How To Become A Culinary Assistant: What It Is and Career Path

What is a culinary assistant and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted Expert

Patti Stobaugh

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a culinary assistant. For example, did you know that they make an average of $15.94 an hour? That's $33,149 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 2% and produce 17,700 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a Culinary Assistant?

Patti Stobaugh

Owner, PattiCakes Bakery and Stoby's Restaurant

Being humble and willing to learn will take you far in your career, not just in the beginning. If you have the desire to open your own food service business, go to work for a business that has a great reputation. That will give you the opportunity to learn so much.

ScoreCulinary AssistantUS Average

Salary

2.6

Avg. Salary $33,149

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

4.8

Growth Rate 2%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.4

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.91%

Asian 7.63%

Black or African American 11.12%

Hispanic or Latino 16.68%

Unknown 4.76%

White 58.90%

Gender

female 46.81%

male 53.19%

Age - 34

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 - 34

Stress Level

4.8

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

6.2

Complexity Level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

6.6

Work Life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a culinary assistant

Explore culinary assistant education requirements

Most common culinary assistant degrees

Bachelor's

28.7 %

Associate

28.2 %

High School Diploma

27.8 %

Start to develop specific culinary assistant skills

Skills	Percentages
Culinary	20.40%
Meal Service	14.89%
Kitchen Equipment	11.80%
Food Handling	11.18%
Customer Service	10.30%

Complete relevant culinary assistant training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New culinary assistants 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 culinary assistant based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real culinary assistant resumes.

Research culinary assistant duties and responsibilities

Rotate food for students (FIFO).
Prep, cook and serve for buffets.
Follow HACCP policies and procedures to ensure the safe preparation of all food items.
Prepare a variety of foods using techniques such as baking, grilling, saut ing, roasting, and frying.

Prepare your culinary assistant resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your culinary assistant 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 culinary assistant resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Culinary Assistant Resume templates

Build a professional Culinary Assistant 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 Culinary Assistant resume.

Apply for culinary assistant jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a culinary assistant 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 culinary assistants rate their job?

-/5

5 Stars

4 Stars

3 Stars

2 Stars

1 Star

Culinary Assistant reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Jul 2020

Pros

Not sedentary, moving around. Creativity.

Cons

Repetitive tasks. Or obviously, working with people who are highly critical.

A zippia user wrote a review on Jul 2019