Sous Chef Job Description: Duties, Responsibilities, Template & Pay (2026)
A sous chef is the second in command of a kitchen — the person who runs service when the chef is not there, holds the line to standard, and does most of the training. This page has a sous chef job description template you can copy, the responsibilities that actually belong to the role, what kitchen leadership is paid, and the posting lines that decide whether a working sous chef applies.
What a sous chef does — and what separates the role from the chef's
BLS describes sous chefs as the second-in-command in a kitchen: they supervise the cooks and run the operation when the head chef or chef de cuisine is absent. That is accurate as far as it goes, and it hides the part that matters for hiring.
The executive chef or chef de cuisine owns the menu, the food cost target, the vendor relationships and the concept. The sous chef owns execution: the prep list, the line at 7pm, the stations, the consistency of the plate, and the people. In most kitchens the sous chef trains every new cook, writes most of the prep lists, does the ordering when the chef is off, and is the person who actually notices when a station is drifting.
The distinction matters in a posting because the two roles attract different candidates. A cook stepping up wants to know whether this is a leadership job with real authority or a senior line cook role with a better title. Say which. "You will run [number] services a week as the senior person in the kitchen" is a different advertisement from "You will support the chef".
Sous chef job description template
Copy this into your ATS or job board, replace the bracketed fields, and delete what does not apply. It is written for a full-service restaurant kitchen; the customization section covers hotels, banquets, multi-outlet, high-volume and institutional kitchens.
Job title
Sous Chef — [Restaurant / Hotel / Banquet], [Company name], [City, ST]
Summary
[Company name] is hiring a sous chef for [restaurant name]: [seats] seats, [000] covers on a busy night, a [scratch / partially prepped] kitchen with [number] cooks per shift, reporting to the [executive chef / chef de cuisine / owner]. The menu is [cuisine] and changes [seasonally / weekly / rarely]. Pay is [$00,000–$00,000] a year [or $00.00–$00.00 an hour] with [a bonus tied to food cost and labour]. The schedule is [0] days a week, [00] hours, [with two consecutive days off] and [a split of opens and closes].
Responsibilities
- Run service on the line: expedite, call the board, hold plate standard and pace
- Lead the kitchen in the chef's absence, including the final call on quality and on sending food
- Write and assign the prep list; check prep in and hold par levels
- Train, develop and correct cooks; run new-hire training on stations
- Order and receive within the chef's guidelines; check invoices and product quality
- Control food cost day to day: portions, waste, yield, rotation and cross-utilisation
- Own food safety in practice: temperatures, labelling, cooling, the log and the inspection
- Build the kitchen schedule to the labour target with the chef
- Keep equipment working and the kitchen clean, and escalate what you cannot fix
Requirements
- [00] years of kitchen experience, including [00] in a lead, senior line or sous role
- Able to run a full service unsupervised, including the pass
- [ServSafe Manager certification or equivalent, or obtain within [60] days — we pay]
- Able to work nights, weekends and holidays, standing for a full shift, lifting [50] lbs
- Able to work in heat and to a consistent standard at volume
Preferred
- Experience with [cuisine / scratch production / butchery / pastry / banquet volume]
- Experience training and scheduling a kitchen team of [00]+
- [Spanish and English]
- [Inventory or ordering system] experience
Pay and benefits
- [$00,000–$00,000], reviewed at [12] months
- [Bonus tied to food cost, labour and inspection score]
- [Two consecutive days off and a schedule published [14] days out]
- [Health, dental and vision after [00] days], [401(k) with match]
- [PTO that is actually taken], [shift meal], [knife or uniform allowance], [paid staging or training days]
How to apply
[Apply here / text SOUS to 00000 / call [name] at [number]]. We reply within [24] hours and run a paid trail shift rather than a long interview.
