Skilled trades · Creating & Designing

Chef: what the job actually is

Running a kitchen: the menu, the crew, the costs and the timing, usually during hours when everyone else is out having dinner.

Published October 5, 2026Last reviewed October 5, 2026How we research and correct this

The work

What this job actually is

Planning menus, ordering food, managing a kitchen team and making sure every plate goes out right. A chef is a manager as much as a cook.
Most chefs start as cooks. Skilled Trades Ontario lists Ontario Certification of Qualification in Cook (415A) as the prerequisite for the Chef apprenticeship, trade code 415C.
Job Bank says most chefs are employed in restaurants, so the work follows restaurant hours: evenings, weekends and holidays.
Much of the work is cost control: food waste, portion sizes, suppliers, prices and staffing.
You are responsible for food safety, for your team's safety, and for what lands on the plate.

A Tuesday

What a normal day looks like

Not a good day or a bad one. The ordinary version, which is what you would actually be living.

8:30 — In. Check the walk-in, the deliveries and what did not sell last night. Rewrite the prep list.
9:30 — Order. Call or message suppliers, change quantities, argue about one price.
10:30 — Prep with the team. Stocks, sauces, proteins, and any special for the day, tasted and adjusted.
12:00 — Lunch service, if you have one. Fast, loud and over in two hours.
14:30 — Staff meal, a quick break and a first look at the evening reservations.
15:00 — Paperwork: schedules, invoices, food cost, temperature logs.
16:00 — Brief the team. Tonight's menu changes, allergens, anything that went wrong yesterday.
17:00 — Service starts. You stand at the pass, taste, fix, call orders, and handle the problem that always arrives.
21:30 — Last tickets out. Kitchen clean-down starts while you plan tomorrow.
23:00 — Home, wired and tired, when everyone you know is already asleep.

Honestly

Who loves this, and who should not do it

The second list is the useful one. Nearly every careers page leaves it out, which is why nearly every careers page reads like an advert.

How you actually get there in Ontario

Start as a dishwasher, prep or line cook
Almost every chef started at the bottom of a kitchen. You learn the pace and the hierarchy, and whether you can stand the work.
Get certified as a cook first
Cook is trade code 415A, non-compulsory and a Red Seal trade. The apprenticeship is 6,000 hours: 5,280 hours on the job and 720 hours of in-school training.
Then the Chef apprenticeship
Chef is trade code 415C, also non-compulsory. Skilled Trades Ontario lists the Cook Certification of Qualification as the prerequisite. There is no Chef certifying exam, so you receive a Certificate of Apprenticeship. The hours are set out in the Schedule of Training on the trade page; confirm them with Skilled Trades Ontario before you plan around them.
Or take a college culinary programme
Ontario colleges run culinary programmes, and many chefs combine school with kitchen work. Compare programmes on ontariocolleges.ca, including how much of the course is real kitchen time.

Where this comes from: Skilled Trades Ontario — Chef (415C) · Skilled Trades Ontario — Cook (415A) · Ontario Colleges — Program search

The money

What it pays in Ontario

Job Bank's own figures, quoted rather than summarised, with the period they describe — so you can tell how old they are and go and check them.

$17.95: Low (hourly)
$22.00: Median (hourly)
$34.19: High (hourly)

Ontario, NOC 62200. Reference period 2023-2024, last updated by Job Bank on 19 November 2025. Wages vary a lot by region inside Ontario and by how long you have been doing it — the low figure is roughly where you start, not what the job is worth.

Source: Job Bank — Chef wages in Ontario

Where it is heading

The outlook for the next three years

Job Bank publishes a three-year outlook for every job in every province. It is the closest thing to an honest forecast, and it moves, so read it as a weather report rather than a verdict.

Ontario, 2025-2027

Limited2 out of 5 stars

Employment growth will lead to a moderate number of new positions.
Not many positions will become available due to retirements.
There are several unemployed workers with recent experience in this occupation.

What that rating means: how many openings Job Bank expects in Ontario for this kind of work against how many people are likely to be looking — not whether it is a good job. A “limited” rating means more competition for each opening; it does not close the door, and it can change before you are ready to walk through it.

What is changing in this work

The high number of restaurants in the province will support opportunities for chefs
However, consumer spending in restaurants is expected to be constrained due to economic uncertainty

Who hires for it

Majority employed in restaurants

24,600: people work in this job in Ontario
26%: are women (48% across all jobs)
13%: are self-employed (15% across all jobs)

Source: Job Bank — Chefs job prospects in Ontario (NOC 62200). Outlook updated by Job Bank on 10 December 2025; read by us on 5 October 2026.

Before you leave school

Things you can do now

Take every food and nutrition or hospitality course. If your school has a culinary programme or SHSM in hospitality, that is the best head start.
Get a part-time job in a kitchen, even washing dishes. One shift tells you more than a year of cooking shows.
Ask about co-op and OYAP so some of your time in school counts toward your cook hours.
Get a food handler certificate, which most kitchens like to see.

Test it

Do this before you decide anything

Reading about a job tells you almost nothing. This is designed to be done alone, this week, for free.

Cook a three-part meal for four on a deadline

About 120 minutes

Plan a simple meal with three parts, like a main, a side and a sauce. Write a prep list working backward from a set serving time.
Cook it for at least three other people, serving everything hot at the same moment. Time each step and note where you fell behind.
Clean as you go, then clean the whole kitchen afterward. Notice how you felt about the cleanup.
Ask your guests one honest question: what was the weakest part of the meal?

What it tells you. If the deadline was exciting and you wanted to improve the timing, kitchen work could suit you. If you hated the pressure of everything landing at once, remember that is the whole job on a busy Friday. A yes means getting a part-time kitchen job; a no is a useful answer, not a failure.

Better than any article

Questions for somebody who does this job

Most people say yes to a teenager who asks good questions. These are the ones that get real answers rather than encouragement.

“What is your week like, and when do you see your family or friends?”
“How long did it take you to become a sous chef, and what did you earn on the way?”
“What do you look for in a new cook on their first day?”
“Did you do the apprenticeship, college, or neither, and would you choose it again?”
“What do you do about burnout in a long service?”
“What do chefs who leave the industry usually go on to do?”

Could you own one of these?

The part other career sites never mention

Yes, and many chefs dream of it, but a restaurant is one of the hardest businesses to run. It needs money, a lease, staffing and long hours every day. Lower-cost routes exist, like catering, meal prep, a market stall or a food truck. Work in kitchens and in a business-side role first so you see what the numbers do.

Business 101 is free and teaches that part

Not sure this is the right list to be reading

Start from yourself, not from the job.

Future Finder is free, takes about ten minutes, needs no account and stores nothing. It will tell you which kinds of work you lean toward, and which of these pages are worth your time.

Try Future Finder — free All jobs

Parent of a teenager weighing this up? Career coaching for teens gets them talking to people who do the work, anywhere in Ontario.

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