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Food Service Managers vs Chefs and Head Cooks

Side-by-side · O*NET · BLS · AI-exposure research · Anthropic Economic Index

A factual, source-backed comparison of Food Service Managers and Chefs and Head Cooks on the dimensions both occupations carry. Every figure is a position within an independent published dataset — not a verdict on which job is better, safer, or more “future-proof.”

Food Service Managers Chefs and Head Cooks
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$65,310
$60,990
Employment · BLS OEWS
244,230
182,320
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
27th pct
51st pct

At a glance

Dimension Food Service Managers Chefs and Head Cooks
Median pay $65,310 $60,990
Employment 244,230 182,320
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection About average (+6.4%) Growing fast (+7.1%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 42,000 24,400
Typical education · O*NET Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not. Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.
AI exposure · published exposure studies Low · 27th pct Moderate · 51st pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk 67th pct · 36% of tasks 47th pct · 25% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index Automation-leaning (45.7%) Automation-leaning (38.9%)
Mostly remote-capable · Dingel–Neiman No No

Pay and employment are BLS OEWS estimates; outlook and openings are BLS 2024–2034 projections; AI exposure and observed-use figures come from separate research and reflect exposure and usage, not predictions that either job will disappear. Compare like with like.

Skills

Shared: Customer and Personal Service, Administration and Management, Food Production, Active Listening, Speaking, Monitoring, Coordination, Management of Personnel Resources, Oral Comprehension, Written Comprehension, Oral Expression, Problem Sensitivity, Deductive Reasoning, Reading Comprehension, Service Orientation, Speech Clarity, Critical Thinking, Social Perceptiveness, English Language, Time Management, Personnel and Human Resources, Mathematics, Production and Processing, Education and Training, Active Learning, Learning Strategies, Instructing, Judgment and Decision Making, Selective Attention, Near Vision, Speech Recognition, Complex Problem Solving.

Specific to Food Service Managers

  • Sales and Marketing
  • Administrative
  • Negotiation
  • Economics and Accounting
  • Writing
  • Persuasion
  • Systems Analysis
  • Systems Evaluation

Specific to Chefs and Head Cooks

  • Information Ordering
  • Inductive Reasoning
  • Originality
  • Quality Control Analysis
  • Management of Material Resources
  • Fluency of Ideas
  • Category Flexibility
  • Visualization

Knowledge, skills & abilities O*NET rates as important for each occupation. “Shared” are common to both; the columns list what is distinctive to each (top by the order O*NET surfaces).

Tools & technology

Shared: Office suite software , Web page creation and editing software , Word processing software , Spreadsheet software , Electronic mail software , Presentation software , Time accounting software , Analytical or scientific software , Data base user interface and query software , Financial analysis software , Enterprise resource planning ERP software , Desktop publishing software .

Specific to Food Service Managers

Specific to Chefs and Head Cooks

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Food Service Managers or Chefs and Head Cooks — tasks, the full skill graph, tools, work context, preparation, wages by percentile, industries, AI exposure and the AI work map.

More comparisons

Related occupations you can place side by side on the same sourced scale.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

Cite this page
Plain

Singulariki. "Food Service Managers vs Chefs and Head Cooks." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/compare/food-service-managers-vs-chefs-and-head-cooks

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Food Service Managers vs Chefs and Head Cooks. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/food-service-managers-vs-chefs-and-head-cooks

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-food-service-managers-vs-chefs-and-head-cooks,
  title  = {Food Service Managers vs Chefs and Head Cooks},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/compare/food-service-managers-vs-chefs-and-head-cooks}
}

Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.