# Cooks, Restaurant

US SOC code 35-2014. Markdown version of https://futurehistory.earth/timeline/35-2014

Also called: Line cook, Restaurant cook, Prep cook, Sauté cook, Grill cook.

## In brief

In May 2025, [BLS](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm25nat.zip) counted **1,409,890** US restaurant cooks, with median pay of **$37,390** a year. Of the BLS counts since 2003, the highest was **1,452,130**, in May 2024, close to the May 2025 count. The earliest figure here is [an estimate](https://usa.ipums.org/usa/volii/9050occup.shtml) of **200,000** from 1900, not measured the same way as today's count. The last full technology era for restaurant cooks: Miso Robotics Flippy + fry-station automation, 2018 to 2024. At White Castle, Flippy operates alongside human cooks rather than replacing them entirely: the robot handles the repetitive fry-station tasks while human cooks manage the rest of the kitchen.

## What the sources say

### Official outlook

BLS projects employment to grow 12.1% from 2025 to 2035. Source: [BLS Employment Projections 2025-35](https://data.bls.gov/projections/nationalMatrix?queryParams=35-2014&ioType=o).

### AI exposure studies

- **12.2%** of this job's tasks are exposed to large language models. Not a forecast of job losses. [Eloundou and others, 2023](https://github.com/openai/GPTs-are-GPTs/blob/main/data/occ_level.csv)
- **0.96** estimated probability that the whole occupation could be computerised, over an unspecified number of years. Not a forecast of job losses. [Frey and Osborne, 2013](https://oms-www.files.svdcdn.com/production/downloads/academic/The_Future_of_Employment.pdf)

### Since the 2013 prediction

In 2013, Frey and Osborne put this job's probability of computerisation at 0.96. BLS counted **1,057,550** of these jobs in May 2013 and **1,409,890** in May 2025 (+33%, a change derived by Future History).

Data as of BLS OEWS May 2025; BLS Employment Projections 2025-35. BLS publishes these counts as yearly survey snapshots and cautions against reading them as a precise trend. In May 2021 BLS changed how it estimates these counts (a model-based method using three years of survey data) and moved fully to the 2018 occupation codes, so part of a change across 2021 can come from the method rather than the work.

## Cooks, Restaurant employment and pay by year

- On record since: 1827
- Latest US employment: 1,409,890 (May 2025). Source: BLS OEWS May 2025 [4]
- Latest US median pay: $37,390 (May 2025). Source: BLS OEWS May 2025 [10]
- Outlook: +12.1% by 2035. Source: BLS Employment Projections 2025-35 [29]

### In other countries

The latest figure each country's statistics agency publishes for this job. Each uses its own occupation definition, survey basis and currency, so the numbers are not directly comparable with each other or with the US figures.

- **United Kingdom** (UK SOC 5434)
  - Employment, 2025: 191,000. Source: ONS ASHE 2025 [6]. ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (Table 14): employee jobs in Chefs and cooks, United Kingdom, 2025, taken as the sum of the cited cells for SOC 5434 + 5435 (ASHE "number of jobs", thousands x1000; excludes self-employment). Open Government Licence v3.0.
  - Median pay, 2025: £26,531. Source: ONS ASHE 2025 [11]. ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (Table 14.7a): median gross annual pay for the dominant constituent group, SOC 5434, within the combined Chefs and cooks (SOC 5434 + 5435), United Kingdom, 2025. Wages are the cited median of the largest constituent group, not a blend. Open Government Licence v3.0.
- **Australia** (ANZSCO 3514)
  - Employment, 2025: 31,600. Source: ABS Labour Force Survey [7]. ABS Labour Force Survey (Detailed), table EQ08: employed persons in ANZSCO 3514 Cooks, national (summed across sex and state/territory), annual average of 4 quarterly estimates.
  - Median pay, 2025: A$74,464. Source: ABS Employee Earnings May 2025 [12]. Annualised (x52) from A$1,432 median weekly earnings. ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours, May 2025: median pay for full-time non-managerial employees paid at the adult rate, before tax. Surfaced via the Jobs and Skills Australia occupation profile.

