How To Become A Banquet Chef: What It Is and Career Path

What is a banquet chef and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

A banquet chef is responsible for overseeing food preparation and catering events and ensuring high-class quality and constituency at all times. He/She or she is also in charge of planning, organizing, controlling, and directing employees in the Banquet kitchen department of a commercial establishment. A banquet chef is expected to learn and master the flavors and techniques of different dishes and to always ensure the kitchen is a tidy and clean environment to work in.

Banquet chefs commonly work in hotels, resorts, and country clubs. They take part in creatively putting together a menu for clients in these establishments. In order to succeed in their role, they should have extensive culinary knowledge and experience, attention to detail, creativity, communication skills, interpersonal skills, leadership skills, and people management skills.

Banquet chefs work 40 hours a week in 12-hour shifts. They may be required to work additional hours during peak hours when the establishments record high numbers of clients.

ScoreBanquet ChefUS Average

Salary

3.8

Avg. Salary $48,026

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

9.2

Growth Rate 15%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

7.2

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.67%

Asian 11.21%

Black or African American 10.55%

Hispanic or Latino 16.47%

Unknown 5.19%

White 55.91%

Gender

female 15.11%

male 84.89%

Age - 41

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 41

Stress Level

9.2

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

7.4

Complexity Level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

0.2

Work Life balance is

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a banquet chef

Explore banquet chef education requirements

Most common banquet chef degrees

Associate

59.3 %

Bachelor's

19.4 %

High School Diploma

9.9 %

Start to develop specific banquet chef skills

Skills	Percentages
Culinary	14.00%
Food Preparation	7.79%
Quality Standards	6.54%
Banquet Kitchen	6.27%
Food Quality	3.94%

Complete relevant banquet chef training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New banquet chefs learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a banquet chef based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real banquet chef resumes.

Gain additional banquet chef certifications

Banquet chef certifications can show employers you have a baseline of knowledge expected for the position. Certifications can also make you a more competitive candidate. Even if employers don't require a specific banquet chef certification, having one may help you stand out relative to other applicants.

The most common certifications for banquet chefs include Certified Culinary Administrator (CCA) and Certified Food Manager (CFM).

More About Certifications

Research banquet chef duties and responsibilities

Manage cold kitchen production for a luxury hotel with a Michelin star restaurant
Design and execute stunning, delicious, but simplistic breakfast and lunch buffets in meeting rooms.
Design and prepare decorated foods and arrangements for buffets.
Maintain an excellent level of professionalism and cleanliness to meet state and company regulations.

Prepare your banquet chef resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your banquet chef resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a banquet chef resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Banquet Chef Resume templates

Build a professional Banquet Chef resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Banquet Chef resume.

Apply for banquet chef jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a banquet chef job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do banquet chefs rate their job?

-/5

5 Stars

4 Stars

3 Stars

2 Stars

1 Star

Banquet Chef reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on May 2020

Pros

Design & creating food making customer happy cooking every area as line, prep, steam, broil, grill, creating comfort food desserts and catering. Ordering and managing a kitchen

Cons

Nothing to complain about love being a chef

A zippia user wrote a review on Mar 2019