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Line Cook Job Description

A line cook is a kitchen employee who works an assigned station — grill, sauté, fry, or pantry — preparing menu items to spec during service. Line cooks set up their mise en place before each shift, cook tickets in the order the expediter calls them, and hold food-safety and temperature standards throughout.

Line cook is the job that makes a restaurant kitchen run. Each station on the line — grill, sauté, fry, pantry — belongs to one cook for the length of a shift, and the food leaving the pass is only as consistent as the person standing there. Hiring well is less about the resume than about whether someone can hold a station when twelve tickets are up at once.

The title covers a wide range in practice. A line cook at a 300-cover chain restaurant works from a spec book and a timer. A line cook in a 40-seat dining room works from the chef's notes and a scale. Both need knife skills, temperature discipline, and clean communication with expo, but the pace, the plating standard, and the amount of independent judgment are genuinely different jobs.

This page gives employers a line cook job description they can post as written, and gives cooks an honest picture of the shift: prep before doors, mise en place set within arm's reach, tickets called out loud, temperatures logged, and a station broken down and sanitized at close.

Line Cook Job Description Template

Copy this into your posting and edit it to match your business. Nothing here is gated and no attribution is required.

Job Summary

We are hiring a Line Cook to run an assigned station on our kitchen line. You will set your mise en place before service, cook menu items to spec, manage ticket times with the expediter, and hold food-safety standards from open to close. This is a hands-on kitchen role for someone who works clean, communicates clearly, and stays steady through a rush. Full-time and part-time schedules are available, including evenings, weekends, and holidays.

Responsibilities

  • Set up, stock, and break down an assigned station each shift
  • Prepare menu items to recipe spec, portion weight, and plating standard
  • Fire and time tickets with the expediter so tables are served together
  • Verify doneness and holding temperatures with a calibrated thermometer
  • Follow allergen and modifier procedures, including equipment and glove changes
  • Record temperatures on the shift log and follow FIFO rotation and date labeling
  • Clean and sanitize the station, tools, and assigned equipment on the posted rotation
  • Communicate 86s, shortages, and equipment issues to the chef or manager on duty

Requirements

  • Prior cooking experience in a restaurant, hotel, institutional, or catering kitchen
  • Working knife skills and familiarity with standard cuts and portioning
  • Ability to read tickets and recipes and follow spec without supervision
  • Food Handler card or ServSafe Food Handler certification, or willingness to obtain one
  • Availability for evening, weekend, and holiday shifts
  • Ability to stand for a full shift and lift up to 50 pounds

Preferred Qualifications

  • ServSafe Food Handler or Manager certification already in hand
  • Experience on multiple stations (grill, sauté, fry, pantry)
  • High-volume service experience, or experience with scratch preparation
  • Familiarity with kitchen display systems and ticket rails
  • Basic English and Spanish kitchen vocabulary for a bilingual brigade

Working Conditions

  • Fast-paced kitchen environment with heat, steam, noise, and wet floors
  • Standing, walking, bending, and reaching for the full shift
  • Frequent lifting of stock, sheet pans, and stock pots up to 50 pounds
  • Shifts include nights, weekends, and holidays; split shifts may apply
  • Slip-resistant shoes and required uniform must be worn on the line

Line Cook Duties and Responsibilities

Station setup and mise en place

  • Set up an assigned station before service with prepped proteins, sauces, garnishes, and backups within reach
  • Portion, pan, and label mise en place to the station's posted par levels
  • Check reach-in, lowboy, and hot-hold temperatures before loading product for service
  • Sharpen and stage knives, tongs, spatulas, and a calibrated thermometer for the shift
  • Review the day's 86 list, menu changes, and reservation count at pre-shift lineup
  • Restock backups during service without leaving the station uncovered

Cooking to spec during service

  • Cook menu items to the spec book: portion weight, cook time, plate build, and garnish
  • Fire tickets in the sequence expo calls so every plate for a table lands together
  • Hold proteins to the ordered doneness and verify internal temperatures with a thermometer
  • Taste, season, and wipe plates before they go to the pass
  • Call back ticket times, delays, and newly 86'd items to the expediter
  • Handle allergy and modifier tickets on clean equipment with a glove change
  • Match plate presentation to the posted photo or the chef's standard on every cover

Food safety and temperature control

  • Log cooler, hot-hold, and cook temperatures on the shift log at scheduled intervals
  • Follow FIFO rotation and date-label every product moved into service containers
  • Cool, cover, and store usable product at the end of the shift using house procedure
  • Sanitize boards, surfaces, and tools between raw protein and ready-to-eat handling
  • Report equipment temperature failures to the chef or manager on duty immediately
  • Maintain hand-washing, glove-change, and uniform standards throughout the shift

