Chef
Chefs plan the menu, cost each dish and run the kitchen service that turns ingredients into the food a restaurant, hotel or catering business serves.
- Median salary
- $74,000
4.4%vs last year, before tax
- People employed
- 133,400
1.4%vs last year
- Projected growth
- +12.5%
to 2035
- AI exposure*
- Low
- 1 out of 10
- Average hours
- 43/wk
+3h vs all jobs
- Shortage status
- In shortage
national
- Chefs run a professional kitchen, from planning and costing the menu to supervising the cooks and kitchen hands who prepare it.
- The role carries more than cooking: you set the standard for each section, order the stock and answer for what leaves the kitchen.
- You'll find work in restaurants, hotels, pubs, clubs, aged care kitchens and catering companies, and most chefs qualify through an apprenticeship.
How much do chefs earn?
The median full-time salary for a chef is $74,000 per annum, before tax, up $15,600 since 2018.
Your rate comes from the award or enterprise agreement your employer uses, and from where you sit in the kitchen, since a head chef earns well above a chef de partie. Evening, weekend and public holiday shifts carry penalty rates that can lift a weekly pay packet noticeably, so ask whether extra hours are paid separately or already absorbed into the salary figure. Venue type matters as well: a large hotel group, a mine site camp or a busy fine dining room usually pays more than a small suburban cafe.
What does a chef do day to day?
The list below is what fills most weeks; the exact mix shifts with seniority and whatever stage the current work is at.
- Running the pass through a dinner service, checking every order before it leaves so plates are right, timed and consistent
- Building menus around what is in season and what suppliers can actually deliver, then costing each dish so it still makes money at the price it sells for
- Keeping the team moving when orders arrive faster than the sections can cook them, stepping in on the grill or the pans when someone falls behind
- Showing junior cooks how to break down a fish, season properly and work faster, while getting your own section out at the same time
- Ordering stock, checking deliveries and watching waste so the kitchen doesn't run short on a Saturday night or blow the food budget
What skills do chefs need?
Employers look for food preparation and cooking, food safety and hygiene, budgeting and forecasting, backed by Commercial cooking equipment fluency and strong people leadership.
Specialist skills
- Food preparation and cooking
- Food safety and hygiene
- Budgeting and forecasting
- Regulatory compliance
Software and tools
- Commercial cooking equipment
- Knives and food prep utensils
- Recipe management software
- POS and inventory systems
- Thermometers and food safety equipment
General skills
- People leadership
- Customer service
- Problem solving
- Attention to detail
Is the job growing?
About 133,400 people work as chefs in Australia, and employment is projected to grow 12.5% over the decade to 2035. That's healthy, above-average growth, and the role should stay in solid demand.
How do you become a chef?
Here's the path most chefs take, step by step.
- 1Start a Certificate III in Commercial Cookery apprenticeship
This is how most chefs qualify. An apprenticeship is a paid job and normally runs for around three years, so you need an employer willing to take you on and a registered training organisation to deliver the course.
- 2Learn every section of the kitchen
Good kitchens rotate you through larder, fry, grill and pastry so you can cover any station. Speed and consistency are built here, and you find out which part of the kitchen you want to specialise in.
- 3Add a Certificate IV in Kitchen Management or a hospitality diploma
These cover rostering, food costing, stock control and supervising staff, which is what head chef and management roles ask for. Many chefs study while they keep working.
- 4Take a sous chef role before running your own kitchen
Second in charge is where you learn to write rosters, negotiate with suppliers and hold a team together on a bad night, with someone senior still around to call on.
- 5If you already work as a cook or kitchen hand
A registered training organisation can assess your existing skills and shorten the qualification, but stepping up to chef usually still means completing the Certificate III and often an apprenticeship.
Study routes we have checked
Qualifications that are a recognised way into this role, and what else you need.
