Best Cook, All Other programs in California, ranked by enrollment
All cooks not listed.
51 schools in California run programs that feed this job, graduating 2,003 people a year. The job pays a median of $42,860 in California across about 3,990 jobs (BLS OEWS May 2025).
Fields of study in California that lead to this job
Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level. Numbers are graduates per year in this state.
3 programs in California that lead to this job
Ranked by graduates per year in California (IPEDS completions). Graduate earnings and debt are national College Scorecard figures reported at the 4-digit CIP level, so specializations within one field share a figure. Each program also links to its own California page.
| # | Program | Graduates / yr | Share of pipeline | Schools | Grad earnings (1 yr) | Median debt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CIP 12.0500In California → | 1,712 | 85.5% | 47 | $25,404 | $13,000 |
| 2 | CIP 12.0503In California → | 272 | 13.6% | 3 | $25,404 | $13,000 |
| 3 | CIP 12.0505In California → | 19 | 0.9% | 1 | $25,404 | $13,000 |
Top 25 schools in California
Ranked by graduates per year into this job. Graduate earnings are reported for 1 of the 51 schools in this state.
All 51 schools in California
Every school in California with a program that feeds this job, ordered by graduates per year. Earnings are shown for the ranked schools above; open a school profile for the rest.
| School | City | Control | Graduates / yr | Feeder programs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Institute of Culinary Education | Pasadena | Private for-profit | 251 | 1 |
| Los Angeles Trade Technical College | Los Angeles | Public | 135 | 1 |
| Riverside City College | Riverside | Public | 102 | 1 |
| Los Angeles Mission College | Sylmar | Public | 101 | 1 |
| Orange Coast College | Costa Mesa | Public | 88 | 1 |
| Southwestern College | Chula Vista | Public | 88 | 1 |
| Cerritos College | Norwalk | Public | 79 | 1 |
| Long Beach City College | Long Beach | Public | 79 | 1 |
| Cabrillo College | Aptos | Public | 76 | 1 |
| Cuesta College | San Luis Obispo | Public | 62 | 1 |
| Grossmont College | El Cajon | Public | 58 | 1 |
| Cypress College | Cypress | Public | 55 | 1 |
| Laney College | Oakland | Public | 51 | 1 |
| Diablo Valley College | Pleasant Hill | Public | 50 | 1 |
| National Holistic Institute | Emeryville | Private for-profit | 47 | 1 |
What cooks, all other earn in California
What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.
U.S. median $37,690. California pays above the national figure.
Concentrated here: California employs more of this job per worker than the U.S. average.
Metro areas in California
Job outlook
Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.
Growth and openings are national. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish employment projections at state level, so these figures describe the occupation across the whole U.S., not this state alone.
How to get in
The full skills, tools, and day-to-day breakdown lives on the national Cooks, All Other page.
How to become a Cook, All Other
- Typical entry education
- No formal educational credential
- On-the-job training
- Moderate-term on-the-job training
The same job in other states
Where else this occupation employs the most people, and what it pays there.
Related careers in California
Every major mapped to this job
The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.
All 4 majors mapped to Cooks, All Other4 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
- 12.0500Cooking and Related Culinary Arts, General
- 12.0503Culinary Arts/Chef Training
- 12.0505Food Preparation/Professional Cooking/Kitchen Assistant
- 12.0509Culinary Science/Culinology
Common questions
Answers for people weighing cooks, all other programs in California.
What degree do you need to become a Cook, All Other?+
No formal educational credential is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is Cooking and Related Culinary Arts, General, which awarded 1,712 degrees in California in 2024-25, 85.5% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.
Which college majors lead to becoming a Cook, All Other?+
The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 3 programs to this occupation. The largest are Culinary Arts and Related Services. Together they graduate about 2,003 people a year in California.
How much do cooks, all other earn in California?+
The median is $42,860 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). That is 13.7% above the U.S. median of $37,690. This is pay for people already working in the occupation, not the same thing as graduate earnings one year after finishing a degree.
Is demand for cooks, all other growing?+
BLS projects a +5.5% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, faster than average, with roughly 3,700 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.
How many schools offer programs for this career in California?+
51 institutions in California reported graduates from at least one of the 3 programs that feed this occupation in IPEDS 2024-25. Rankings on this page use graduates per year, because the federal data publishes no enrollment count by program.
Do you need training or experience beyond a degree?+
BLS lists 'None' for related work experience and 'Moderate-term on-the-job training' for on-the-job training typically needed to reach competency.
About the data on this page
Rankings use IPEDS completions 2024–25, degrees awarded per year. That is the closest federal measure of how many people a program puts into a career, because no federal dataset publishes enrollment by program. Wages and employment come from BLS OEWS May 2025, growth and openings from BLS Employment Projections 2024-34, and which majors lead to which jobs from the NCES CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk. Occupation descriptions, tasks, skills and tools are O*NET 30.3 (CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor/ETA).
BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics
May 2025Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.
BLS Employment Projections
2024–34Projected growth, annual openings and typical entry-level education.
IPEDS Completions
2024-25 (provisional)Graduates per year by program and institution — the ranking metric.
College Scorecard, Field of Study
2020-21 cohortsMedian graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.
Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes
latest availableGraduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.
NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk
CIP 2020 / SOC 2018Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.
O*NET Database 30.3
30.3Tasks, skills, knowledge, tools, job zone and alternate job titles.
Official source →CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor / ETA
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