Requirements: what is required, what is preferred, and what costs you applicants
Sous chef postings are usually written by someone who has been a chef for a long time, and they read that way: a list of standards rather than a description of a job. The candidate pool is small, currently employed, and deciding between two or three kitchens.
| Requirement | What to know |
|---|---|
| Years of experience | BLS puts five or more years of related work experience as typical for chefs and head cooks, so an experience requirement here is defensible — but state it as kitchen level rather than a flat number. "Two years running a station on a scratch line" reaches a strong lead cook ready to step up; "5+ years as a sous chef" reaches only people who already hold the job you are advertising. |
| Culinary school | A preference at most. Plenty of excellent sous chefs came up on the line, and a school requirement removes them while adding nothing you cannot test in a trail shift. |
| Food safety certification | Reasonable, and better offered than required: "ServSafe within 60 days, we pay" keeps promotable cooks in the pool. |
| Cuisine experience | Worth naming, as a preference. A cook who has never worked your cuisine can learn it; a cook who reads it as a requirement will not apply. |
| Open availability | The line most likely to cost you the hire. Kitchen people leave kitchens over schedule more than over money. Commit to a pattern — days off together, a split of opens and closes, or a stated number of doubles. |
| Physical requirements | Concrete is fine: full shift standing, 50 lbs, heat. Vague fitness language reads as boilerplate. |
| Trail shift | Not a requirement but worth naming in the posting. Pay for it and say you pay for it. An unpaid trail is both a legal risk and a signal about how the kitchen treats people. |
Sous chef responsibilities, written for a posting
The useful version of this list answers one question: how much of the kitchen is this person actually responsible for? Say how many cooks are on a shift, how many services a week the sous runs alone, whether the sous orders, whether the sous writes the schedule, and whether there is more than one sous.
The last one matters more than employers realise. "Sous chef" in a kitchen with three sous chefs is a rota position; in a kitchen with one, it is the number two. Candidates ask this in the first five minutes of every interview, which means the posting could have answered it.
Keep the list to eight or nine lines, order it by how much of the week each takes, and include the parts nobody advertises — the deep clean, the inventory count, the ordering on the chef's day off, the cover when a cook does not turn up. A sous chef who finds those out in week two knows exactly what kind of kitchen they joined.
How to customize it by kitchen
Independent restaurant
Lead with covers, the menu's pace of change and how much of the food is made in house. Say who is above the role — owner, chef, or both — because in independents the reporting line is the job. If the sous is being hired as a successor, say so; that is a strong recruiting line and almost nobody uses it.
Hotel and banquet
A different job: volume, plated events, multiple outlets, buffet and room service. Say the outlet mix, the largest event you run, and how many banquet cooks report in. BLS puts median pay for chefs and head cooks in traveler accommodation at $74,380, well above the $60,580 median in food services and drinking places — if you are hiring on the hotel side, that is worth leading with.
Multi-outlet and resort
Say which outlet the sous belongs to and whether they float. Floating between outlets is a real workload and a real skill; it should be stated and paid for, not discovered.
High-volume and chain
Speed, consistency, systems and labour control. The selling points are structure, training and progression, and the credible schedule. Name the ticket times and the covers, because this is a segment where the numbers are the job.
Healthcare, senior living and institutional
Under-advertised and more attractive than the sector assumes: regular hours, no late nights, benefits and a stable cover count. Say the shift pattern first — it is why a restaurant sous chef would consider you at all — then the scale, the dietary requirements and the standards you hold.
What it costs to reach sous chefs on social
We do not run a kitchen-specific role family in our 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark, so the closest measured comparison for a supervisory kitchen role is the management and professional family: 50 campaigns, a median cost per applicant of $16.87, a middle half spanning $4.62 to $60.11, a blended figure of $5.45 and a 16% apply rate.
That thirteenfold quartile spread is the useful number. Management-level campaigns are cheap when the posting is concrete about pay, schedule and scope and expensive when it is not, because the audience is employed people who need a reason to move rather than jobseekers browsing. The same pattern holds across all 891 campaigns: under a 10% apply rate the median applicant costs $53.77; over 20%, $4.41.
Hiring the rest of the kitchen too? See the chef job description for the role above this one and the cook job description for the line, plus frontline recruiting for the hiring side.
Writing the ad version
The description is the document. The advertisement is read on a phone after a shift by somebody who is already a sous chef or a lead cook ready to be one. Three facts decide it: the money, the days off, and what the kitchen is. Our campaign data puts the best-converting length at 201–400 words.
