Chef Job Description: Duties, Requirements, Template & Pay (2026)
A chef — a head chef, executive chef or chef de cuisine, in kitchen terms — runs the back of house: the menu, the ordering, the cost, the schedule, the standards and the people. This page covers the duties employers actually hire for, a copy-paste chef job description template with head chef, sous chef and kitchen manager versions, the requirements that matter versus the ones that shrink your pool, and where restaurant kitchen roles sit against Boostpoint's 2026 cost-per-applicant benchmark.
Chef duties and responsibilities
The title covers a ladder, and postings that don't say which rung they're hiring for get the wrong applicants. An executive chef at a hotel, club, senior living community or multi-outlet operation owns the P&L for food, menus across outlets, and a team of sous chefs. A head chef or chef de cuisine runs one kitchen — menu, ordering, labor, standards — and cooks on the line most nights. A sous chef is the second: runs service when the chef is off, does prep lists and orders, and trains the line. A kitchen manager is the same job at a volume restaurant with a fixed menu, where the work is scheduling, cost and consistency rather than menu development. Pay, hours and the applicant pool differ at each rung.
Day to day, chef responsibilities include:
- Plan and develop menus and recipes; set portion sizes, plating and presentation standards; cost each item to a target food-cost percentage
- Order and requisition food, supplies and equipment; inspect deliveries for quality and quantity; manage inventory and reduce waste
- Supervise and coordinate line cooks, prep cooks and dishwashers during prep and service; expedite the pass; taste and check every dish
- Hire, train, schedule and evaluate kitchen staff; run pre-shift meetings; build the schedule to forecasted covers and labor targets
- Monitor sanitation and food safety: temperature logs, storage, labeling, allergen handling, health department compliance; hold the food safety manager certification
- Estimate food and labor costs; track daily and weekly numbers against budget; adjust menus, purchasing and staffing to hit targets
- Maintain equipment; report and arrange repairs; keep the kitchen organized and safe
- Coordinate with the front of house, events and catering on specials, menus, allergies and timing
- Cook on the line during service as needed; cover stations and train new cooks
The BLS counted about 220,300 chefs and head cooks in 2025, most of them in restaurants, hotels, and institutional food service, and projects growth of 7% through 2035 — much faster than average — with roughly 25,200 openings a year. The median wage was $30.03 an hour in 2025, or $62,470 a year; executive chefs at hotels, clubs and larger operations, and chefs in high-cost metros, earn well above that. Kitchens have run short of cooks at every level since 2020, and chef turnover follows cook turnover: a chef who can't staff a line leaves. The job description should therefore describe the kitchen's staffing reality and the schedule honestly, because those are the two things an experienced chef is actually evaluating. Our hospitality staffing agency cost page covers what filling kitchen roles through agencies costs by comparison.
Chef job description template
Copy this into your ATS or job board, replace the bracketed fields, and cut what doesn't apply. It leads with the rung, pay, schedule and the kitchen — because a working chef reading it is comparing those four things against the kitchen they run now.
Job title
[Head Chef / Executive Chef / Sous Chef / Kitchen Manager] — [Restaurant type / Hotel / Club / Senior Living], [Full-time], [City, State]
Summary
[Restaurant / Property] is hiring a [head chef] for our [X]-seat [cuisine / concept] kitchen in [City], doing [X] covers on a weekend night with a team of [X] cooks. Salary is $[XX,XXX]–$[XX,XXX] [or $XX–$XX/hour] based on experience, with a [quarterly bonus of up to X% tied to food cost and labor targets]. Schedule is [five days, roughly 50 hours, two consecutive days off, closed Mondays]; [we close Christmas and Thanksgiving]. You'll own the menu [within the concept], ordering from [vendors], scheduling, food cost and training, reporting to [the owner / GM / F&B director]. Food safety manager certification required; [culinary degree not required].
