In this post
How to Become a Chef in Australia: Complete Guide for 2025

This is your handbook to becoming a chef in Australia. Learn how to get your start with a course in culinary arts and make it in the hospitality industry with this in-depth guide.
Food has risen to an art form in Australia, taking chefs along the ride to fame and glory.
Always loved cooking? If you’ve got a bit of a flair for flavour, you might have imagined yourself at the helm of your own kitchen, artfully garnishing a plate with one hand and balancing a flaming wok with the other.
A career as a chef can open many doors. The hospitality industry in Australia is always growing, and the career opportunities on offer can take you anywhere. From an upscale resort in far-north Queensland to a winery in South Australia or a tiny laneway in inner Melbourne: the world is your freshly-shucked, locally sourced oyster.
But beneath a chef’s passion and creativity there lies dedication and an extraordinary amount of hard work. So how do you get from being handy in the kitchen to a darling of the culinary world?
If you’re just starting to explore the idea of a culinary career, you may need to field some important questions first, like:
- What kind of work will I do in the kitchen?
- How much does a chef earn in Australia?
- Are chefs in demand in Australia?
- What qualifications do you need to become a chef?
- How long does it take to become a chef?
- What are the chef rankings?
- What other types of culinary jobs are there?
Today, we’ll cover all these questions and more. This comprehensive guide to becoming a chef will take you from the research and discovery phase, through to concrete next steps for starting out in the industry.
In this complete guide, we’ll brief you in five chapters.
Let’s get cooking.
WHAT DO CHEFS DO EVERY DAY?
Get an idea of what it is, exactly, that chefs do in their day-to-day work, job prospects, and how much they get paid.
IS BEING A CHEF RIGHT FOR YOU?
Find out what it’s really like being a chef, and decide whether it’s a good fit for you.
WHAT IS THE CHEF RANKING SYSTEM?
Chef rankings, the kitchen hierarchy, what now? Time to finally find out what a Sous Chef is. (It has nothing to do with soup.)
CULINARY QUALIFICATIONS
Get the low-down on what qualifications and training you’ll need to become a professional chef.
CHEF APPRENTICESHIPS
Why chef apprenticeships are the best pathway into the industry, and how to get one.
But First: What Does the Word ‘Chef’ Really Mean?
A chef is a professional cook who oversees food preparation and manages all aspects of a kitchen, including the other cooks. The word ‘chef’ comes from the French phrase ‘chef de cuisine’, which means the ‘boss of the kitchen’.
In Australia, the word ‘chef’ is sometimes used to refer to a professional cook; confusingly, it’s also sometimes used to refer to a head chef or chef-manager.
Chefs are trained through formal qualifications or an apprenticeship, and usually have several years of experience as a cook. As they gain expertise, chefs will master a broad range of techniques in all areas of cookery, and often specialise in a particular cuisine. Chefs most commonly work in commercial kitchens such as restaurants or catering companies, but they can also be found in private households and institutions like schools and hospitals.
CHAPTER 1
What Do Chefs Do?
A chef is more than a cook – they don’t just cook food, they make it possible for an entire restaurant to function. Depending on the chef’s level of seniority, they can be responsible for an entire process of creating dishes, from researching and planning a menu to sourcing produce, organising the kitchen, designing the presentation of each dish. Some chefs are in charge of a particular section, such as desserts or soups, according to the kitchen hierarchy.
Chef Duties
- Cooking and preparing food
- Developing a menu
- Estimating the costs of each meal
- Purchasing ingredients
- Hiring and training staff
- Demonstrating cooking techniques and procedures
- Maintaining hygiene standards
- Designing an efficient kitchen workflow
- Supervising other cooks and kitchen staff
- Using and maintaining kitchen equipment
Job Prospects are Strong & Getting Stronger
Australia has a huge hospitality industry, and it’s growing all the time. Over the past 5 years, demand for chefs has skyrocketed, and the Australian Government predicts strong growth, with another 81,000 job openings over the next 5 years.