- Certificate III in Commercial Cookery
A step towards this role
Usually completed as an apprenticeship, which needs an employer and a training contract. It leads to work as a cook, and chef roles are typically reached with experience or further study. Check that the provider delivers the current national qualification. This catalogue groups awards: verify the chosen provider, programme and intake; the family-level link is not confirmation that every offering is approved.
Ready to apply as a chef?
Whether you're working toward becoming a chef or already are one and want a hand with the next step (sharpening your resume for ATS screening, tightening your cover letter, or knowing what you'll actually be asked at interview), here are examples grounded in this specific role, not generic templates.
What jobs can a chef move to?
Moving into Restaurant Manager typically comes with the biggest pay rise, worth $11,500 a year more on average.
- Restaurant ManagerRecorded move$85,500+$11,500
- Cafe ManagerRecorded move$85,500+$11,500
- CookRecorded move$74,500+$500
- Pastry ChefRecorded move$73,700−$300
Thick lines are moves people were recorded making in Jobs and Skills Australia's Data on Occupation Mobility (income tax records, 2011-12 to 2020-21). Thin lines are moves we suggest from skill overlap and entry requirements.
| Move to | Typical pay change | Overlap | Retraining |
|---|---|---|---|
Restaurant Manager Chefs bring kitchen leadership, menu costing and team supervision to restaurant management, with additional business operations study.Known move | +$11,500 | 32% | reskill |
Cafe Manager Chefs bring kitchen leadership, stock control and menu costing to cafe management, though business operations training is needed.Known move | +$11,500 | 39% | reskill |
Cook Chefs bring advanced menu planning and kitchen skills to cook roles, with a short cookery qualification bridging the move.Known move | +$500 | 50% | short course |
Pastry Chef Chefs bring broad savoury and kitchen management skills to pastry work, but patisserie training is needed for desserts and baking.Known move | −$300 | 33% | reskill |
Moves are chosen from Jobs and Skills Australia's Data on Occupation Mobility, which follows income tax records between 2011-12 and 2020-21, together with entry requirements and skill overlap. A known move is one people were seen making in that data. Pay change compares median full-time pay for the two roles.
Who works as a chef?
The typical chef is 34 years old; 70% are men, 78% work full-time, and full-timers average 43 hours a week.
- 34
- Median age
- 30%
- Female share
- 78%
- Full-time
- +3h
- vs all-jobs avg
What's it like being a chef?
Your shift splits into prep you can plan and a service you can't, and dinner sets the pace for everything else. Kitchens are hot, loud and cramped, you'll stand for the whole shift, and evenings and weekends are when the work is heaviest. Most chefs who stay in the trade like the rhythm of service: orders coming in, the timing, the small adjustments that turn a good dish into a great one. If you need quiet surroundings or a predictable finish time, the noise and the pressure are hard to live with.
What people like
- Sending out a plate you're proud of. A dish that leaves the pass exactly as you designed it, halfway through a packed night, is visible proof the work was done well. You get that feedback every service, not once a year.
- Skills that build quickly. In a good kitchen you learn something most weeks: a new technique, a faster way to break down a case of fish, how to rescue a sauce that splits. Two years in, you can do things that looked impossible at the start.
- The crew at the end of service. A kitchen team that has survived a packed Saturday together tends to look after each other, and that bond is a big part of why people stay in the trade.
- Creative control as you move up. Writing your own menu, using what is cheap and in season and watching customers order it is what many head chefs like best about the role.
What people find hard
- Split shifts and antisocial hours. A lunch service and a dinner service with an unpaid gap between them eats into the day, and you'll often finish after midnight on a Friday or Saturday.
- Heat, burns and time on your feet. Commercial kitchens are hot, the floors are wet and there is nowhere to sit during service. Cuts, burns and a sore back are common over a long career.
- Pay rises come slowly. Award rates for apprentices and junior chefs are modest, and a real jump usually waits until you hold a senior section or run the kitchen. Overtime is often folded into a salary instead of paid on top.
