Throughline

Food and hospitality

Chef or Head Cook in the United States

61 postings read · sampled 2026-10-01 · source ats · 15 employers · largest 25% of it

What employers actually ask for

Credentials named in the 61 postings we read, ranked by how many mentioned each one.

What it costs

Exam and application fees plus typical self-study hours. Almost nobody needs every credential on this list — start with the top line.

Most-asked-for, on its own
$179ServSafe Food Protection Manager · ~16 hrs
asked for in 7 of 61 postings — 11%
If you earned all 1 of them
$179
fees checked 2026-08
16 hrs
16 hours — about 2 weeks at 10 hrs/wk

Lower signal for this role

Credentials that barely appeared in this sample. That is not a claim they are worthless — plenty are valuable for a different job, a different city, or a promotion later. It is a claim that employers here mostly did not ask.

What the official taxonomy says

O*NET surveys people already doing this job. That describes who got hired over a long window, not what employers are asking for now — where it disagrees with the counts above, the counts are the more current answer.

Education reported by people doing this job
54%reported associate’s degree or other 2-year degree
  • Associate’s degree or other 2-year degree54%
  • Post-secondary certificate17%
  • High school diploma or equivalent13%

Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed. Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.

O*NET 35-1011.00 · pulled 2026-10-01 · percentages are of surveyed workers, each rounded separately, so they need not total 100

What it pays

BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. A different survey from the postings above, so the two do not share a sample.

$37,900
10th percentile
$62,470
median
$98,560
90th percentile

Every credential above costs $179 — less than a day's pay at the median.

Who was hiring

Employers with at least one matching posting in this sample.

DIG · Wynn Resorts · HelloFresh · Boyd Gaming · SpaceX · Westgate Resorts · Convene · Home Chef · Otterbein SeniorLife · CookUnity · Deegit Inc · Dream Golf (Bandon Dunes/Sand Valley) · Level99 Entertainment · Lyft · O-I (Owens-Illinois)

Next

  • Roast and Resolve — Now aim your résumé at this target. Free roast, paid rewrite.
  • Synap — Two-minute daily lessons to drill the skills underneath the credential.