Breakdown, upkeep, and kitchen support

  • Break down, clean, and sanitize the station at close, including under and behind equipment
  • Wrap, date, and consolidate usable product and discard anything past hold time
  • Complete the closing checklist and hand the station off in ready condition
  • Deep-clean assigned equipment on the posted rotation, including fryers, flat top, and hood filters
  • Note low inventory and broken equipment on the prep sheet or maintenance log
  • Cover adjacent stations during breaks, call-outs, and unexpected volume
  • Train new cooks on station setup, spec, and safety procedures
  • Receive and put away deliveries, checking temperatures and counts against the invoice

Skills and Qualifications for a Line Cook

Core skills

  • Knife skills and portioning
  • Mise en place organization
  • Grill, sauté, fry, and pantry station work
  • Recipe and spec adherence
  • Ticket timing and sequencing
  • Temperature control and thermometer use
  • FIFO rotation and date labeling
  • Plating and presentation consistency
  • Sauce and stock finishing
  • Station breakdown and sanitation

Technical & certifications

  • ServSafe Food Handler certification
  • ServSafe Food Protection Manager (for lead roles)
  • Kitchen display systems and ticket rails
  • Commercial ranges, flat tops, fryers, and combi ovens
  • Immersion circulators and vacuum sealers
  • Slicers, robot coupes, and stand mixers
  • HACCP-style temperature logs
  • Allergen cross-contact procedures

Soft skills

  • Composure during a rush
  • Clear verbal call-backs
  • Teamwork across stations
  • Reliability and attendance
  • Receptiveness to correction
  • Attention to detail on repetition

Required skills and certifications

Most line cook openings do not require culinary school. What they do require is verifiable knife work, an instinct for timing, and the discipline to cook the same dish the same way on the four hundredth ticket. Employers screen first for station experience, then for speed, then for whether a candidate can hold food-safety procedure under pressure rather than only when the health inspector is present.

Certification requirements are set locally. Many jurisdictions require a food handler card within a set window after hire, and ServSafe Food Handler is the most widely recognized version. Larger operators often prefer at least one certified Food Protection Manager per shift, which is a natural step for a line cook aiming at lead or sous roles.

  • Knife skills: consistent dice, julienne, chiffonade, and protein portioning
  • Temperature literacy: cook temps, hold temps, cooling procedure, thermometer calibration
  • Spec discipline: scales, portion tools, and plate builds repeated identically
  • Ticket management: reading a rail, sequencing fires, calling times back to expo
  • ServSafe Food Handler (or the local equivalent food handler card)
  • Allergen handling procedure, including cross-contact prevention

Work environment and schedule

A line cook shift usually starts well before the dining room opens. The first hours are prep and setup: pulling product, portioning, filling pans, checking temperatures, and staging the station so nothing requires a walk during service. Then the rail fills, and for two to five hours the job is sustained concentration in heat and noise, tracking multiple cook times at once.

Schedules are built around covers, not office hours. Expect nights, weekends, and holidays, and expect the busiest shifts to be the ones everyone else is celebrating. Kitchens that run doubles or split shifts should say so in the posting; candidates screen it out later anyway, and being direct saves both sides a week.

Shift blocks are usually AM prep and lunch, PM setup and dinner, or a full double. Uniform is slip-resistant shoes, a chef coat or branded shirt, and a hair restraint. Close is not over when the last cover leaves: breakdown, sanitizing, and a signed checklist come after it.

How the line cook role differs from adjacent kitchen jobs

The prep cook produces the components; the line cook turns them into plates in front of a ticket clock. A prep cook can usually work at a steady pace and correct a mistake before anyone sees it. A line cook works to a table's timing, which is why prep experience alone does not guarantee someone can hold a station.

Above the line, a sous chef runs the shift, adjusts stations, and answers for food leaving the pass; the chef or kitchen manager owns menu, cost, and scheduling. In kitchens using the classic brigade language, a chef de partie is the station lead, with commis or line cook I positions below. Many US restaurants simplify this to Line Cook I, II, and III, where the number reflects how many stations you can run and whether you can be trusted to close.

  • Prep cook: bulk production, par levels, walk-in organization, minimal ticket pressure
  • Line cook I/II/III: station coverage, increasing spec responsibility, then closing duties
  • Chef de partie / station lead: owns a station, orders for it, trains cooks on it
  • Sous chef: runs service, expedites, adjusts staffing mid-shift, corrects plates

High-volume versus fine dining: two versions of the same title

In a high-volume kitchen, the win condition is repeatability. Recipes are documented to the gram, equipment is built for throughput, and a strong line cook is the one whose eighth hour looks like the first. Ticket times are measured, and the pressure comes from the number of covers rather than from the complexity of any single plate.

