What is a Sous Chef?

A sous chef is the second in command in a professional kitchen. The title comes from French. “Sous” means under and “chef” means chief, so a sous chef is literally the under chief. This is the person who works directly below the executive chef and keeps the kitchen running during every service. What is a sous chef expected to handle on any given day? Pretty much everything. Cooking, managing the team, checking every plate before it leaves the kitchen, solving problems as they come up, and stepping into the head chef’s shoes whenever needed. If you are interested in what is a sous chef and whether this career is right for you, this guide covers the role from all sides.

 

I have been cooking for over 30 years now. I started when I was 12. Over those years, I watched kitchens from many angles. The thing I noticed early on is that the head chef gets the credit, but the sous chef is the one who holds the line together when things get chaotic. That always stuck with me.

The Sous Chef Meaning and Where It Comes From

The sous chef meaning goes back to the French brigade de cuisine. Auguste Escoffier created this system in the late 1800s to organize busy restaurant kitchens. He modeled it after military structure, with a clear chain of command from top to bottom. The executive chef or chef de cuisine sits at the top. The sous chef comes right after.

If you are wondering how to say it, “sous” sounds like “soo” (rhymes with Sue) and “chef” sounds just like it looks. So it is “soo shef.” You might see it misspelled as “souse chef” online but that is not correct.

Below the sous chef are the chefs de partie, each running a specific station like grill, sauté, or pastry. Then line cooks, then prep cooks at the entry level. In small restaurants, one person fills this role. Bigger operations like hotels and casinos sometimes have multiple people at this level, and a few even have an executive sous chef sitting between the regular position and the head chef.

What Does a Sous Chef Do?

This is where people usually get surprised. Most folks outside the industry think the job is mainly cooking. It is not. Cooking is a big part of it, sure. But the sous chef job description covers a lot more than that.

Keeping the Kitchen Moving During Service

During a busy dinner rush, the sous chef coordinates everything. Every station needs to fire at the right time so that all dishes for one table come out together. When the grill station falls behind, someone has to step in. That someone is almost always the person in this role. They also check plating, monitor temperatures, and catch mistakes before food reaches the dining room. I have seen kitchens fall apart when this position is empty even for one night. It is that important.

Training and Managing the Team

New cooks rarely learn from the head chef directly. The sous chef handles most of the training, showing new hires how the restaurant runs its recipes, what the plating standards look like, and how to move through service without slowing the line down. Beyond training, there is scheduling, performance reviews, and the daily challenge of keeping a team motivated during long shifts. Not everyone who is great at cooking is great at managing people. The ones who can do both tend to move up fast.

Menu Work and Testing New Dishes

Most contribute to menu development. They test new ideas alongside the executive chef, adjust recipes based on what actually works during a rush, and flag dishes that slow down the line or use ingredients that are hard to source consistently. Because they spend more time on the line than the head chef does, their input on what is realistic matters a lot.

Inventory, Ordering, and Food Costs

This part of the job gets less attention, but it is a big deal. Tracking what comes in, what goes out, and what gets wasted affects whether the restaurant makes money. A good sous chef knows portion sizes, monitors spoilage, rotates stock, and works with suppliers. Not glamorous work, but the restaurants that stay open tend to have someone who pays close attention to these numbers.

Food Safety

Health codes exist for a reason. The sous chef makes sure temperatures are right, storage is clean, and handling procedures are followed. Many employers want this person to have a ServSafe certification or something equivalent. It is the kind of responsibility that only gets noticed when something goes wrong.

The Paperwork Nobody Talks About

Scheduling shifts. Tracking hours. Writing up performance notes. Maintaining records for health inspections. Coordinating with front of house. When the executive chef is away at a meeting or event, all of this falls on the second in command. The job is not just about cooking. Anyone thinking about this path should know that going in.

