How much more do culinary school grads make compared to other cooks?

The government data for culinary salaries doesn't make a distinction between cooks with an without a culinary education. They do have seperate categories for chefs, but they're using the dictionary definition of chef, meaning a cook who supervises other cooks rather than just anyone who cooks "fancy" food for a living. Most of the other categories can include both people who work at chain restaurants, and people who work at the best restaurants in the country. It makes the salary info very confusing. Also, culinary school educations go from trade school certificates, to 4 year degrees. Just how much can a cook with a culinary education from a respected culinary school, like I.C.E or C.I.A, expect to make. Honestly, the low salaries listed for the general category "restaurant cooks" are really scaring me, but I figure most of those people are employed at chain restaurants, so I don't know if I have anything to worry about.

Public Comments

1. I'm gonna let my boyfriend, who went to culinary school, answer this one: Most of the culinary jobs out there require a person to start at the bottom, whether or not they have a degree. The one major factor in working in the industry is experience. To answer your question, unless you know anyone in power at the places you apply to, most likely you will start out doing little meaningless tasks in the back of house making the same as the mexican standing next to you. you really need to show your knowledge and skill both during the interviewing process, and every minute you work after that. The choice to go to culinary school is up to you. One question to ask is why? If you cant cook at all then it's a good step. most schools just teach basic skills that you build upon throughout your career. If you have been cooking in the industry for a while and just want a piece of paper to make it official then look at all time and money involved. I wasted a lot of both to be taught things i learned from experience. Experience is the biggest factor.