### All 28 years of cited US data

| Year | US employment | Annual pay (median unless marked) | Source |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1900 | 200,000 (estimate) | n/a | Est., IPUMS USA [1] |
| 1948 | 400,000 (estimate) | n/a | Est., McDonald's Corporate [2] |
| 1950 | n/a | $2,400 (estimate) | Est., RetroWow [8] |
| 1980 | n/a | $9,200 (estimate) | Est., Univ. of Missouri Libraries [9] |
| 2000 | 642,060 | n/a | BLS OEWS 2000 [3] |
| 2003 | 734,870 | $19,260 | BLS OEWS May 2003 [4] |
| 2004 | 765,670 | $19,520 | BLS OEWS May 2004 [4] |
| 2005 | 791,450 | $19,840 | BLS OEWS May 2005 [4] |
| 2006 | 825,840 | $20,340 | BLS OEWS May 2006 [4] |
| 2007 | 878,990 | $21,220 | BLS OEWS May 2007 [4] |
| 2008 | 899,620 | $21,990 | BLS OEWS May 2008 [4] |
| 2009 | 898,820 | $22,170 | BLS OEWS May 2009 [4] |
| 2010 | 901,310 | $22,140 | BLS OEWS May 2010 [4] |
| 2011 | 947,060 | $22,080 | BLS OEWS May 2011 [4] |
| 2012 | 1,000,710 | $22,030 | BLS OEWS May 2012 [4] |
| 2013 | 1,057,550 | $22,160 | BLS OEWS May 2013 [4] |
| 2014 | 1,104,790 | $22,490 | BLS OEWS May 2014 [4] |
| 2015 | 1,150,760 | $23,100 | BLS OEWS May 2015 [4] |
| 2016 | 1,217,370 | $24,140 | BLS OEWS May 2016 [4] |
| 2017 | 1,276,510 | $25,180 | BLS OEWS May 2017 [4] |
| 2018 | 1,340,810 | $26,530 | BLS OEWS May 2018 [4] |
| 2019 | 1,401,890 | $27,790 | BLS OEWS May 2019 [4] |
| 2020 | 1,109,650 | $28,800 | BLS OEWS May 2020 [4] |
| 2021 | 1,193,860 | $30,010 | BLS OEWS May 2021 [4] |
| 2022 | 1,321,480 | $34,110 | BLS OEWS May 2022 [4] |
| 2023 | 1,412,350 | $35,780 | BLS OEWS May 2023 [4] |
| 2024 | 1,452,130 | $36,830 | BLS OEWS May 2024 [4] |
| 2025 | 1,409,890 | $37,390 | BLS OEWS May 2025 [4] |