- Staff turnover. Kitchens lose people to study, travel and better hours, so you can spend months training someone who leaves. Experienced head chefs plan for it and keep the next person coming through.
Based on our synthesis of professional-body surveys and public accounts of the role, not first-person verified reviews.
Which industries employ chefs?
Accommodation and Food Services employs the largest share of chefs.
Top employing industries
- 1Accommodation and Food Services
Ranked by employment share; the source doesn't publish an exact percentage per industry.
| Certificate III/IV | 37.3% | |
|---|---|---|
| Diploma / Advanced Diploma | 22.3% | |
| Year 12 or below | 17.6% | |
| Bachelor degree | 14.4% | |
| Postgraduate | 3.6% |
Will AI replace chefs?
Low exposure. Unlikely. AI will change some of the work around this job, not the job itself.
Cooking is hands-on, sensory work, and AI touches it lightly. Software already handles rostering, stock counts and recipe costing, but no system can taste a sauce, tell whether a piece of fish is cooked through or plate a dish under pressure. Anyone entering the trade now should get good at the things a screen can't do: knife work, seasoning, timing and keeping a team steady through a rush.
How a typical week splits
None of the main tasks in this job.
- Menu planning and dish costing15% of the week
Recipe and costing software can price a dish and flag a thin margin, but you decide what belongs on the menu and whether it suits the kitchen you have.
- Ordering, stock and waste control10% of the week
Inventory systems track usage and prompt reorders, though you are the one reading a quiet Tuesday and adjusting the order before the weekend.
- Cooking and plating during service45% of the week
Knife work, seasoning, timing and plating happen by hand and by taste, and no tool adjusts a sauce that is too sharp halfway through a busy service.
- Training and running the kitchen team30% of the week
Showing a new apprentice how to hold a knife, and keeping the sections calm when orders stack up, is coaching that software can't deliver.
How we work this out
We break each job into its main tasks, estimate the share of a typical week each one takes, and judge how far current AI and automation tools reach into it. The score out of 10 starts from the job's overall rating (low is 1 to 3, moderate 4 to 6, high 7 to 10) and the task split places it within that range. Source: Career Tips analysis of each role's main tasks.
Common questions about becoming a chef
Straight answers to the questions people ask most.
How much do chefs earn?
Chefs earn $74,000 per year before tax at the median, and the figure moves with your rank in the kitchen, the venue and the shifts you work. The median includes chefs who never work a public holiday and those who work most of them, so compare actual rosters before deciding between two job offers.
How do you become a chef?
You qualify by completing a Certificate III in Commercial Cookery apprenticeship, a paid job that normally runs for around three years while you train on the job. You need an employer to take you on, so apply to kitchens whose food you respect and expect to begin on prep and work up.
What's the difference between a chef and a cook?
A chef designs the menu, costs the dishes and runs the kitchen, while a cook prepares food to someone else's recipes and standards. The line blurs in small venues, and many cooks hold the same qualification as a chef but work in a role with less responsibility.
Are chefs in demand in Australia?
Chefs are currently in shortage nationally, and employment is projected to grow 12.5% over the decade to 2035. Openings also come from chefs leaving the trade each year, so check the city and the type of venue you're aiming for before you decide how the market looks for you.
Will AI replace chefs?
Cooking depends on hands, taste and timing, and the busy, physical parts of the trade are hard to automate. What technology does change is the admin around the kitchen, so learn the stock, rostering and ordering systems your employer uses early in the job.
Where can chefs move to?
Chef skills carry into restaurant and cafe management, where menu costing, stock control and kitchen leadership transfer directly; restaurant managers earn $11,500 more. Pastry is another option for chefs who want to specialise in desserts and baking, though patisserie training is needed. Plenty of chefs eventually open their own cafe or restaurant, which means funding a fit-out, signing a lease and carrying the financial risk themselves.
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