Explore a possible path

Cooks, Restaurant

Prepare, season, and cook dishes such as soups, meats, vegetables, or desserts in restaurants. May order supplies, keep records and accounts, price items on menu, or plan menu.

How does this connect to your interests? →

A look at the work

  • Ensure food is stored and cooked at correct temperature by regulating temperature of ovens, broilers, grills, and roasters.
  • Inspect and clean food preparation areas, such as equipment, work surfaces, and serving areas, to ensure safe and sanitary food-handling practices.
  • Portion, arrange, and garnish food, and serve food to waiters or patrons.
  • Ensure freshness of food and ingredients by checking for quality, keeping track of old and new items, and rotating stock.
  • Season and cook food according to recipes or personal judgment and experience.
  • Coordinate and supervise work of kitchen staff.
  • Bake, roast, broil, and steam meats, fish, vegetables, and other foods.
  • Weigh, measure, and mix ingredients according to recipes or personal judgment, using various kitchen utensils and equipment.

A selection of source-listed tasks; duties vary by role and employer.

Interests involved in this work

These source scores describe occupational work activities. They are separate from your personal test results.

Hands-on

2026-02 · Machine Learning/Expert

5.6 / 7

Investigative

2026-02 · Machine Learning/Expert

1.6 / 7

Creative

2026-02 · Machine Learning/Expert

2.7 / 7

Helping people

2026-02 · Machine Learning/Expert

2.9 / 7

Enterprising

2026-02 · Machine Learning/Expert

3.7 / 7

Organizing

2026-02 · Machine Learning/Expert

3.8 / 7

Skills to explore

Source-reported importance on a 1–5 scale. Try a course, project or conversation to learn what these skills involve.

Speaking

Talking to others to convey information effectively.

2025-08

3.0 / 5

Time Management

Managing one's own time and the time of others.

2025-08

3.0 / 5

Critical Thinking

Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.

2025-08

3.0 / 5

Monitoring

Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.

2025-08

3.0 / 5

Active Listening

Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.

2025-08

2.9 / 5

Reading Comprehension

Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.

2025-08

2.8 / 5

Active Learning

Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.

2025-08

2.8 / 5

Judgment and Decision Making

Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.

2025-08

2.6 / 5

Coordination

Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.

2025-08

2.6 / 5

Social Perceptiveness

Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.

2025-08

2.5 / 5

Plan a small next step

Talk to someone doing this work, look for a supervised activity, and explore the subjects that interest you. Admission, licensing and current program requirements should be confirmed with the relevant institutions.

Source preparation category: Job Zone 2 of 5 · 2026-02. This category describes typical preparation, not your eligibility.

Related study fields

Source crosswalk connections are research leads, not required qualifications.

Cooking and Related Culinary Arts, General →

Culinary Arts/Chef Training →

Explore all related study fields →

Source & methodology

O*NET-SOC code 35-2014.00 · Database 31.0 · Retrieved Oct 14, 2026. Dates on individual observations describe their source periods.

How interest exploration matching works →

Data: O*NET® 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration. Used under CC BY 4.0. StudyIndex normalizes the presentation and adds exploration features; USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed or tested these additions.