## Sources (115)

### Employment series

1. [IPUMS USA — 1900 Occupational Classification (cooks, domestic and personal service categories)](https://usa.ipums.org/usa/volii/9050occup.shtml), IPUMS / University of Minnesota
2. [McDonald's Corporate — "Our History" (Speedee Service System, 1948 San Bernardino redesign)](https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/our-company/who-we-are/our-history.html), McDonald's Corporation
3. [BLS OES 2000 national estimates (flat file)](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oes00nat.zip), Bureau of Labor Statistics
4. BLS OEWS, national cross-industry estimates (flat file), Bureau of Labor Statistics. Editions: [2003](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm03nat.zip), [2004](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm04nat.zip), [2005](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm05nat.zip), [2006](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm06nat.zip), [2007](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm07nat.zip), [2008](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm08nat.zip), [2009](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm09nat.zip), [2010](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm10nat.zip), [2011](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm11nat.zip), [2012](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm12nat.zip), [2013](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm13nat.zip), [2014](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm14nat.zip), [2015](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm15nat.zip), [2016](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm16nat.zip), [2017](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm17nat.zip), [2018](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm18nat.zip), [2019](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm19nat.zip), [2020](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm20nat.zip), [2021](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm21nat.zip), [2022](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm22nat.zip), [2023](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm23nat.zip), [2024](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm24nat.zip), [2025](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm25nat.zip)
5. ONS: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Table 14.7a (Annual pay - Gross), 4-digit SOC 5434, United Kingdom. Office for National Statistics, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Table 14. Licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0., Office for National Statistics. Editions: [2002](https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/occupation4digitsoc2010ashetable14/2002/2002-table-14.zip), [2006](https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/occupation4digitsoc2010ashetable14/2006consistentw_007methodology/2006-table-14.zip), [2010](https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/occupation4digitsoc2010ashetable14/2010revised/2010-revised-table-14.zip)
6. ONS: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Table 14 (number of employee jobs), 4-digit SOC 5434 + 5435, United Kingdom, (sum of the cited cells). Office for National Statistics, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Table 14. Licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0., Office for National Statistics. Editions: [2011](https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/occupation4digitsoc2010ashetable14/2011revisedbasedonsoc2010/2011-revised-table-14.zip), [2015](https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/occupation4digitsoc2010ashetable14/2015/table142015revised.zip), [2020](https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/occupation4digitsoc2010ashetable14/2020revised/table142020revised.zip), [2022](https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/occupation4digitsoc2010ashetable14/2022revised/ashetable142022revised.zip), [2025](https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/occupation4digitsoc2010ashetable14/2025provisional/ashetable142025provisional.zip)
7. [ABS: Labour Force, Australia, Detailed, table EQ08 (Employed persons by Occupation unit group, ANZSCO 2013), latest release](https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/employment-and-unemployment/labour-force-australia-detailed/latest-release), Australian Bureau of Statistics

### Wage series

8. [RetroWow — "How much did people earn in the 1950s USA?" (cooks: approximately $45-$55/week in 1950; 52 weeks × ~$46 ≈ $2,400/yr nominal); figure covers non-supervisory restaurant cooks](https://www.retrowow.co.uk/social_history/50s/earnings_1950s_usa.php), RetroWow (historical wage reference)
9. [Univ. of Missouri Libraries — "Prices and Wages by Decade: 1980-1989" (restaurant cooks approximately $4.40/hr × 2,080 hrs ≈ $9,150/yr nominal in 1980; figure is an estimate from secondary wage reference)](https://libraryguides.missouri.edu/pricesandwages/1980-1989), University of Missouri Libraries / BLS historical sources
10. BLS OEWS, national cross-industry estimates (flat file), Bureau of Labor Statistics. Editions: [2003](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm03nat.zip), [2004](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm04nat.zip), [2005](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm05nat.zip), [2006](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm06nat.zip), [2007](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm07nat.zip), [2008](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm08nat.zip), [2009](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm09nat.zip), [2010](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm10nat.zip), [2011](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm11nat.zip), [2012](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm12nat.zip), [2013](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm13nat.zip), [2014](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm14nat.zip), [2015](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm15nat.zip), [2016](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm16nat.zip), [2017](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm17nat.zip), [2018](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm18nat.zip), [2019](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm19nat.zip), [2020](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm20nat.zip), [2021](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm21nat.zip), [2022](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm22nat.zip), [2023](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm23nat.zip), [2024](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm24nat.zip), [2025](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm25nat.zip)
11. ONS: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Table 14.7a (Annual pay - Gross), 4-digit SOC 5434, United Kingdom. Office for National Statistics, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Table 14. Licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0., Office for National Statistics. Editions: [2002](https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/occupation4digitsoc2010ashetable14/2002/2002-table-14.zip), [2006](https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/occupation4digitsoc2010ashetable14/2006consistentw_007methodology/2006-table-14.zip), [2010](https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/occupation4digitsoc2010ashetable14/2010revised/2010-revised-table-14.zip), [2011](https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/occupation4digitsoc2010ashetable14/2011revisedbasedonsoc2010/2011-revised-table-14.zip), [2015](https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/occupation4digitsoc2010ashetable14/2015/table142015revised.zip), [2020](https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/occupation4digitsoc2010ashetable14/2020revised/table142020revised.zip), [2022](https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/occupation4digitsoc2010ashetable14/2022revised/ashetable142022revised.zip), [2025](https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/occupation4digitsoc2010ashetable14/2025provisional/ashetable142025provisional.zip)
12. [Jobs and Skills Australia: Cooks (ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours, May 2025)](https://www.jobsandskills.gov.au/data/occupation-and-industry-profiles/occupations/3514-cooks), Jobs and Skills Australia / Australian Bureau of Statistics