In fine dining, volume drops and precision rises. Sauces are made in-house, plating uses tweezers as often as spoons, and a cook may be responsible for a single component executed exactly. The pressure is qualitative: the chef will send back a plate for a garnish placed a centimeter off. Both settings build real skill, but they build different skills, and a posting should be explicit about which one it is.

What hiring managers screen for

Reliability comes first. In most kitchens the deciding factor between two capable cooks is who shows up for the Friday close. After that, chefs look for cleanliness as you work, because a cook who cleans as they go is a cook who will not lose a station when it gets busy, and for how a candidate responds to correction during a trail or stage shift.

Most hiring processes for this role include a working interview. Expect to be asked to break down a case of produce, cook a protein to temperature, or shadow a station through a service. Treat the trail as the interview: label your containers, wipe your board, ask before you plate, and repeat back what the expediter says.

  • Attendance and shift flexibility, stated plainly
  • Stations you can run unsupervised, named specifically
  • Cleanliness and organization observed during a trail shift
  • Response to correction and willingness to repeat back instructions
  • Current food handler card, or a clear plan to get one

What a Line Cook Is Typically Paid

Line cook pay is hourly and moves with a handful of concrete factors rather than a single national number. Dinner and weekend shifts, closing responsibility, the ability to run more than one station, scratch preparation, and a Food Protection Manager certification all push the rate up, as does working in a high cost-of-living metro or a hotel or union house. Chain and counter-service kitchens usually sit lower than independent full-service restaurants. Some kitchens include cooks in a tip pool and some do not, which can change take-home pay substantially. For current figures, check the Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational data for cooks and compare it against live Indeed or Glassdoor postings in your own city.

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Line Cook Job Description FAQs

What does a line cook do day to day?

A line cook arrives before service to set up an assigned station: pulling product, portioning proteins, filling sauce and garnish containers, and checking that coolers and hot-holds are at temperature. During service they cook tickets in the order the expediter calls, hold items to spec and temperature, and communicate delays. After the last cover they break down the station, cool and store usable product, sanitize surfaces and equipment, and complete a closing checklist before clocking out.

Do you need experience or culinary school to be a line cook?

Culinary school is rarely required. Most kitchens hire on demonstrated ability, and many hire prep cooks, dishwashers, and pantry cooks into the line from within. What employers do expect is basic knife work, comfort around hot equipment, and the ability to follow a spec exactly. Entry paths that work well include starting on pantry or garde manger, taking a food handler course before applying, and asking for a trail shift so a chef can watch you work rather than read about it.

What is the difference between a line cook and a prep cook?

A prep cook produces components before and between services: washing and cutting produce, portioning proteins, building stocks and sauces, and keeping the walk-in rotated and labeled. A line cook takes those components and turns them into finished plates while a ticket clock runs. Prep work is steadier and more forgiving of pace; line work is timed against a table. Many cooks move from prep to the line after six months to a year, because prep teaches product knowledge and the line teaches speed.

What certification does a line cook need?

Requirements are set by state and county rather than nationally. Many jurisdictions require a food handler card within a short window after hire, and ServSafe Food Handler is the most widely accepted version. It is inexpensive, takes a few hours online, and is worth completing before you apply because it removes a hiring step. Cooks aiming for lead, closing, or sous roles often add the ServSafe Food Protection Manager certification, which some operators require on every shift.

How should an employer write a line cook job posting that gets applicants?

Say what kind of kitchen it is in the first two lines: cuisine, cover count, scratch or assembly, and whether stations rotate. Then state the schedule honestly, including nights, weekends, and whether doubles exist. Name the stations you are hiring for rather than writing a generic description. Cooks compare postings by shift and station, so a posting that answers those questions gets more qualified applicants than one that leads with a list of adjectives.

Related job descriptions

Prep Cook Job Description

A prep cook is a kitchen employee who produces the ingredients line cooks use during service. Working from a daily prep list and par levels, a prep cook washes and cuts produce, portions proteins, builds stocks and sauces, and rotates and date-labels product so the walk-in stays organized and safe.

Food Runner Job Description

A food runner is a restaurant team member who carries finished plates from the expo window to the correct table and seat. Food runners read tickets, verify modifiers and allergen notes before plates leave the kitchen, deliver food in the right order, and reset the pass so service keeps moving.

Busser Job Description

A busser is a restaurant support employee who clears, cleans, and resets tables between guests so servers can seat and serve the next party quickly. Bussers also run water and bread, pre-bus plates during service, restock stations, and move dirty dishware to the dish pit throughout the shift.

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