Cooks, Private Household
Prepare meals in private homes. Includes personal chefs.
- Median pay
- $47,940
- Doing it now
- 35,400
- By 2035
- Up 5.1%
- Usually needs
- Postsecondary nondegree award
a year
across the country
5,000 openings a year
to get in
What the work involves
- Plan menus according to employers' needs and diet restrictions.
- Shop for or order food and kitchen supplies and equipment.
- Peel, wash, trim, and cook vegetables and meats, and bake breads and pastries.
- Prepare meals in private homes according to employers' recipes or tastes, handling all meals for the family and possibly for other household staff.
- Stock, organize, and clean kitchens and cooking utensils.
- Specialize in preparing fancy dishes or food for special diets.
- Create and explore new cuisines.
What to study
The fields of study the Department of Education links to this occupation, most widely taught first.
- Culinary Arts and Related ServicesSee 40 colleges that teach it
Who it suits
O*NET scores every occupation on six interest dimensions. This one leans hardest on these three.
Hands-on and practical
Helping and teaching
Creative and expressive
Careers like this one
Where this comes from: the description and the task list are O*NET, which the Department of Labor maintains. Pay, workforce size, outlook and the education normally needed are the Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections programme, 2025 wages and 2025 to 2035 projections. Half of them earn more than $47,940 a year, which means half earn less, and what you would earn depends on where you work and how long you have been doing it. The fields of study come from the National Center for Education Statistics crosswalk.