Four questions is the ceiling on the application form: current role and kitchen, covers they are used to, availability pattern, start date. For this role the trail shift is the real screen, so the form's only job is to get you to a conversation.
What sous chefs earn
BLS does not report sous chefs separately; they sit inside chefs and head cooks, which had a median of $30.03 an hour, $62,470 a year in May 2025 across 220,300 positions. A sous chef normally earns below the head chef in the same kitchen, so read that median as the middle of a band that includes the person above the role — the practical sous chef range in most markets sits under it, and the segment spread below is a better guide than the headline.
| Industry | Median annual pay, chefs and head cooks (May 2025) | Share employed |
|---|---|---|
| Traveler accommodation | $74,380 | 8% |
| Amusement, gambling and recreation | $72,830 | 5% |
| Food services and drinking places | $60,580 | 64% |
| Healthcare and social assistance | $59,550 | 4% |
Employment is projected to grow 7% from 2025 to 2035 — much faster than the average occupation — with about 25,200 openings a year. Combined with the segment spread, that is the shape of the market: restaurants are hiring into the largest and lowest-paid segment, while hotels and recreation pay roughly $12,000 to $14,000 more at the median for the same level of kitchen leadership. A restaurant posting has to win on the things it can control — the kitchen itself, the schedule, and whether the role leads anywhere.
Frequently asked questions
What does a sous chef do?
A sous chef is the second in command in the kitchen. They run service on the line, lead the kitchen when the head chef is absent, write and assign the prep list, train and correct the cooks, order and receive within the chef's guidelines, control food cost through portions, waste and rotation, own day-to-day food safety, and help build the kitchen schedule.
What is the difference between a sous chef and a head chef?
The head chef or chef de cuisine owns the menu, the food cost target, the vendor relationships and the concept; the sous chef owns execution — the prep, the line, the stations, consistency and the people. BLS describes sous chefs as second-in-command who supervise cooks and run the kitchen when the head chef is away.
What qualifications does a sous chef need?
Experience more than credentials. BLS lists a high school diploma or equivalent plus five or more years of related work experience as typical for chefs and head cooks. Most employers also require a food-safety manager certification such as ServSafe. Culinary school is common but not necessary, and requiring it removes strong candidates who came up on the line.
How much does a sous chef make?
BLS reports chefs and head cooks together at a median of $30.03 an hour, or $62,470 a year, in May 2025; sous chefs typically earn below the head chef in the same kitchen, so that median sits above the usual sous range. By segment, traveler accommodation pays a median of $74,380 and amusement and recreation $72,830, against $60,580 in food services and drinking places.
What are a sous chef's main responsibilities?
Running service and holding the plate standard, leading the kitchen in the chef's absence, prep-list ownership, training and developing cooks, ordering and receiving, food cost control through portion, waste and rotation discipline, food safety compliance in practice, and contributing to the kitchen schedule and labour target.
What should a sous chef job description include?
Covers on a busy night, whether the kitchen is scratch or prepped, cooks per shift, who the role reports to and how many other sous chefs there are; the schedule pattern and days off; a pay range with any bonus; eight or nine responsibilities spanning line, prep, people, cost and safety; food safety certification stated as required or paid for; and a clear way to apply.
Should a sous chef posting be separate from a chef posting?
Yes. They are different jobs with different candidates, different pay bands and different searches. A combined posting reads to a cook as a senior line role with a title and to a chef as an underpaid chef job. Run them separately and cross-link them.
Why is it hard to hire sous chefs?
Because the pool is small, employed and mobile: around 25,200 openings a year across chefs and head cooks, and hotels, resorts and recreation venues paying a median $12,000 to $14,000 more than restaurants for comparable kitchen leadership. Restaurants that fill the role reliably compete on schedule, kitchen organisation and a stated path to head chef rather than on rate alone.
Other job description templates
Hiring sous chefs?
The description is the document. Reaching kitchen leaders who are working somebody else's line tonight is the job. That is what we run.
Pay, employment and outlook figures: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Chefs and Head Cooks (May 2025 wage data, 2025–35 projections); BLS does not publish a separate sous chef wage series. Cost-per-applicant and apply-rate figures: Boostpoint 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark, 891 campaigns and 1,334 campaign-months.