### Tool eras

13. [Smithsonian Magazine — "Cooking through the Ages: A Timeline of Oven Inventions"](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/cooking-through-the-ages-a-timeline-of-oven-inventions-380050/), Smithsonian Magazine
14. [Delmonico's — "The History of Delmonico's" (1827 founding, early kitchen technology)](https://www.theoriginaldelmonicos.com/our-history/), Delmonico's Restaurant
15. [Wikipedia — Gas stove (commercial adoption history, Alexis Soyer 1841, urban restaurant adoption)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_stove), Wikipedia
16. [Garland Group — "History" (Michigan Stove Company founded 1871 under Garland brand; Detroit Stove Works 1864 foundry origin; history page)](https://www.garland-group.com/Company/History), Garland Group
17. [HISTORY — "The Automat: Birth of a Fast Food Nation" (Horn & Hardart 1902 founding, batch-production kitchen model)](https://www.history.com/articles/the-automat-birth-of-a-fast-food-nation), HISTORY
18. [Wikipedia — Horn & Hardart (Automat history, last NYC location closed April 9, 1991)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horn_&_Hardart), Wikipedia
19. [Wikipedia — Auguste Escoffier (Le Guide Culinaire, brigade de cuisine)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_Escoffier), Wikipedia
20. [National Culinary Authority — "The Kitchen Brigade System: Roles and Hierarchy Explained"](https://nationalculinaryauthority.com/kitchen-brigade-system), National Culinary Authority
21. [McDonald's Corporate — "Our History" (1948 Speedee Service System redesign, 1955 Kroc franchising)](https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/our-company/who-we-are/our-history.html), McDonald's Corporation
22. [Wikipedia — McDonald's (Speedee Service System, 1948 origin, 1963 one-million-burgers-per-day milestone)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald%27s), Wikipedia
23. [IEEE Spectrum — "A History of the Microwave Oven" (Amana Radarange 1967 countertop model $495; commercial kitchen adoption since late 1940s)](https://spectrum.ieee.org/a-history-of-the-microwave-oven), IEEE Spectrum
24. [Toast POS — "What Is a Kitchen Display System (KDS) and How Does It Work?" (KDS history and adoption in restaurant kitchens)](https://pos.toasttab.com/blog/on-the-line/kitchen-display-system), Toast POS
25. [Fortune — "Miso Robotics acquires Zignyl in race to automate restaurants" (February 2026, Flippy deployment history, White Castle, Jack in the Box)](https://fortune.com/2026/02/26/robot-disruption-fast-food-short-order-cook-flippy-labor-shortage/), Fortune
26. [Miso Robotics — "Flippy: The World's First Autonomous Kitchen Robot" (CaliBurger 2018 deployment, White Castle 2020)](https://www.misorobotics.com/products), Miso Robotics
27. [Chipotle Newsroom — "Chipotle Partners with Vebu to Test Autocado Prototype, a Robotic Solution to Guacamole Prep" (July 2023 Autocado cobotic test; Hyphen digital makeline pilot)](https://newsroom.chipotle.com/2023-07-12-CHIPOTLE-PARTNERS-WITH-VEBU-TO-TEST-AUTOCADO-PROTOTYPE,-A-ROBOTIC-SOLUTION-TO-GUACAMOLE-PREP), Chipotle Mexican Grill Newsroom
28. [Nation's Restaurant News — "Sweetgreen's Infinite Kitchen: everything you need to know" (Spyce acquisition 2021, Infinite Kitchen 2023 deployment)](https://www.nrn.com/technology/sweetgreen-s-infinite-kitchen-everything-you-need-know), Nation's Restaurant News

