Prepare foods for cooking or serving.

Prepare foods for cooking or serving. is a detailed work activity in O*NET — a concrete unit of work shared across 10 occupations and seen in 15 occupation-specific tasks. It rolls up into the broader work activity Prepare foods or beverages. in Handling and Moving Objects .

Detailed work activities are the most granular shared layer in O*NET's work-activity hierarchy (Generalized → Intermediate → Detailed → occupation-specific task). The figures below describe how this activity shows up across the economy and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the work will be automated.

AI exposure

Of the 15 tasks under this activity that the OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rated, 0 (0%) are flagged as directly exposed to language models (E1) or exposed via model-powered tools (E2).

The Anthropic Economic Index observes real AI use on 1 of these tasks, with a mean mapped-usage share of 0.002% per task.

Exposure estimates overlap with model capabilities — whether a model could speed the task up — not whether the work will be done by software. Observed AI use is augmentation and assistance today, not jobs replaced.

Member tasks

Occupation-specific tasks O*NET maps to this detailed work activity, most important first.

• Peel, wash, trim, and cook vegetables and meats, and bake breads and pastries. · Cooks, Private Household · importance 4.8 · no direct exposure
• Cool, package, label, and freeze foods for later consumption and provide instructions for reheating. · Cooks, Private Household · importance 4.8 · no direct exposure
• Wash, cut, and prepare foods designated for cooking. · Cooks, Fast Food · importance 4.7 · no direct exposure
• Clean, cut, and cook meat, fish, or poultry. · Cooks, Institution and Cafeteria · importance 4.5 · no direct exposure
• Perform food preparation tasks, such as making sandwiches, carving meats, making soups or salads, baking breads or desserts, and brewing coffee or tea. · Cooks, Short Order · importance 4.4 · no direct exposure
• Wash, peel, and cut various foods, such as fruits and vegetables, to prepare for cooking or serving. · Food Preparation Workers · importance 4.3 · no direct exposure
• Use manual or electric appliances to clean, peel, slice, and trim foods. · Food Preparation Workers · importance 4.2 · no direct exposure
• Wash, peel, cut, and seed fruits and vegetables to prepare them for consumption. · Cooks, Restaurant · importance 4.2 · no direct exposure
• Perform food preparation and serving duties, such as carving meat, preparing flambe dishes, or serving wine and liquor. · First-Line Supervisors of Food Preparation and Serving Workers · importance 4.1 · no direct exposure
• Specialize in preparing fancy dishes or food for special diets. · Cooks, Private Household · importance 4.1 · no direct exposure
• Slice and pit fruit for garnishing drinks. · Bartenders · importance 4.0 · no direct exposure
• Perform food preparation duties, such as preparing salads, appetizers, and cold dishes, portioning desserts, and brewing coffee. · Waiters and Waitresses · importance 4.0 · no direct exposure
• Clean or prepare various foods for cooking or serving. · Dishwashers · importance 3.8 · no direct exposure
• Plan and prepare food for parties, holiday meals, luncheons, special functions, and other social events. · Cooks, Private Household · importance 3.6 · no direct exposure
• Travel with employers to vacation homes to provide meal preparation at those locations. · Cooks, Private Household · importance 2.2 · no direct exposure

Occupations that perform this

• Cooks, Private Household
• Cooks, Fast Food
• Cooks, Institution and Cafeteria
• Cooks, Short Order
• Food Preparation Workers
• Cooks, Restaurant
• First-Line Supervisors of Food Preparation and Serving Workers
• Bartenders
• Waiters and Waitresses
• Dishwashers

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.

• O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
• Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27) Anthropic
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

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

@misc{singulariki-prepare-foods-for-cooking-or-serving,
  title  = {Prepare foods for cooking or serving.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/detailed-activities/prepare-foods-for-cooking-or-serving}
}