How It Compares to Other Kitchen Roles

People often ask about the difference between a sous chef and an executive chef. The head chef sets the direction. Menu vision, big picture strategy, budget, hiring. The sous chef turns that vision into reality plate by plate during service. One plans. The other executes. The executive chef training path is longer and the pay is higher, but many executive chefs will tell you that their time as a sous chef taught them the most.

The line cook comparison is simpler. A line cook runs one station. The sous chef runs the whole kitchen. Moving from line cook to this position is probably the biggest jump in a culinary career because it changes your focus from doing the work to making sure everyone else does the work well. Some cooks struggle with that shift. It is a completely different skill set.

How to Become a Sous Chef

There is no single path. I have met people who got there after culinary school and others who started washing dishes at 17 and worked their way up without any formal education. Both paths work. What they have in common is years of real kitchen time. This is not a position you land out of school.

Most people spend at least three to seven years on the line before earning this title. That means working as a prep cook, line cook, and eventually a station lead or chef de partie. During those years, you learn every station in the kitchen. You develop speed, consistency, and the ability to stay calm when the printer will not stop firing tickets. If you want to understand how many chefs get started, this apprentice chef guide covers the basics.

Culinary school helps. An Associate Degree in Culinary Arts, which usually takes two years, covers cooking techniques, nutrition, food safety, and kitchen management. Some go further with a bachelor’s degree that includes business courses. Certificate programs that run one to two years are another option. Whatever route you pick, look for accredited programs. You can browse options in our culinary arts degrees guide or check out specific cooking schools by location.

The American Culinary Federation (ACF) offers a Certified Sous Chef (CSC) credential. It requires a combination of education and work experience plus a written and practical exam. Not mandatory anywhere, but it shows employers you take the profession seriously. A ServSafe Food Protection Manager certification is also expected at most establishments. For more on habits that help chefs grow over time, I put together a guide on becoming a successful chef.

Sous Chef Salary

Pay varies a lot depending on where you work and what type of kitchen it is. Based on data from PayScale, Glassdoor, ZipRecruiter, and Salary.com, the average in the United States falls somewhere between $48,000 and $64,000 a year. Entry level positions start around $35,000 to $41,000. In fine dining restaurants or high cost cities like San Francisco, New York, and Washington D.C., experienced people in this role can earn $70,000 or more.

The type of establishment makes a difference too. Hotels, casinos, and cruise ships tend to pay better than casual restaurants. Formal culinary education and certifications can push the number higher. I put together a separate guide on average chef salary if you want to compare across different positions.

Job growth looks steady. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks this under “chefs and head cooks” and the food service industry continues to expand. That is good news for anyone building a career in the kitchen.

Where You Can Work

Restaurants are the obvious answer, from small neighborhood places to fine dining. But there are more options than most people realize. Hotels and resorts often hire for this role to cover multiple outlets like room service, banquets, and poolside dining. Cruise ships offer travel with high volume kitchen work. Casinos, country clubs, corporate cafeterias, hospitals, and catering companies all need experienced kitchen leadership. Each setting moves at a different pace, so there is room to find something that fits your life.

Where the Career Goes from Here

The natural next step is executive chef. Not everyone makes that jump, though. It requires more than cooking well. You need business sense, the ability to manage budgets and personnel, and sometimes the willingness to step away from the line. Some go through the chef de cuisine position first, which is common in hotels and restaurant groups where one person oversees a single kitchen while the executive chef manages the broader operation.

Others take a different path entirely. Some move into pastry chef roles, food and beverage management, research and development, or consulting. A few open their own restaurants or build catering businesses. The experience you get in this position, the combination of cooking, leadership, and cost management, is hard to get anywhere else. It prepares you for almost anything in the food world. If you are considering alternative directions, this personal chef guide is worth reading too.

Working as a sous chef is demanding. Long hours, high pressure, and the constant need to stay sharp. But for people who love cooking and want to lead a kitchen someday, this is where that career really starts. Every executive chef I have known went through this stage. The skills you build here, both at the stove and away from it, stay with you no matter where the career takes you next.