How much does a chef earn in Australia?
The average salary for a chef varies greatly, depending on their position in the kitchen hierarchy, but a typical salary across all roles lies between $60,000-$70,000.
So what does this mean? Cooking is a moderately-paying career path, and most people get into it because it gives them great creative satisfaction, variety, and excitement.
$64,132
Typical Chef Salary
How did we arrive at this number?
Seek averages out data from job postings, estimating a typical chef’s salary at $60-70K.
According to Payscale, full-time kitchen chefs (a lower ranking cook) usually make around $53,962 per year, whereas an executive chef typically earns $84,178, and up to $107,000 on the higher end of the scale.
CHAPTER 2
Is Being a Chef Right For You?
The hospitality industry can be tough, and it takes a particular kind of person to flourish in the heat of the kitchen. But if you happen to be that kind of person, you may find yourself madly in love with your career.
Not many jobs can provide the level of excitement and challenge that a career as a chef can. No two days in the kitchen are the same, with creativity and problem-solving skills required in equal measure.
So is a career in the culinary arts right for you?
Try Working in a Kitchen First
Before you go to culinary school, before you apply for an apprenticeship, before you decide that cooking is the love of your life… work as a kitchen hand for a while.
Seriously, work in a kitchen.
It’s the only way to get a feel for what being a chef is really like. Being a kitchen hand is fast-paced, physically challenging work, as you’re essentially the support role that makes sure everyone else can do their job properly. In this role, you’ll get to know fairly quickly whether you absolutely thrive or wilt in the kitchen environment. That way, if you choose a foray into the culinary world, it will be based on true, grounded love for cooking rather than illusions.
Find a restaurant that you connect with in some way, with an ethos or cuisine that excites you, and start working at the bottom of the ladder.
You
- Calm under pressure
- Attention to detail
- Passionate and creative
- Mentally tough and driven
- High physical energy and stamina
- Enjoy working with others
Skills
- Cooking expertise
- Business savvy
- Highly developed palate
- Organisational skills
- Food safety
- Managing people
- Culinary knowledge
- Problem-solving
Activities
- Organising, planning, and prioritising your work
- Using your hands to move & manipulate objects
- Forming good relationships with people
- Coaching, teaching, and developing people
- Creative thinking
- Thinking on your feet & problem-solving
People call me for advice about their kids who want to go into cooking, and I always tell them, “You know, the kid should work in a restaurant as a dishwasher, waiter, cook, whatever, to get the taste and essence of that thing that may seem glorious from the outside.”
What is Life in the Kitchen Like?
Once you’ve worked in a kitchen for a while, you will start to realise some things about professional cooking.
Long hours
Being a chef is not a 9 to 5 job. Head chefs, in particular, are famous for regularly working 12-hour shifts to accommodate morning deliveries, afternoon preparation, and lunch and dinner services. It’s not uncommon for cooks and kitchen staff at all levels to work long hours. Kitchens open long before dinner is served, and close long after.
Close-knit
Because you’re working so closely with the other staff, they will become like family to you. A working kitchen is like a well-oiled machine. Everyone has their part to play, and high-pressure environments forge strong friendships. This is not a job for lone-wolf types.
Fast-paced
The kitchen can be a hectic place during food service. You’ll need to be quick on your feet with good spatial awareness to move around the others working near your space and. If you thrive in busy environments, you’ll love this.
Hands-on
Cooking for a living is not for the faint of heart. You must be able to handle lots of physically demanding, high-pressure work, and keep your cool around very hot cooktops. On the other hand, if you prefer physical work and you’ve always dreaded the thought of a cubicle, hands-on work like this could be very satisfying.
Ben’s Career Journey: From Chef to Sustainable Food Educator
Meet a professional chef whose path led him through some of Australia and New Zealand’s top kitchens – and to create a game-changing social enterprise that seeks to reinvent the way we think about food. Dive deeper and find out where a career in the culinary arts can take you.
