Cook
What the work is
Prepares, seasons and cooks food in a dining or catering establishment.
Would you enjoy the work?
These are the main tasks in the official description. Mark how each one sounds to you.
- Inspects and selects ingredients for cooking
- Measures, cleans, chops, blends, seasons, heats and cools food
- Monitors food cooking processes to ensure proper cooking and presentation
- Coordinates, supervises and collaborates with kitchen staff in food preparation and cooking
- Cleans and maintains kitchen equipment and utensils
- Monitors and maintains inventory of food supplies and equipment
- Assists in the development of new recipes and menu items
Try it
A simulation and a case study from this kind of work, set in the kitchen of a busy fictional pub bistro by the river, serving lunches and dinners. They are fictional.
The kind of days you could have
Good days
- A plate you cooked goes out looking exactly the way it should
- A whole kitchen in rhythm, calling orders and clearing them without a word wasted
- A regular leans over the pass to say it was the best meal of the week
Hard days
- Split shifts and weekends, when everyone else is out and you are working
- A broken fridge in the middle of a Saturday lunch rush
- A complaint about food that you know was cooked right, with a table waiting for you to respond
Written by Career Calling as a general guide. Real roles vary by employer and place.
Work a mission
Step into a simulated workplace in this field, with a brief from your manager.
Description and tasks: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, 2024, Version 1.0 (opens another site), occupation 322331, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The skill guide above is our plain English summary.