Also called: Chef Instructor, Cooking Teacher
Teaches cooking at culinary schools, community colleges, high school CTE programs, or recreational cooking schools.
You demo knife cuts and sauces, then coach 16 students through cooking them while grading their technique. Recreational instructors teach date-night pasta classes. Many former chefs love the steady hours.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Associate's degree (2-year), about 2 years after high school. Industry experience plus associate or bachelor's degree.
Ways in: 2-year college, 4-year college, On-the-job training. Training cost: Under $15k.
Majors to look at: Culinary Arts, Education.
Growing about average (about 2% over 10 years).
Low risk for 10 years. Video lessons support classes, but teaching knife skills and cooking in a kitchen lab stays hands-on.
Classes: Culinary arts CTE, Speech, Chemistry.
Official data: O*NET occupation 25-1194.
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.