Also called: Dim Sum Master, Dim Sum Cook
Hand-makes hundreds of tiny Cantonese dumplings, buns and rolls each morning for dim sum restaurants, folding each one with exact pleats.
At 5 a.m. he rolls translucent wheat-starch wrappers and folds shrimp dumplings with 10 pleats each, then 300 pork siu mai. By 10 a.m. bamboo steamers are stacked high and carts roll out to a full dining room. He spends his break teaching an apprentice to fold faster.
Estimate; master chefs earn more.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
High school diploma, about 3 years after high school. No degree; years of apprenticeship in a dim sum kitchen.
Ways in: Apprenticeship, On-the-job training. Training cost: Get paid while you train.
Majors to look at: Culinary Arts.
Growing about average. Experienced dim sum chefs are scarce, and many restaurants struggle to hire them.
Medium risk for 10 years. Dumpling machines make cheap frozen dim sum, but restaurants still prize skilled hand folding.
Classes: Culinary arts, Art, Chinese.
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.