← Hospitality and personal services
Chef
Lead commercial kitchens, from menu development through service to food safety supervision.
Salary
Cited figures only: median full-time weekly earnings for the ANZSCO unit group Chefs (3513) from Your Career (Jobs and Skills Australia), and where available the QILT graduate starting salary for the matching study area.
| Figure | AUD | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Median full-time weekly earnings | $1330 | Your Career (2026-09-23) |
Jobs, demand and who does this work
Figures for the ANZSCO occupation Chef (351311), the closest official match for chef, from Your Career (Jobs and Skills Australia data, sourced 2026-09-23).
- People employed
- 131,000
- Future demand
- Strong
- Work full-time
- 78%
- Average full-time hours
- 43 a week
- Women
- 26%
- Median age
- 34
Where the jobs are (share of workers)
| NSW | 31.5% |
| VIC | 27.4% |
| QLD | 19.5% |
| WA | 11% |
| SA | 5.6% |
| TAS | 1.9% |
| ACT | 1.8% |
| NT | 1.3% |
Highest qualification held by workers
| Postgraduate qualification | 3.6% |
| Bachelor degree | 14.4% |
| Diploma or advanced diploma | 22.3% |
| Certificate I-IV | 37.3% |
| Year 12 | 10.9% |
| Below Year 12 | 6.7% |
What a chef actually does
Chefs work split shifts built around lunch and dinner service in restaurants, hotels, pubs, clubs, function venues and resorts. A typical day starts mid morning with deliveries, checking the previous night's prep list, breaking down proteins, making stocks and sauces, and writing the day's specials. Service runs through a lunch push, a short break to reset, and then the longer dinner service which can stretch from 5pm to 11pm or later. Between services the head chef costs dishes, calls suppliers, rosters the brigade, trains apprentices and signs off on food safety records. Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays are the busiest shifts of the week, and the kitchen runs hot, loud and physical. Most chefs work 45-55 hours a week, longer in high-end fine dining or during functions and weddings. The Restaurant Industry Award 2020 sets minimum wages, weekend loadings and public holiday penalty rates, but salaried head and sous chef contracts in mid to large venues often roll penalties into a single annual figure.
Typical tasks
- Develop and cost menus.
- Lead service and brigade.
- Manage food-safety procedures.
Skills you'll use
- Knife skills and classical cooking techniques
- Menu costing and gross profit calculation
- Food safety supervision under the Food Standards Code and AS 4674
- Brigade leadership and roster management
- Ordering, supplier negotiation and stock rotation
- Working under time pressure without dropping plate quality
- Allergen and dietary management (gluten free, vegan, halal)
- Cleaning down to a hygiene standard at the end of every service
How to become one
- 1Finish Year 10 at minimum; Year 12 helps if you want to step into management later
- 2Start a 3-4 year commercial cookery apprenticeship combining paid kitchen work with a Certificate III in Commercial Cookery at TAFE
- 3Complete the Food Safety Supervisor unit required for the role of person in charge of a kitchen
- 4Work through the brigade as a commis, demi chef de partie and chef de partie to build a section
- 5Consider a Certificate IV in Patisserie or Certificate IV in Kitchen Management to step into sous chef and head chef roles
- 6Move venues every 2-3 years early in your career to pick up different cuisines and styles
Where you can work
- Independent restaurants and fine-dining venues
- Pubs, bistros and clubs serving 100-plus covers a service
- Five-star hotel kitchens and resorts
- Cafes and casual all-day venues
- Function and conference centres
- Cruise ships and remote mine-site catering camps
- Aged-care, hospital and school catering
- Self-employed chef-owner in your own venue
Career progression
Typical stages and roles. Years of experience are a rough guide; pay at each stage depends on the employer, award or agreement.
- Apprentice0-4 yearsTypical roles: First-year apprentice, Commis chef
- Chef de partie4-7 yearsTypical roles: Chef de partie, Section chef, Larder chef
- Sous chef7-10 yearsTypical roles: Sous chef, Junior sous chef
- Head chef or executive chef10+ yearsTypical roles: Head chef, Executive chef, Chef-owner
Is this for you?
You might love this if
- You like working with your hands and creating food people enjoy
- You can hold quality and pace at the same time during a busy service
- You're physically fit enough for long shifts on your feet
- You can take and give direct feedback without taking it personally
- You don't mind missing some Friday nights and weekends with mates
- You're calm under pressure when the kitchen runs hot
This might not suit you if
- You want a strict 9-to-5 with weekends off
- You can't handle heat, noise, sharp knives or shouting in the kitchen
- You hate physical work or long hours on your feet
- You want big money fast (the early apprentice years pay award rates)
Three ways in
Uni, TAFE and trade routes for chef. Not every career has all three; we only list pathways that actually lead to this occupation.
University
Bachelor degrees that lead to this career.
No direct undergraduate pathway. Consider postgraduate study after a related bachelor degree.
TAFE / VET
Nationally accredited Certificate and Diploma qualifications.
Apprenticeship trade
Earn while you learn through an Australian Apprenticeship.
Sources
ExamExplained does not publish predictive salary figures. For current Australian earnings data check Your Career (yourcareer.gov.au) directly. Career classifications follow the ABS ANZSCO 2022 release.