Hospitality, Aviation & Services
Chef
शेफ़
Creates and cooks food in restaurants, hotels and catering — and, with experience, runs kitchens, designs menus and leads teams.
See when you could start working, and what it could payWhat people in India report they earn
See chef salaries shared by employees: Glassdoor India(opens in a new tab) · Indeed India(opens in a new tab).
These figures are self-reported on those sites and aren't checked by Edukrish. Pay varies a lot by city, employer and experience.
- Class 11–12 stream
- Open to any stream
- Key subjects
- English, Business Studies, Fine Arts / Design
- Often valued in this work
- Creativity & independence, Global exposure, Leadership & recognition
What the work looks like
- Preparing ingredients and cooking dishes to a consistent standard
- Planning menus, ordering stock and controlling costs
- Leading and training the kitchen team
The realities
Physically demanding, hot and fast-paced; evenings, weekends and festivals are the busiest times. Skills travel well, with kitchens in hotels, cruise lines and restaurants worldwide.
The usual route in India
B.Sc in Hospitality and Hotel Administration (3 years, through NCHM JEE) with a focus on food production, a culinary arts degree, or the Diploma in Food Production (1½ years) at an Institute of Hotel Management.
Entrance exams and tests
- NCHM JEE — dates and details
- Institute and university admission tests for culinary programmes
Linked exams open their official dates and sources.
Other ways in
Many chefs start as kitchen trainees or apprentices and learn on the job; craft certificate courses in food production are a shorter start.
Colleges with courses for this career
From courses we've collected from official college websites. Not a ranking, and not every college that offers it.
- Vellore Institute of Technology
B.Sc. Hospitality and Hotel Administration
Sources and checks
Not yet expert-checked: Written by the Edukrish team and not yet reviewed by a counsellor or subject expert. Verify important details with official sources.Written by the Edukrish team and not yet reviewed by a counsellor or subject expert. Exam names, eligibility and routes change, so always confirm with the official body before deciding.
Last updated
Quick answers
- How long does it take to become a chef in India?
- On the usual route (B.Sc Hospitality & Hotel Administration), about 3 years after Class 12. A student in Class 12 in 2026–27 could start working around 2030; a student in Class 8 around 2034. A preparation year, a master's or a repeated year moves this later.
- How much does a chef earn?
- Edukrish doesn't publish an India salary figure for this career yet, because reliable occupation-level data that can be reused doesn't exist publicly. In the United States, median pay for chefs and head cooks was $62,470 a year in 2025; the lowest-paid 10% earned under $37,900 and the top 10% over $98,560 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics).
- Will AI take over the work of a chef?
- The ILO's 2025 index of generative-AI exposure says this occupation group ("Chefs") is in the low-exposure group: of its 10 typical tasks, 10 have low exposure; none is highly exposed. Exposure measures what the technology could do today, not job losses; it usually changes which tasks people spend time on.
Your future as a chef
When you could start working, what the work could look like by then, and what it could pay.
Pay data for
- You could start working
- 2032in about 6 years · as commis chef / kitchen management trainee
- Pay in India
- We show India pay only where there's an official public figure, such as government pay scales. This career doesn't have one yet.
Your pay over the career
Shown only where reliable data exists.
No reliable pay data for India yet
- India's official survey data (PLFS) can be used commercially only under a licence, and salary websites don't allow reuse. Rather than show a guess, we leave India pay out until there's a figure we're allowed to use.
Your path from today
Three-year degree through NCHM JEE, with a focus on food production.
Today
Class 10 · 2026–27
Finish Class 12
May 2029
B.Sc (Hospitality & Hotel Administration)
Aug 2029 – Jun 2032
First role: Commis chef / kitchen management trainee
Jul 2032
Growing in the role
2037 (5 years in)
Senior roles, for some
2042+ (10 years in)
A plan, not a promise: a repeated year, a break or a change of course moves these dates.
How the career can grow
Illustrative steps; the years vary by employer and person. Many people stay at a specialist level by choice.
Commis chef
Often 0–2 years in · from about 2032
Learns the work on real projects, with close guidance.
Chef de partie
Often 3–5 years in · from about 2035
Owns pieces of work end to end and needs less supervision.
Sous chef
Often 6–9 years in · from about 2038
Handles complex work, sets direction for a project and guides newer colleagues.
Head chef / chef de cuisine
Often 10–14 years in · from about 2042
Leads larger areas or teams, or becomes the go-to expert in a specialism.
Executive chef
Often 15+ years in · from about 2047
Shapes strategy for a department or organisation. Only some people reach this level.
Demand and how the work may change
Official US outlook, 2025–2035
Employment growth: Much faster than average (7% or higher) · about 25,200 openings a year.
There's no reliable job-postings data for India yet, so these signals come from the US.
Exposure to generative AI (ILO, 2025)
Low exposure: most tasks rely on things current generative AI can't do.
- Very low
- Low
- Medium
- High
How many of the 10 typical tasks of “chefs” current generative AI could technically do. Exposure is not the same as job loss: it often changes which tasks people spend their time on. By 2032 the tools will be different again, so treat this as direction, not a forecast.
Who hires people in this career
- Hotels and resorts
- Restaurants and cloud kitchens
- Cruise lines and airline catering
- Food companies (product development)
- Your own food business
Kinds of employers today, written by our team. We name companies only with dated hiring evidence, and never suggest a company will be hiring in 2032.
How we work this out: sources, assumptions and limits
Why “no reliable pay data yet”
- India's official survey data (PLFS) can be used commercially only under a licence, and salary websites don't allow reuse. Rather than show a guess, we leave India pay out until there's a figure we're allowed to use.
Timeline assumptions
- Today is in the 2026–27 school year (April to March).
- One class per year, with no repeated year.
- Class 12 results arrive around May; college intakes start on the months shown.
- Admission in the first year you apply.
- Courses take their standard length; a failed year or a break adds time.
- The first job starts about a month after the last stage ends.
Sources
- Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. US public domain.
- Employment Projections 2025–35 — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. US public domain.
- Generative AI and jobs: refined global index of occupational exposure — International Labour Organization (Working Paper 140, 2025). CC BY 4.0.
- Social Security Trustees Report 2025 (economic assumptions) — US Social Security Administration. US public domain.
- Flexible inflation target, April 2026 – March 2031 — Government of India / Reserve Bank of India. Official government publication (facts).
- Average hourly earnings by industry and CPI (back-test data) — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, via FRED (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis). US public domain (BLS data).
- PLFS unit-level data (2025 calendar year) — MoSPI (microdata.gov.in). GSDD 2026: free for non-commercial use; commercial use needs MoSPI authorisation and a fee.
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