CHAPTER 3
Chef Rankings and the Kitchen Hierarchy
The hierarchy most commonly seen in kitchens is a legacy from the french ‘brigade’ system. We break it down and show you the average duties and salaries for each position.
When you start off working in a kitchen, it’s most likely your first job will be as a kitchen hand – a job which mostly involves cleaning and assisting everyone else in the kitchen. As you gain experience and skills, you will start moving up the ranks.
The chef ranking system can be confusing at first, but once you get to grips with the way the kitchen works, it will start to make sense. The different rankings of chef are listed here from highest to lowest.
1. Executive Chef
$84,178
TYPICAL SALARY
$56k – $107k
Executive Chef duties:
(sometimes aka Chef/Owner)
- May own restaurant
- May manage several restaurants
- Develop menu direction
- Supervise food preparation
- Share knowledge and train kitchen staff
- Assign responsibilities for food preparation to cooks
- Deal with complaints and customer feedback
- Prepare food alongside other chefs
- Manage all food and beverage operations
2. Head Chef
$66,343
TYPICAL SALARY
$52k – $82k
Head Chef duties:
(aka Chef de Cuisine)
- Specialise in one type of cuisine
- Manage kitchen operations
- Prepare, cook, and present food
- Planning the menu
- Inventory and purchasing
- Budget management
- Manage and train kitchen employees
- Oversee hygiene and sanitation standards
3. Sous Chef
$61,130
TYPICAL SALARY
$51k – $70k
Sous Chef duties:
(aka Second-in-Command)
- Manage day-to-day operations of the kitchen
- Manage, direct and discipline kitchen staff
- Oversee quality control
- Assisting with creative menu development
- Manage daily food inventory and costs
- Generate business reports
- Deal with suppliers
- Substitute for the head chef or other chefs when needed
- Help with daily food preparation
4. Chef de Partie
$56,365
TYPICAL SALARY
$46 – 60k
Chef de Partie duties:
(aka Line Chef or Station Chef)
- Responsible for preparing one type of food
- Season and cook elements of each dish
- Garnish and present dishes for serving
- Operate kitchen equipment and appliances
- Monitor cleanliness and sanitise kitchen areas
- Taste and keep records of food products
5. Kitchen Chef
$24.13/hr
TYPICAL SALARY
$18 – $27/hr
Kitchen Chef duties:
- Help to plan menu
- Prepare salads, sandwiches, stuffings, sauces
- Cutting up vegetables, fruits, and meats
- Plate up and garnish meals
- Supervise kitchen assistants and waiters
- Ordering and bookkeeping
6. Chef Assistant
$22.44/hr
TYPICAL SALARY
Range: $16 – $26/hr
Chef Assistant duties:
- Ordering and inventory of supplies
- Clean and maintain kitchen, including appliances, tools and equipment, and storage areas
- Estimate type and quantity of food items to order for daily service and functions
- Basic ingredient preparation, such as chopping and pre-cooking
7. Kitchen Hand
$19.94/hr
TYPICAL SALARY
Range: $15-$24/hr
Kitchen Hand duties:
- Cleaning dishes, cookware, and utensils
- Sweeping and mopping
- Clearing tables and bringing dirty dishes to the kitchen
- Maintaining a clean kitchen
- Helping with station setup for cooks
- Helping with basic food preparation, such as washing and chopping ingredients
- Laundering linens
The Chef Hierarchy: Who is Who in the Kitchen?
Let this article be your guide to the chef ranking system, or the kitchen brigade system as it is sometimes known. Go into more detail on the different kinds of roles and explain how the system helps a kitchen run efficiently so you can be prepared for your first shift.
CHAPTER 4
Culinary Qualifications
The type of qualification you should pursue depends on what kind of chef you want to become. Getting qualified can take anywhere from 6 months to 3 years, but you’ll need at minimum a Certificate III in Culinary Arts to work professionally.
Working in a restaurant is not the only path available to you as a chef. It’s worth considering other routes such as baking or patisserie, both of which are experiencing a boom and urgently in need of skilled, talented people to fill the workforce gaps.
