Also called: Corporate Culinary Director, Director of Culinary
Leads all the kitchens and menus for a restaurant group, hotel company, or food brand.
A culinary director creates new menus, tastes dishes at every location, trains head chefs, and works with finance on food costs.
Estimate.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Associate's degree (2-year), about 12 years after high school. Culinary school plus 10+ years as an executive chef.
Ways in: 2-year college, Trade school, On-the-job training. Training cost: Under $15k.
Majors to look at: Culinary Arts, Hospitality Management.
Growing faster than average (about 7% over 10 years). Tracks chef growth.
Low risk for 10 years. AI crunches menu costs and trends; setting the food vision for many kitchens and leading chefs stay human.
Classes: Culinary arts CTE, Business, Chemistry.
Official data: O*NET occupation 35-1011.
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.