Responsibilities
- Develop, cost and execute the menu; set plating and portion standards; run specials
- Order, receive and manage inventory to a [X]% food-cost target; minimize waste
- Hire, train, schedule and lead a team of [X] line and prep cooks and dishwashers
- Run service: expedite, quality-check every plate, cover stations as needed
- Maintain health department, food safety and allergen compliance; keep temperature and cleaning logs
- Track daily food and labor numbers against budget; adjust purchasing and staffing
- Maintain equipment and a safe, organized kitchen; coordinate with front of house and events
Requirements
- [3+] years as a sous chef or chef in a [comparable volume / cuisine] kitchen
- Food safety manager certification (ServSafe or [state] equivalent), or ability to obtain within [30] days
- Experience managing food cost, inventory and scheduling; comfortable with [Toast / R365 / MarginEdge]
- Able to stand and work in a hot kitchen for a full shift, lift [50] lbs, and work nights, weekends and holidays as scheduled
- Legally authorized to work in the U.S.; able to pass a background check
Preferred
- Culinary degree or apprenticeship
- Experience opening a kitchen, writing menus from scratch, or [banquet / catering / high-volume brunch]
- Allergen and [state] alcohol-service certifications
- [Bilingual English/Spanish]
Schedule and pay
- $[XX,XXX]–$[XX,XXX] salary [or $XX–$XX/hour] depending on experience
- [Quarterly bonus up to X% of salary on food cost and labor targets]
- [Relocation assistance]; [sign-on bonus $X,XXX]
- Schedule: [five days, ~50 hours, two consecutive days off]; [closed Mondays and major holidays]
Benefits
- Medical, dental and vision after [30/60] days
- [401(k) with X% match]
- Paid time off [X weeks] and [paid holidays / holiday premium]
- Paid certifications and continuing education; [travel to food shows / stages]
- [Shift meals, dining discount, uniform and knife allowance]
Requirements: what's required, what's preferred, and what kills applications
There's no license to be a chef; the only regulatory requirement in most jurisdictions is a certified food protection manager on staff. Everything else is a choice, and in a market where every kitchen is short of cooks, the choices that shrink the pool are expensive.
| Requirement | What to know |
|---|---|
| Food safety manager certification | Required by most state and local health codes for at least one person per establishment (ServSafe Manager or an ANSI-accredited equivalent). Require it "within 30 days" and pay for the course; don't make it a pre-application filter. |
| Culinary degree | Not required and held by a minority of working chefs. List as preferred; a degree tells you far less than the last three kitchens. |
| Experience | Specify the rung and the comparable: "3 years as a sous chef in a 150-cover scratch kitchen" is a useful requirement; "10 years of culinary experience" is not. Name the cuisine only if it's actually essential. |
| Schedule and hours | Not a requirement, but the reason chefs leave. State the days, approximate hours, days off and holidays honestly; "must be flexible" is read as "60 hours and no consecutive days off." |
| Cost management | Legitimate and under-asked. Ask what food-cost and labor percentages they ran and how; it separates chefs from cooks with a title. |
| Physical requirements | Heat, standing, lifting, long shifts. Include them; chefs expect them. |
| Work authorization and background check | State them plainly; don't make them pre-application steps. |
| Résumé, portfolio, tasting | A tasting or stage is a reasonable final step. A résumé and cover letter are not needed to start the conversation — name, phone, three questions and a call. |
How to customize it for your setting
Independent restaurant (head chef)
Concept, covers, menu ownership, the owner relationship, and the schedule. Independents compete on creative control and days off; say what the chef gets to decide.
Hotel, club and resort (executive chef)
Outlets, banquet volume, the size of the brigade, the P&L, and the benefits — hotels win on benefits, bonus and stability. Lead with the numbers.
Senior living, healthcare and institutional dining
Fixed hours, no late nights, holidays covered by rotation, dietary and regulatory requirements. This is the posting that draws chefs leaving restaurant hours; lead with the schedule. See senior living staffing.
