Food Science, Hospitality Management.
Growing faster than average.
Low risk in 5 years, medium in 10. AI speeds recipe scaling, costing and trend analysis, so smaller test-kitchen teams; tasting and rollout stay human.
Classes: Culinary arts CTE, Chemistry, Business.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.