Skilled trades · Building & Making
Cook: what the job actually is
Making food to order or in batches, fast, hot and the same way every time, usually in a kitchen that is too small.
Published Last reviewed How we research and correct this
The work
What this job actually is
- Preparing and cooking food in restaurants, care homes, hospitals and other kitchens. Skilled Trades Ontario describes cooks as preparing meats, salads, soups, sauces, vegetables, desserts and baked foods.
- Most of the work is speed and consistency. The same dish must come out the same way at the busiest moment.
- Job Bank lists full-service and limited-service restaurants and nursing and residential care facilities as main employers in Ontario, so a cook's day looks very different depending on which you pick.
- Teamwork is physical and loud. Everyone works in a few square metres with hot surfaces and knives.
- Cleaning, stock rotation and food safety are as much the job as cooking.
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.
- 9:00 — In. Check your station, your prep list, your temperatures. Mise en place is everything.
- 9:30 — Prep: chop, portion, make sauce, label and date. Boring, and the thing that saves you at service.
- 11:30 — Final checks. Taste the soup, wipe the station, stack plates.
- 12:00 — Lunch rush. Tickets print, you call, cook and plate, and for two hours there is nothing but the next order.
- 14:00 — Wind down. Restock, clean, a quick staff meal standing up.
- 14:30 — Prep for dinner, or off if you are on a split schedule.
- 17:00 — Dinner service. Louder, hotter, faster. One missing ingredient can wreck the line.
- 20:30 — Last orders. Break down your station, wrap and date food, label the walk-in.
- 21:30 — Mop, scrub and wipe the line, sink and floor.
- 22:30 — Done. Smell of fryer oil in your hair, a sore back and tomorrow's schedule on your phone.
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.
- You like working with food and a team, and you can take a quick command or a joke without taking it personally.
- You can stay organised when it is chaotic.
- You like physical, fast work that ends with something people eat.
- You like a trade you can work in almost any town or country.
- You are fine starting at the bottom and learning by doing.
- Heat, noise and being on your feet for a full shift make you miserable. They are standard.
- Nights, weekends and holidays are a problem. Restaurants are busiest when others are off.
- Pay matters early. Job Bank wages for this group sit near the bottom of the range for many cooks, and Ontario's outlook is rated Limited.
- You are sensitive to criticism. Kitchens can be blunt and fast, and a bad plate gets sent back.
- Burns, cuts and slips bother you. They are a regular part of the job, and wear on your hands and back.
The route in
How you actually get there in Ontario
Start in a kitchen
Dishwasher, prep or line cook. Almost nobody needs a certificate to get a first job, and a week of real shifts shows you more than any brochure.Register as an apprentice if you want the certificate
Cook is trade code 415A in Ontario and is a non-compulsory trade, so you can work as a cook without certification. The apprenticeship is 6,000 hours: 5,280 hours of on-the-job training and 720 hours of in-school training.Know it is a Red Seal trade
Skilled Trades Ontario lists Cook as a Red Seal trade, so a qualified cook can have their certificate recognised across Canada through the Interprovincial Red Seal Program.Or take a college culinary programme
Ontario colleges run cooking and culinary programmes. Compare them on ontariocolleges.ca and check how many hours are real kitchen time rather than classroom.
Where this comes from: Skilled Trades Ontario — Cook (415A) · Skilled Trades Ontario — Cook (415A) trade report · Ontario — Start an apprenticeship
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)
- $18.00
- Median (hourly)
- $24.00
- High (hourly)
Ontario, NOC 63200. 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 — Cook 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.
Limited2 out of 5 stars
- Employment growth will lead to a few 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 cooks
- However, consumer spending in restaurants is expected to be constrained due to economic uncertainty
- There could also be a fair amount of competition for jobs given the relatively low entry requirements for some roles, and weaker hiring activities by employers
- Investments in new nursing and long-term care facilities in Ontario could create some opportunities
Who hires for it
- Full-service restaurants and limited service eating places
- Nursing and residential care facilities
- 54,700
- people work in this job in Ontario
- 38%
- are women (48% across all jobs)
- 6%
- are self-employed (15% across all jobs)
Source: Job Bank — Cooks job prospects in Ontario (NOC 63200). 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 food and nutrition, hospitality or any culinary course. If your school offers an SHSM in hospitality, look at it seriously.
- Get a part-time kitchen job. A restaurant or a care-home kitchen both count and you will learn the pace quickly.
- Ask about OYAP and co-op so some of your school time counts toward the apprenticeship.
- Get your food handler certificate before you apply anywhere.
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.
Run a real prep list for one meal tonight
About 90 minutes- Pick one meal for your family. Write a prep list with every chop, measure and sauce, and a time for each.
- Do all the prep first, put everything in small bowls, then cook. This is mise en place, and it is how kitchens work.
- Time yourself, keep your station clean, and serve everything hot at the same time.
- Clean the whole kitchen afterward. Write down what slowed you down.
What it tells you. If the planning felt satisfying and the rush of getting it all out together was fun, line work will probably suit you. If you hated the pace and the mess, think hard: a restaurant is that, at four times the speed, for eight hours. A yes means asking a local kitchen about a part-time prep job.
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 does a normal week look like, including days off?”
- “What is the hardest part of a line shift?”
- “Did the apprenticeship or a college programme help you more, or the kitchen itself?”
- “What pays better: restaurant, hotel, institutional or catering?”
- “What do new cooks get wrong in the first month?”
- “How do you take care of your hands, feet and back?”
Could you own one of these?
The part other career sites never mention
Yes, in several forms: catering, meal prep, a market stall or a small cafe. A restaurant is the hardest and most expensive. Work in kitchens first so you understand the costs, and check the current Ontario rules on food safety and licensing before you plan anything.
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.
Parent of a teenager weighing this up? Career coaching for teens gets them talking to people who do the work, anywhere in Ontario.
If this appeals, look at these too
Read next
Apprenticeships in Ontario What to do after high school Careers that match your strengths All careers guides
Wages and training requirements change. Every figure on this page is linked to the body that publishes it, and the review date above says when we last checked. If you find something out of date, tell us and we will fix it.