The Road to Executive Chef Starts at Culinary Arts School
By the All Culinary Schools career research team—Your source for Culinary School news, trends and programs.
Are you interested in attending culinary arts school and starting a career in the restaurant industry, but not sure of the difference between a head chef and a sous chef, or a line cook and a prep cook? Here's a short overview of the different types of restaurant chef positions.
Your ultimate goal might be an executive chef or head cook position, which means supervising the work of the entire kitchen staff and directing the preparation of meals, including planning menus and ordering supplies. An executive chef might be responsible for multiple kitchens at a hotel or restaurant group; in fact, a large percentage of head cooks and executive chefs are employed at such venues. A sous chef is the executive chef's second in command and helps plan and supervise the kitchen's operation.
Line cooks and prep cooks are assistant-level chef positions in the culinary industry, and thus more attainable for recent graduates of culinary arts school. Line cooks usually have a specialty, such as grill cook, fry cook or sauce cook, while prep cooks assemble and decorate prepared foods as well as some cold food items. A garde manger also produces cold food items, such as salads, sandwiches and cold appetizers. Patissiers, or pastry chefs, are responsible for baked goods and pastries, which can require additional certification on top of the regular training program.
As a culinary arts school graduate, you'll be poised to enter a rewarding career as a chef; and whether you start as a grill cook or a prep cook, you'll have a head start on advancing to an executive chef job.
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