### Forecasts and exposure studies

29. [BLS Employment Projections 2025-35, National Employment Matrix: 35-2014 Cooks, restaurant (2025: 1,417.5 thousand; 2035: 1,588.8 thousand; +12.1%)](https://data.bls.gov/projections/nationalMatrix?queryParams=35-2014&ioType=o), Bureau of Labor Statistics
30. [Frey & Osborne (2013), "The Future of Employment: How Susceptible Are Jobs to Computerisation?", Appendix (SOC 35-2014 Cooks, Restaurant: probability 0.96, rank 641 of 702)](https://oms-www.files.svdcdn.com/production/downloads/academic/The_Future_of_Employment.pdf), Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford
31. [Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin & Rock (2023), "GPTs are GPTs", occupation-level exposure data occ\_level.csv (O\*NET-SOC 35-2014.00, human-rated β 0.122)](https://github.com/openai/GPTs-are-GPTs/blob/main/data/occ_level.csv), OpenAI

### Historical notes

32. [Delmonico's — "The History of Delmonico's" (1827 founding, à la carte menu, professional kitchen staff)](https://www.theoriginaldelmonicos.com/our-history/), Delmonico's Restaurant
33. [HISTORY — "The Automat: Birth of a Fast Food Nation" (Horn & Hardart 1902 founding, batch-production model)](https://www.history.com/articles/the-automat-birth-of-a-fast-food-nation), HISTORY
34. [Wikipedia — Auguste Escoffier (Le Guide Culinaire 1903, brigade de cuisine)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_Escoffier), Wikipedia
35. [McDonald's Corporate — "Our History" (1948 Speedee Service System, 1955 Kroc franchising)](https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/our-company/who-we-are/our-history.html), McDonald's Corporation
36. [Wikipedia — Kitchen Confidential (Bourdain memoir, 2000 publication)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitchen_Confidential_%28book%29), Wikipedia
37. [Frey & Osborne (2013) — "The Future of Employment: How Susceptible Are Jobs to Computerisation?" (Oxford Martin School; restaurant cooks ~0.96 probability)](https://oms-www.files.svdcdn.com/production/downloads/academic/The_Future_of_Employment.pdf), Oxford Martin School
38. [Miso Robotics — "Flippy: The World's First Autonomous Kitchen Robot" (CaliBurger 2018, White Castle 2020)](https://www.misorobotics.com/products), Miso Robotics
39. [National Restaurant Association — "100,000 Restaurants Closed Six Months into Pandemic" (September 2020); CNBC on ghost kitchen hiring during COVID (April 2020)](https://restaurant.org/research-and-media/media/press-releases/100,000-restaurants-closed-six-months-into-pandemic/), National Restaurant Association
40. [Chipotle Newsroom — "Chipotle Partners with Vebu to Test Autocado Prototype" (July 2023); Nation's Restaurant News — "Sweetgreen's Infinite Kitchen" (Spyce acquisition 2021, 2023 deployment)](https://newsroom.chipotle.com/2023-07-12-CHIPOTLE-PARTNERS-WITH-VEBU-TO-TEST-AUTOCADO-PROTOTYPE,-A-ROBOTIC-SOLUTION-TO-GUACAMOLE-PREP), Chipotle Mexican Grill Newsroom / Nation's Restaurant News

### Predecessors & successors

41. [Delmonico's — "The History of Delmonico's" (1827 founding, transition from tavern to restaurant kitchen labor)](https://www.theoriginaldelmonicos.com/our-history/), Delmonico's Restaurant
42. [Culinary Institute of America — "Our Story: CIA History" (culinary school graduates entering line cook positions)](https://www.ciachef.edu/our-story/), Culinary Institute of America
43. [CNBC — "Ghost kitchens are hiring" (April 2020, ghost kitchen employment model)](https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/15/coronavirus-restaurants-have-laid-off-thousands-but-ghost-kitchens-are-hiring.html), CNBC

