The Highest Paying Culinary Jobs and Positions

The culinary world can be an exciting industry that many hope to join in the future. If you’re passionate about food and dream of delighting others with your creations, then you may have the potential to be a great culinarian in the future.

However, as with any job in any industry, culinary jobs can have varying pay levels. With different options available, those looking for culinary careers will have to consider the path they want to take to qualify for these high-paying culinary jobs.

HIGHEST PAYING CULINARY JOBS:

CHEF

While different types of chefs can work in a kitchen simultaneously, this refers to a career as a station chef or a chef de partie. If you’ve ever seen an episode of Hell’s Kitchen, you might know that a kitchen has different stations, with at least one chef handling a station. There are stations like fish, meat, vegetables, pastry, and even specialized roles like pizza chefs and sushi chefs.

Factors such as where you work, your specialty, and the demand in your area for station chefs that specialize in specific areas can affect how much you earn.

SOUS CHEF

A sous chef is second-in-command, often under the head or executive chef. While the role of a sous chef can vary depending on the workplace, sous chefs may take on some of the tasks usually given to a higher-ranking chef, such as training the other chefs or handling the menu. However, sous chefs always have some form of hands-on responsibility over the kitchen.

There can be more than one sous chef in a kitchen, and reaching this role requires having several years of experience.

FOOD STYLIST

If you’ve seen any food or drink in photos and videos that made your mouth water, it’s all thanks to food stylists. They have a flair for aesthetics and treat food as the primary model at photoshoots and are responsible for making it look as tasty as possible.

However, that’s not to say that no one ever gets to taste a food stylist’s creations. Food stylists are also responsible for live shows and presentations, meaning the food has to taste as good as it looks. We have some alumni including Celestina Blok and Crystal Vastine who bought the rights to the magazine and published Fort Worth Foodie from 2008-2013, and the magazine became the original food-driven influencer of Fort Worth.

PERSONAL CHEF

Although the terms “personal chef” and “private chef” are sometimes used interchangeably, there’s a significant difference in the scope of these culinary jobs – and, ultimately, the pay. Personal chefs tend to make meals in large or bulk orders, portion them, and send them to their clients to be reheated and consumed.

Many personal chefs often work for athletes and people with special diet restrictions to help with issues like nutritional intake, weight loss, weight gain, or food allergies. Personal chefs start their businesses for meal plans, food deliveries, and other convenient options for their clients and their dietary needs.

RESEARCH CHEF

Research chefs can work for test kitchens, food manufacturers, fast food corporations, or any organization with a research and development (R&D) team dedicated to making recipes and products. They then brainstorm ideas and go through the necessary R&D process to see if consumers will like the potential recipe before it’s released to the public.

On top of your culinary skills, you’ll also need to be inventive and innovative to succeed as a research chef. You aren’t following a recipe and are creating something new on your own or with a team. We have an alumni who makes monthly recipes for the company on their amazon store. Her name is Olivia Martin.

FOOD SERVICE MANAGER

Also known as the general manager, a food service manager is responsible for the front-of-house operations, though some of their tasks may require working with the back-of-house team. They’re efficient leaders often found in large-scale food operations and find ways to establish order and efficiency in customer service.

Those interested in becoming food service managers will need experience in restaurant management and hospitality. They should also have good interpersonal skills to handle customer service while multitasking with operational responsibilities.

PRIVATE CHEFS

Private chefs provide exclusive service by cooking for their clients in-house. These clients can be affluent families or professionals who either don’t have time to cook their meals or prefer a trained chef to cook their meals for them. Private chefs will study their clients’ dietary restrictions, allergies, likes, and dislikes and prepare meals based on these. They may also be responsible for budgeting and shopping for the ingredients.

Private chefs can either work for one client as a full-time employee, which may require them to live on the premises and provide meals and snacks around the clock, or work for multiple clients and come to cook when needed.

EXECUTIVE CHEF

Not all restaurants and food service establishments have an executive chef. While they have extensive experience in the culinary industry, their day-to-day tasks involve little to no hands-on cooking in the kitchen. They handle the administrative side of the back-of-house operations, which can include training chefs, planning menus, budgeting, and purchasing.

On top of culinary skills, management skills are necessary. Executive chefs oversee the staff, though they rarely do any of the cooking during regular operations.

HEAD CHEF

Also known as the chef de cuisine, the head chef’s roles overlap with the executive and sous chef. Since executive chefs are often only hired for larger restaurants and chains, head chefs take on the management and administrative responsibilities.

Some head chefs perform some of the day-to-day culinary tasks in the kitchen. Others may leave most of this to their sous chefs. Either way, a head chef will be expected to wear many hats, so culinary experience and management skills are necessary.

CORPORATE EXECUTIVE CHEF

Corporate chefs are a unique subset of executive chefs. Similar to executive chefs, they have some responsibilities for back-of-house, such as managing the kitchen, staff, inventory, and all the planning that goes into making food. However, they also have to deal with the corporate side of running a restaurant. These tasks include business management, marketing, advertising, and other operations. They’re also expected to stay up-to-date with current trends and industry news if they want to keep up with consumer behavior.

Due to a corporate chef’s demanding role, the relevant culinary experience is essential. You should also have a background in managing a team and an understanding of the business side of running a restaurant to become a successful corporate chef.

Start your culinary journey today!

THE CULINARY SCHOOL OF FORT WORTH

Most schools can teach you the techniques of cooking and baking but The CSFTW excels at preparing you for the real-world kitchen. With our small class sizes and chef instructors who are intentional with every student, you will receive more one-on-one instruction and insight. Our school boasts in preparing students to exemplify excellence in their culinary community. We are a small, unique school that focuses on the student’s needs and we take great joy in seeing our students succeed in the culinary industry.