Sous chef and kitchen manager
Separate postings: the sous chef posting should describe the chef they'll work under and the path up; the kitchen manager posting should describe the systems and the volume. Both compete with line-cook pay plus overtime, so state the salary and hours together. The broader frontline picture is on our frontline recruiting page.
What it costs to reach chefs and cooks on social
Our 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark doesn't break out restaurant and kitchen roles as their own family, so the honest reference is the overall picture: across 891 campaigns the median campaign cost $13.88 per applicant, the volume-weighted average was $8.02, and half of all campaigns landed between $6.48 and $29.74. Management and professional roles — the closest family for a head or executive chef posting — ran a $16.87 median with a wide middle band of $4.62 to $60.11 and 16% application completion.
Two things transfer directly from that data to kitchen hiring. First, cost is driven by completion, not attention: a chef posting that asks for a résumé and a portfolio before a phone call sits at the top of the band, and one that asks three questions sits at the bottom. Second, reach matters more for chefs than for cooks — nearly every working chef is employed, few are on job boards, and all of them are in the feed. The mechanics of a first campaign are on our social media job advertising page.
If you are hiring chefs and cooks rather than describing the job, the recruiting side — where they are, what the ad has to say, and what an applicant costs to reach — is on our line cook and kitchen staff recruiting page.
Writing the ad version
The ad is not the job description. It answers rung, pay, schedule and kitchen in the first two lines: "Head chef — $75–$90K + quarterly bonus, five days, two consecutive days off, closed Mondays, fully staffed team of 8, scratch Italian, 120 seats. [Restaurant], [City]. Apply in 60 seconds." Knockout questions: current or most recent title (multiple choice), years at sous chef or above, food safety manager certification (yes/no), start date. No résumé, no portfolio.
A 15-second video of the line during service with the owner or the outgoing chef saying what the job actually is beats any stock photo of a plated dish. Chefs talk to each other about which kitchens are staffed and which owners are decent; a specific, honest posting gets forwarded.
Executive chef job description: what changes at the top of the kitchen
An executive chef job description is a business document, not a cooking one. The role is judged on food cost, labor cost and consistency across services, and a posting that describes menus and creativity while omitting the numbers attracts the wrong shortlist.
Four things separate an executive chef posting from a head chef or sous chef posting. Scope: how many covers, how many outlets, how many reports, and whether banqueting is included. P&L responsibility: whether they own food cost and labor percentage, and what those currently run at. Menu authority: whether they write the menu, inherit it, or negotiate it — the most common reason an experienced executive chef leaves a new job inside a year. And the kitchen brigade they inherit, including the vacancies.
State the compensation structure rather than a single number: base, bonus basis, and whether service charge participates. Experienced executive chefs compare packages, not salaries, and a posting with one number in it is comparing badly against one with three.
Frequently asked questions
What is a kitchen manager job description?
It is the operational half of running a kitchen written down: ordering and stock control, food and labour cost percentages, rotas built to a labour budget, food safety compliance and the logs behind it, and hiring, training and performance-managing the kitchen team. A chef description centres on the food - menu, recipes, standards, plating - while a kitchen manager description centres on the operation. Most real jobs contain both, so the advert should make clear which one dominates, and naming the role "Kitchen Manager / Head Chef" captures candidates searching either title.
What are the duties and responsibilities of a chef?
Planning, costing and executing the menu; ordering and managing inventory to a food-cost target; hiring, training, scheduling and leading the kitchen team; running service and checking every plate; maintaining food safety and health department compliance; tracking food and labor costs against budget; maintaining equipment; and coordinating with the front of house and events.
What is the difference between a chef and a cook?
A cook prepares food on a station under direction. A chef runs the kitchen: the menu, the purchasing, the cost, the schedule and the people, and usually cooks as well. Within chefs, an executive chef oversees multiple outlets or a large operation, a head chef or chef de cuisine runs one kitchen, and a sous chef is the second in command.
What qualifications does a chef need?
