How To Become A Food Stylist: What It Is and Career Path

What is a food stylist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a food stylist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $17.75 an hour? That's $36,910 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 14% and produce 775,300 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreFood StylistUS Average

Salary

2.9

Avg. Salary $36,910

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

7.0

Growth Rate 14%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

2.9

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.85%

Asian 6.49%

Black or African American 9.64%

Hispanic or Latino 18.63%

Unknown 6.92%

White 57.47%

Gender

female 68.45%

male 31.55%

Age - 21

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 - 21

Stress Level

7.0

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

5.7

Complexity Level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

9.7

Work Life balance is excellent

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a food stylist

Explore food stylist education requirements

Most common food stylist degrees

Bachelor's

61.0 %

Associate

22.0 %

Diploma

8.1 %

Start to develop specific food stylist skills

Skills	Percentages
Culinary	30.55%
Photo Shoots	20.30%
Food Preparation	20.00%
Recipe Development	10.30%
Test Kitchen	7.07%

Complete relevant food stylist training and internships

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

Research food stylist duties and responsibilities

Manage expediter window paying close attention to garnishes and presentation.
Evaluate and present current culinary trends to cookbook editorial teams.
Establish culinary recipe execution and appealing product presentation for hundreds of recipes
Note allergies and special accommodations on receipts to ensure customer safety and satisfaction.

Get food stylist experience

Prepare your food stylist resume

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

Choose From 10+ Customizable Food Stylist Resume templates

Build a professional Food Stylist 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 Food Stylist resume.

Apply for food stylist jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a food stylist 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