Also called: Kitchen Prep, Commis
Washes, chops, portions, and pre-cooks ingredients so the line is ready for service.
You show up hours before the restaurant opens and work through a prep list: 20 pounds of onions diced, sauces started, proteins portioned and labeled. Speed and knife skills get you noticed fast. Most chefs started exactly here.
No formal education, about 0 years after high school. No formal education; learned on the job. A culinary certificate speeds things up.
Ways in: On-the-job training, Certification, Trade school. Training cost: Get paid while you train.
Majors to look at: Culinary Arts (certificate).
Growing about average (about 2% over 10 years). Steady openings because of high turnover.
Low risk in 5 years, medium in 10. Slicing and portioning machines take some repetitive prep, mostly at chains; varied scratch-kitchen prep stays human.
Age 16+. One way to start: Apply to restaurants for a prep cook job; you learn knife work on the job
Classes: Culinary arts CTE, Foods & Nutrition class, Math.
Official data: O*NET occupation 35-2021.
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.