Culinary Arts Salary: What Salary Do You Make in the Culinary Arts?

Culinary Arts Salary: What Salary Do You Make in the Culinary Arts?

Whether you decide to become a chef at a top rated restaurant, open your own or dream of becoming a featured chef on the Food Network, a career in the culinary arts field offers many benefits to the aspiring culinary student. Even if your main objective is finding a career doing the thing you love – cooking – money is always a factor in choosing your career.

Fortunately, careers in the culinary arts offer excellent pay in a fast-paced, rewarding atmosphere. According to the US Department of Labor, the national average yearly salary in May, 2007 for a chef or head cook was $40,700. The average varies greatly, however, depending on the area in which you live, with a chef in Los Angeles or New York making considerably more than a head chef in Springfield, Illinois.

This is a far cry from the average annual salaries of culinary professionals 10 years earlier. According to the US Department of Education, the average annual salary for a head chef in 1998 was $26,479, which means there was a 65% increase in the annual salaries between 1998 and 2008, and the field continues to grow.

Other Culinary Occupations

While becoming a head chef at the finest restaurant in New York City is the dream of many culinary students looking for the right cookin coureses and can offer salaries near $100,000 per year with years of experience and a background of fine culinary education, there are a wide array of specialties in the culinary arts where aspiring students can find excellent pay and a rewarding work atmosphere.

According to Salary.com, as of May, 2008, the average salaries in various culinary fields include:

The Television Chef

While it may not be the dream of every culinary student, modern technology has provided the opportunity for well-respected chefs to host their own television series. Those lucky and skilled enough to gain their own reality show can expect to earn excellent salaries for their hard work. Some of the top paid celebrity chef’s include:

• Paula Deen – $4.5 million
• Gordon Ramsay - $7.5 million
• Wolfgang Puck – $16 million
• Rachel Ray - $18 million

In summary, chefs can make a solid, respectable living wage, or climb the ladder and become wealthy. It all depends on your location, skills, and a bit of good luck.