Rick Smilow’s Book Shows Some Chefs Make Six-Figure Salaries

Interested in the salary behind the chef who prepared your filet Mignon? President and Chief Executive of the Institute of Culinary Education, Rick Smilow, breaks down the salaries of chefs and culinary professionals in his upcoming book called Culinary Careers, reports SLASHFOOD.

Mixing real-life advice on how to land a dream job in the food industry and reporting on the industry’s disparities in salaries, Smilow and co-author Anne E. McBride profile various folks who work in the restaurant industry. Their findings report some executive chefs at the nation’s top establishments earn up to six-figures.

According to Nation’s Restaurant News, Joseph Wrede chef and partner in Taos Restaurant Group, which has five restaurants in New Mexico and Colorado, said he makes “$150,000 base salary, plus profit sharing.” On the other hand, Graham Elliot Bowles, a chef-owner of Graham Elliot in Chicago, said cooks in Chicago on average earn around $30,000, with chefs earning about twice that amount.

Culinary Careers is scheduled to be published this May by Clarkson Potter.