Necessary
You will need, at minimum, to have completed one of these qualifications to become a chef in Australia:
- Chef – Certificate III, IV or Diploma in Commercial Cookery (SIT30813)
- Pastry chef – Certificate III, IV, or Diploma in Patisserie (SIT31016)
- Baker – Certificate III in Retail Baking (Bread) (FDF30610)
Recommended
It’s also highly recommended to gain your qualification through an apprenticeship, as cookery is an extremely hands-on profession. You’ll get a much better start through learning on the job, working your way up, and gaining industry contacts as you go. To gain an apprenticeship, you will usually need to have completed at least Year 10 or equivalent.
It’s also usually a good idea to gain your VCE or equivalent. Since your job will involve a lot of business and communication skills, as well as calculating cooking temperatures and quantities, you’ll need strong mathematics and English skills.
How to Become a Baker
Are you interested in the field of baking but you’re not sure where to start? Learn about what being a baker is like, what skills and qualities you’ll need to succeed, and how to get started in the industry.
CHAPTER 5
Should You Take on a Chef Apprenticeship?
While you don’t have to complete an apprenticeship to become a chef, it’s a smart move – and will greatly improve your chances of starting out on the right foot. You’ll be able to gain work experience while you complete your qualification, all while getting paid.
How a Chef Apprenticeship Can Benefit Your Career
Learn what’s involved in a chef apprenticeship in Australia, what to expect while you’re working. Read the article to discover why it’s the best way to get started in the industry.
Your culinary adventures await.
So, you’ve had a taste of being a chef – and you’ve decided it’s the perfect path for you. What are you waiting for? Start making a wishlist of kitchens nearby (and further afield!) you’d like to work in and explore the qualifications available to you.
Browse Results
Certificate IV in Leisure and Health (VIC Only) CHC43415
The CHC43415 Certificate IV in Leisure and Health is ideal if you want to launch your career in leisure and health. This qualification reflects the role of workers participating in the design, implementation and evaluation of leisure and health activit...
Certificate IV in Ageing Support (VIC Only) CHC43015
This qualification reflects the role of support workers who complete specialised tasks and functions in aged services; either in residential, home or community based environments. Workers will take responsibility for their own outputs within defined or...
Certificate III in Individual Support (Ageing and Disability) (VIC Only) CHC33021
Our nationally recognised CHC33021 Certificate III in Individual Support (Ageing and Disability) is the perfect qualification for people who have a passion for supporting the elderly, or those with a disability, to reach their full potential. Start a c...
Certificate III in Individual Support (Ageing & Disability) (QLD Only) CHC33021
This Nationally Accredited Certificate III in Individual Support (Ageing & Disability), will give you the skills and knowledge to work in the Ageing and Disability care industry and support those who are most vulnerable! Work in one of the most rew...
Certificate III in School Based Education Support CHC30221
The CHC30221 Certificate III in School based Education Support offers the best of both worlds: the flexibility of online learning, with a practical 140 hours of work placement in a real classroom of your choosing, so you can practice and perfect what y...
Diploma of Information Technology (Cyber Security) ICT50220
The ICT50220 Diploma of Information Technology (Cyber Security) is a specialised qualification that equips you with the essential knowledge, technical expertise, and hands-on practical skills needed to build a successful career in Cyber Security. With...
Certificate IV in School Based Education Support (VIC ONLY) CHC40221
The qualification CHC40221 – Certificate IV in School Based Education Support is referred to in industry as the Cert 4 Education Support or your teacher’s aide course. Education support workers assist teachers and support student learning in a range of...
Diploma of Community Services (Perth Only) CHC52021
The Diploma of Community Services qualification reflects the roles of community services, case management and social housing workers involved in the managing, co-ordinating and/or delivering of person-centred services to individuals, groups and communi...
