Entertainment Magazine: Dining: Education: Culinary

Culinary Career Profile: Sous-Chef

A sous-chef, also known as an assistant chef, is responsible for providing administrative and culinary support in professional kitchen environments.

They handle everything from inventory and equipment maintenance to slicing, chopping, washing, and cooking.  However, make no mistake; a sous-chef position is not something you should take lightly. 

Professional kitchen environments are high paced, stressful settings that require attention to detail, organization, culinary skills, and teamwork.

In order to secure positions at top paying restaurants, hotels, and resorts, you’ll want to receive formal training from an accredited culinary school.

Only then can you hope to make the median salary of $20,000 a year (nearly $30,000 on the upper end).

Attending Culinary School to Become a Sous-Chef

By receiving an associates degree in the culinary arts from an accredited cooking program, you'll be qualified to work in the vast majority of professional kitchen environments across the country.

In a standard program, you'll learn countless cooking techniques, ingredient selection, basic business administration, inventory, rudimentary restaurant management, and countless other fields related to the larger dining industry.

Although it's possible to specialize in a few areas, most sous-chefs prefer to master all of the basics since they'll be required to work in a wide variety of settings and culinary genres.

By the time you graduate, you will be qualified to work in everything from sushi kitchens to gourmet restaurants to family restaurant chains. 

In many cases, sous-chefs use their experience and credentials to rise up the ranks so that they can eventually become head cooks and full fledged chefs. 

In fact, a surprising number of professional chefs start out as a sous-chef at some time in their careers.

Sous-chef positions are excellent stepping stones for those who want to transition into more professional culinary careers down the road.

US Department of Labor