6 of the Most Popular Types of Chef Helper Jobs in 2026

See what kind of roles similar to Chef Helper jobs are hiring now

Top Types Of Chef Helper Jobs

• Kitchen Helper

  Salary range: $29,000 - $33,500

  As a kitchen helper, you perform a variety of duties in a restaurant, cafe, or large commercial kitchen. You use food service skills to assist chefs, wait staff, and restaurant managers with a variety of tasks to keep the kitchen functioning smoothly and safely. Although there are no formal qualifications required for this career, you typically have some form of previous restaurant work experience, such as dishwashing or bussing tables. You do not interact directly with customers, although your job may be near customer areas. Kitchen helpers must be detail oriented and capable of multi-tasking in a fast-paced environment.

• Ayudante Cocina

  Salary range: $29,000 - $33,500

  Ayudante Cocina is a more unusual job search query but still may give you interesting job results. Most salaries for Ayudante Cocina jobs pay between $29,000 (25th percentile) and $33,500 (75th percentile) annually. There are plenty of open positions nationwide for Ayudante Cocina job searches hiring now on ZipRecruiter.

• Chef

  Salary range: $35,000 - $64,500

  A chef is a highly trained culinary professional who works as the chief cook in the kitchen of a restaurant. Many chefs earn a culinary degree and are formally trained by another accomplished chef, making them very skilled and competent in their craft. A chef spends a majority of their time in the kitchen cooking and directing other food preparers on the best ways to put together dishes, including appropriate garnish and presentation. Chefs are creative professionals, and are often involved in planning and making menus for the restaurant. Because chefs work as the head cooks in the kitchen, they are the supervisors of the other kitchen workers. In addition to overseeing food preparation, chefs coach and develop the other kitchen staff and help them grow and improve their skills. They are responsible for managing the logistics of the kitchen operations. They order necessary supplies, provide cost estimates to their employer, and monitor staff requirements and schedules.

• Cook

  Salary range: $28,000 - $37,500

  A Cook—also called a Chef—is ultimately responsible for preparing the food that is served in restaurants or other dining establishments. As the head of the kitchen, Cooks also supervise other work and oversee the kitchen to ensure it all runs smoothly. In some restaurants, Cooks are responsible for creating recipes and menus, planning events, ensuring that food and kitchen regulations are followed, and sticking to a restaurant budget. There are different levels of this position that you can earn, meaning that there can be a wide range to all the potential possibilities and responsibilities of a daily Cook. For example, there’s the Head Chef who runs the kitchen while the other Cooks are responsible for specific types of food.

• Kitchen

  Salary range: $28,000 - $34,500

  Kitchen is a popular job search query. Most salaries for Kitchen jobs pay between $28,000 (25th percentile) and $34,500 (75th percentile) annually. Take a look at the variety of open positions nationwide for Kitchen job searches hiring now on ZipRecruiter.

• Line Cook

  Salary range: $31,500 - $39,500

  A line cook is a restaurant staff member who works in the kitchen, usually working a particular station on the line during service. As a line cook, your responsibilities and duties may include setting your station mise en place, firing food to order, and plating food. Line cooks work at a station, for example, the grill or fryer, but they are cross-trained to work any position in the kitchen. Your job is to work as a team with the entire kitchen staff to prepare meals that are consistently high in quality and delivered rapidly to the front of the house.