### Present-day analysis

- [O\*NET OnLine — Cooks, Restaurant (35-2014.00): tasks, skills, wages, employment](https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/35-2014.00), accessed 2026-05-30
- [BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook — Cooks: 5% growth 2024–2034, ~432K annual openings](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/food-preparation-and-serving/cooks.htm), accessed 2026-05-30
- [BLS OEWS May 2025 — Restaurant Cooks (35-2014): 1,409,890 employed, median $36,830/yr](https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes352014.htm), accessed 2026-05-30
- [Eloundou et al. 2024 — GPTs are GPTs (Science): LLM labor exposure by occupation](https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.10130), accessed 2026-05-30
- [Fortune — "Robot Disruption": Miso Robotics Flippy, 14 units deployed, $28B global automation market (Feb 2026)](https://fortune.com/2026/02/26/robot-disruption-fast-food-short-order-cook-flippy-labor-shortage/), accessed 2026-05-30
- [Chipotle newsroom — Autocado and Augmented Makeline deployment at restaurant locations (Sep 2024)](https://newsroom.chipotle.com/2024-09-16-CHIPOTLE-DEBUTS-AUTOCADO-AND-THE-AUGMENTED-MAKELINE-BY-HYPHEN-IN-RESTAURANTS), accessed 2026-05-30
- [Restaurant Dive — Sweetgreen accelerates Infinite Kitchen automated makeline deployment (2025)](https://www.restaurantdive.com/news/sweetgreen-accelerates-deployment-automated-makeline-infinite-kitchen/698849/), accessed 2026-05-30
- [National Restaurant Association / Restaurant Dive — Over 25% of restaurant operators use AI (2025)](https://www.restaurantdive.com/news/national-restaurant-assocation-operator-artificial-intelligence-adoption/812418/), accessed 2026-05-30
- [Escoffier Global — "Future-Proofing Your Workforce in the Age of AI: The Case for Culinary Arts" (2025)](https://escoffierglobal.com/blog/future-proofing-your-workforce-in-the-age-of-ai/), accessed 2026-05-30
- [Winnow — Hospitality operators collectively saving $100M/year in food waste via AI (2025)](https://blog.winnowsolutions.com/hospitality-operators-using-winnow-now-saving-100-million-in-food-waste-per-year), accessed 2026-05-30
- [ClearCOGS — AI prep forecasting raises $3.8M; reduces waste and optimizes kitchen operations (Apr 2025)](https://www.restaurantbusinessonline.com/technology/clearcogs-raises-38m-ai-powered-restaurant-forecasting), accessed 2026-05-30
- [QSR Web — Miso Robotics newest Flippy: fry station robot built from millions of real-world baskets](https://www.qsrweb.com/press-releases/miso-launches-the-newest-flippy-the-fry-station-robot-built-from-millions-of-baskets-of-real-world-data/), accessed 2026-05-30
- [QSR Magazine — Sweetgreen Infinite Kitchen: 500 bowls/hour, 40+ locations by year-end 2025, automated bowl and salad assembly](https://www.qsrmagazine.com/story/sweetgreen-goes-all-in-with-automated-restaurants/), accessed 2026-05-30
- [Fast Company — Chipotle Autocado: cuts, cores, and peels avocados in 26 seconds; halves guacamole prep time](https://www.fastcompany.com/91191517/chipotles-new-robot-can-cut-core-and-peel-an-avocado-in-26-seconds), accessed 2026-05-30
- [Winnow — VisionAI food waste tracking: 500M+ image training dataset, automatic identification and weighing of discarded items](https://www.winnowsolutions.com/product/food-waste-management-software), accessed 2026-05-30

How to read these figures: https://futurehistory.earth/methodology. Every figure links to its own source; gaps stay gaps.