How to become a chef
If you want to turn your passion for food into a career, read our guide to discover more.
CONTENTS
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Routes to becoming a chef
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Skills you’ll need
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Finding work experience
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How to get a job as a chef
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What it's like to be a chef
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Routes to becoming a chef
There are many routes open to you to qualify as a chef. You might decide to start as a kitchen assistant and work your way up while learning on the job. There’s also a wealth of short cookery courses run by independent organisations to dip into as well as dedicated catering colleges. This guide explores the university routes into the industry, looking at degree options.
Undergraduate degrees
While you don’t need a degree to become a chef, a degree in professional cookery or culinary arts will help you gain relevant skills and knowledge and often involve a real-life industry placement in a professional kitchen. Some restaurants prefer to recruit cookery and culinary arts graduates.
Entry requirements for a professional cookery degree vary depending on course and school specifics, but typically range from 48 – 123 UCAS points.
An undergraduate degree with a professional cookery placement will usually take four years to complete, or three years without a placement.
Alternatively, you might want to look at a broader hospitality and catering degree. You can learn more about what to expect with this option in our hospitality and catering subject guide, including what topics you’ll cover and how you’ll be assessed.
Degree apprenticeships
While it is common to find apprenticeships in this area, these tend to be at an intermediate or advanced level rather than equivalent to a degree. These usually require GCSEs as opposed to A-Levels or equivalent and take between one and two years to complete. Opportunities might include production or commis chef or chef de partie. You can search for this type of vacancy via Find an apprenticeship.
Alternatively, you might be interested in specific apprenticeships through an employer, such as the armed forces or a restaurant chain. Details of these opportunities will be on the organisation’s website.
Postgraduate degrees
There are a few vocational postgraduate options involving professional cookery that will either develop existing skills or prepare you for a more managerial role in the catering world.
In addition, there are numerous broader hospitality and catering postgraduate qualifications to choose from if you want to branch out in your existing catering career or are looking for a career change. A postgraduate degree usually takes a year to complete full time or two years part time and an unrelated undergraduate degree is often a minimum entry requirement.
Aside from a love of food and a passion for cooking, you’ll also need:
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Technical cooking skills
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Knowledge of how to store and present food
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Attention to detail
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Creativity and imagination
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Ability to work under pressure
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Tenacity
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Concentration
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Organisational skills
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Self-motivation and ability to motivate others
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Team work
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Commitment
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Mathematical skills
Before committing to this line of work, it’s a good idea to get some experience to be sure this is the right career and environment for you. It’s relatively easy to get a casual job at a restaurant, café, pub or other form of eatery, either in the kitchen or front-of-house. Alternatively, you could volunteer at a community café or social enterprise.
Once you’ve qualified as a chef, you’ll have many different options available to you depending on the sort of establishment you want to work for. Employers range from the obvious chain restaurants and pubs to independent cafes and more exclusive fine dining establishments.
Less obvious employers to consider include the NHS, private hospitals, educational settings, the armed forces, contract catering and train companies and cruise ships.
Depending on your role and specialisation, your tasks could include:
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Designing attractive menus thinking about nutritional standards
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Controlling and ordering ingredients
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Preparing food for cooking
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Cooking and presenting food safely and creatively
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Working under pressure so food is served on time
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Keeping to hygiene, health and safety and licensing laws
Working environments vary enormously. You might work at a restaurant, school, hospital kitchen, or a company canteen. You may even cook on the move on board a ship or train. Alternatively, you might become a private chef cooking for clients in their homes. Chefs often work as part of a team, taking responsibility for different parts of the process.
Further training to develop your career might be provided with larger companies but it’s a good idea to join a professional body such as the Institute of Hospitality to tap into resources and networks yourself. With some experience you may decide to become a specialist chef, run your own food business or teach catering skills to others.
Whatever stage of your career, chefs tend to work long hours that will often include evenings, weekends and bank holidays. Shifts can be physically and mentally demanding as it’s a highly pressured environment. A chef in the early stages of their career might start around £22,000 - £25,000 depending on qualifications and earn up to £35,000-£40,000 with more experience. Head chefs can receive £40,000 - £55,000 depending on their location, skills and employer.
Is a role as a chef right for you?
If you enjoy expressing your creativity through food and are prepared to work long hours and thrive under pressure, a career as a chef could be for you.
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- What do graduates do and earn?
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