Learn about the types of people who become culinary chefs. This page goes into detail about the employment, gender, and ethnic ratios of the workplace.
Employment Type Mix, 2024
79% of culinary chefs work in full-time roles while 21% work part-time.
Gender Mix By Career Interest, 2024
This graph shows the distribution of females and males that are interested in becoming a culinary chef. Four or five star ratings on CareerExplorer indicate interest.
More men than women are interested in becoming culinary chefs at a ratio of 1.10 to 1.
Actual Gender Mix, 2024
39% of culinary chefs are female and 61% are male.
Gender Bias, 2024
This is one of the most compelling statistics we collect. Gender bias shows the difference between gender interest in being a culinary chef and the actual gender mix of people in the career.
If there is a significant difference, then it means there is a gender imbalance between those interested in becoming a culinary chef and those who end up becoming one.
In this case there are more women interested in becoming a culinary chef than those actually working as one. It is hard to pinpoint the exact reasons why, but there are likely various forces at play, from changing interests over time to societal norms and biases.
Ethnic Mix, 2019
The largest ethnic group of culinary chefs are White, making up 67% of the population. The next highest segments are Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish and Other, making up 9% and 8% respectively.