Occupation
Chef
Chefs design menus, set the standard for how dishes are cooked and plated, and run the kitchen team that produces them. Alongside cooking, they cost dishes, order stock, and answer for food safety in the kitchen. It is hot, physical, deadline-driven work concentrated in evenings, weekends, and holidays.
Also known as: Head chef · Executive chef · Chef de cuisine
Occupation content
Part of Hospitality, travel and tourism
What the work involves
- Write and cost menus, then test and standardise recipes and plating.
- Order ingredients, check deliveries, and manage stock rotation and waste.
- Run service on the pass, calling orders and checking every plate before it leaves.
- Train and supervise cooks, and set the section layout and prep lists.
- Keep food safety, temperature, allergen, and cleaning records to the required standard.
- Work with the front of house on timings, specials, and guest dietary requests.
How people commonly enter
- A cook or chef apprenticeship combining paid kitchen work with technical training.
- A culinary arts certificate or college diploma followed by kitchen experience.
- Working up through the kitchen from kitchen helper and line cook roles.
- A food safety certification required for the person supervising a kitchen.
Typical training: Apprenticeship
Licensing: Certification common, not usually required
Pathways: Apprenticeship route
Typical work context
Fast paced · Team based · Physically active · Shift work · High responsibility
Related interests
Realistic (hands-on) · Artistic (creative) · Enterprising (leading)
Related aptitude preparation
These are preparation links only. They do not measure eligibility for this occupation and no score here qualifies or disqualifies anyone.
Skills to practise
- Planning and scheduling exercises
- Management and supervisory judgment
- Safety judgment
- Multitasking and monitoring
- Numerical reasoning
Practice suites
Related learning
Family-level learning links for Hospitality, travel and tourism.
Official sources
Labour-market facts such as pay and employment projections are not reproduced here. Open an official source below for figures, with its own geography and reference period.
- Canada Job Bank — career planning and occupation search (chefs) · Canada
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- US BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook — Chefs and Head Cooks · United States
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- O*NET OnLine — occupation quick search: chefs and head cooks · International
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Labour-market context (not part of exploration match)
This is broad family-level context for Hospitality, travel and tourism in Canada, not a figure for Chef. It does not affect matching scores and is not an eligibility determination.
This is a broad Hospitality, travel and tourism family. Explore the official profile for the chosen occupation; entry education and training can differ within the family.
Canada Job Bank Career Planning · Canada · Current official profile; consult source for its release period
Hospitality, travel and tourism: education pathways
Some roles in Hospitality, travel and tourism may be regulated. Confirm whether the specific role requires registration, certification, or a jurisdiction-specific licence.
Canada Job Bank Career Planning · Canada · Current official profile; consult source for its release period
Hospitality, travel and tourism: licensing
Find jobs
These are live, user-controlled searches on each source's own site for “ Chef”. Novus Learn does not fetch, store, or rank these results, and job availability never changes your exploration match score.
- Search Canada Job Bank · Canada
- Search USAJOBS · United States federal
- Search EURES · European Union / EEA
- Search Indeed · International (choose location on Indeed)