No license. Most jurisdictions require a certified food protection manager (ServSafe Manager or an equivalent) on staff. Employers look for years of progressive kitchen experience — typically sous chef or above in a comparable kitchen — plus demonstrated cost, inventory and scheduling management. A culinary degree is preferred by some employers but not required.
How much do chefs make?
The 2025 national median for chefs and head cooks was $30.03 an hour, or $62,470 a year, per O*NET/BLS. Executive chefs at hotels, clubs and larger operations, and chefs in high-cost metros, earn substantially more; sous chefs and kitchen managers typically earn less than the median.
What should a chef job description template include?
The rung (executive, head, sous, kitchen manager), the concept and volume (seats, covers), the size of the team and whether it's fully staffed, salary range and bonus structure, the schedule with days off and holidays, what the chef owns (menu, ordering, hiring), the systems used, certification requirements, physical requirements, and benefits. Rung, pay and schedule belong in the first two lines.
What does an executive chef job description include?
Scope first — covers, outlets, reports and whether banqueting is included — then P&L responsibility with current food and labor percentages, menu authority, and the brigade and vacancies they inherit. Compensation should be stated as a structure: base, bonus basis and whether service charge participates, rather than a single number.
What is the difference between an executive chef and a head chef?
Scope and accountability. A head chef runs one kitchen and its service; an executive chef typically oversees multiple outlets or a larger operation, owns food and labor cost against budget, and carries menu and purchasing authority across them. In smaller operations the titles are used interchangeably, which is why the posting should describe the scope rather than rely on the title.
Why do executive chefs leave a new role quickly?
Most often because menu authority was not what they understood it to be. Whether the incoming chef writes the menu, inherits it or negotiates it is the single detail most likely to be glossed over at interview and the one most likely to end the appointment inside a year. State it explicitly in the job description.
Kitchen manager job description: where it differs from a chef
A kitchen manager and a head chef often run the same kitchen, and plenty of operators use the titles interchangeably. They are not the same job description, and hiring for one while advertising the other is a common reason a good candidate withdraws in week two.
The distinction that matters is where the centre of gravity sits. A chef role is built around the food: menu development, recipe standards, plating, taste. A kitchen manager role is built around the operation: ordering and stock, food and labour cost percentages, rotas, health and safety compliance, hiring and disciplining the kitchen team. Most real jobs contain both, but the advert should say which one dominates, because the two attract different applicants.
A kitchen manager description usually adds these lines to the template above:
- Cost control. Food cost and labour cost percentages against target, stocktakes, waste tracking, supplier ordering and invoice checking. If you hold the manager to a number, put the number in the advert.
- Scheduling and labour. Building the rota to a labour budget, covering call-offs, and managing hours against overtime thresholds.
- Compliance ownership. Holding the food safety certification for the site, running the temperature and cleaning logs, and being the person the inspector talks to.
- People management. Interviewing, onboarding, training and performance-managing the kitchen team — frequently the largest single group of employees in the building.
Two practical notes. First, if the role genuinely owns both the menu and the P&L, say so and pay for it, because you are asking for a rarer person than either title implies on its own. Second, candidates search both titles and the volume splits between them, so the most efficient advert names both — Kitchen Manager / Head Chef — and then makes the balance clear in the first two lines of the description.
Other job description templates
- Customer service representative job description
- Warehouse associate job description
- Caregiver job description
See all job description templates — free, editable templates for frontline, trades, healthcare and warehouse roles.
Hiring chefs and cooks?
The job description is the document; the ad is the thing that gets read. We write it, run it where working chefs and cooks are scrolling, and report what each applicant cost with the management fee inside — cost per applicant, not cost per hire.
Pay, employment and outlook figures: O*NET OnLine (Chefs and Head Cooks, 35-1011), 2025 wage data, and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025–35 projections. Food protection manager requirements per the FDA Food Code and state and local health codes. Cost-per-applicant figures: Boostpoint 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark (all campaigns; management/professional role family). Last updated August 2026.