Certificate III in Allied Health Assistance (Perth Only) HLT33021
Are you interested in entering the health services industry? This nationally recognised qualification will allow you to enter into one of the most rewarding and enjoyable careers! When studying this course, you will gain knowledge in a range of fields...
Canine Care and Training Certificate
Have you always dreamed of working with dogs? Are you excited to learn how to provide the best life possible for our four-legged friends? Then our Canine Care and Training Course is a perfect choice for you. To work with dogs requires a thorough unders...
Certificate in Eyebrow Facial Waxing and Tinting
Australian Beauty School’s Eyebrow, Facial Waxing & Tinting Certificate offers you the theoretical and practical knowledge to flawlessly re-shape and define stunning eyebrows. Our course covers the safe application of flawless wax, tweezing a...
Professional Make Up Artistry Certificate
Our Professional Makeup Artist Certification will teach you the key theoretical and practical skills to work as a make up artist for all occasions, including formal occasions, bridal make up, cut crease, smokey eye or even on set for the fashion and en...
Nail Tech Certificate
Our most fabulous course yet! The Nail Tech Course covers all popular nail styling methods on the market and has been developed by industry professionals to deliver the latest techniques and trends. As part of this certificate, you will learn all about...
Certificate III in Individual Support (Disability) (VIC Only, excl. Metro) CHC33021
Certificate III in Individual Support (CHC33021) qualification reflects the role of workers in the community and/or residential setting who follow an individualised plan to provide person-centred support to people who may require support due to ageing,...
Certificate IV in Accounting and Bookkeeping FNS40222
Monarch Institute is one of very few registered training organisations (RTOs) to offer the TPB (Tax Practitioners Board) approved courses required to become a registered BAS agent or a registered tax agent. We’re also included in a very select few accr...
Visual Design: Transform
The demand for Visual Designers is expanding, with over 1,250 roles available in Australia and the field set to grow by 12.9% over the next 5 years. This Visual Design course is highly practical, immersive and will get you industry-ready faster than ot...
Certificate IV in Accounting and Bookkeeping FNS40222
Become a financial all-rounder with the FNS40222 Certificate IV in Accounting and Bookkeeping. You will gain skills across the board from accounting to financial planning, bookkeeping, auditing and payroll. Whether you’re looking to start your own busi...
Certificate III in Business (Customer Engagement) BSB30120
Our nationally recognised BSB30120 Certificate III in Business (Customer Engagement) is designed to arm you with the tools to keep the customers coming back. You will learn how to use industry essential skills like producing documents, working as part...
Certificate III in Individual Support (Ageing and Disability) (WA Only) CHC33021
Our nationally recognised CHC33021 Certificate III in Individual Support (Ageing and Disability) is the perfect qualification for people who have a passion for supporting the elderly, or those with a disability, to reach their full potential. Start a c...
Certificate IV in Plumbing and Services (VIC ONLY) CPC40920
THIS COURSE IS AVAILABLE TO STUDENTS IN VICTORIA ONLY This course covers common skills relevant for the plumbing industry in addition to specialist streams relevant to drainage, gas fitting, roof drainage, sewerage and more. These plumbing training cou...
Online courses also available
Latest Articles
Agriculture Careers: What You Should Know in 2025
As one of Australia's most important industries, the agriculture industry offers great career opport...
Are Digital Skills the Key to Job Security in 2025?
The digital revolution is here, and it doesn’t care if you have a technical job or not — it’s coming...
How to Become a Chef in Australia: Complete Guide for 2025
The complete guide to becoming a chef in Australia. Learn how to get your start and make it in the h...
Want to read more?
24 Most Fulfilling Jobs That Work With Kids: Which Is Your Calling?
Is working with kids your calling in life? Discover the 6 jobs working with children rated most fulf...
15 Skills Essential to Becoming a Real Estate Agent
So, you’re an outgoing, enthusiastic individual? Tick. You love conversation, and love working and c...
How to Become a Customer Service Assistant
Do you want to become a customer service assistant? We unpack the skills, qualifications and experie...