Cook foods
Little of this can be handed to software today.
This happens in the physical world, so software agents do not touch it. Automation here means robotics and machinery, which is a different market from the one mapped on this site, on a much slower clock.
| How automatable | Barely automatable |
|---|---|
| Kind of work | Physical, manual and inspection work |
| Jobs that do it | 12 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | None |
| O*NET activity | Handling and Moving Objects (4.A.3.a.2) |
What this looks like on the job
Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 12 occupations that perform it.
- Prepare and cook foods of all types, either on a regular basis or for special guests or functions.
- Operate large-volume cooking equipment, such as grills, deep-fat fryers, or griddles.
- Cook foodstuffs according to menus, special dietary or nutritional restrictions, or numbers of portions to be served.
- Prepare meals in private homes according to employers' recipes or tastes, handling all meals for the family and possibly for other household staff.
- Turn or stir foods to ensure even cooking.
- Grill, cook, and fry foods such as french fries, eggs, and pancakes.
- Prepare a variety of foods, such as meats, vegetables, or desserts, according to customers' orders or supervisors' instructions, following approved procedures.
- Prepare appetizers such as pickles, cheese, and cold meats.
- Prepare daily food items, and cook simple foods and beverages, such as sandwiches, salads, soups, pizza, or coffee, using proper safety precautions and sanitary measures.
- Prepare or serve menu items, such as sandwiches or salads.
- Serve food or beverages to patrons, and prepare or serve specialty dishes at tables as required.
- Prepare food items, such as sandwiches, salads, soups, or beverages.
- Read food order slips or receive verbal instructions as to food required by patron, and prepare and cook food according to instructions.
- Season and cook food according to recipes or personal judgment and experience.
- Take orders from customers and cook foods requiring short preparation times, according to customer requirements.
- Make special dressings and sauces as condiments for sandwiches.
- Cook and package batches of food, such as hamburgers or fried chicken, prepared to order or kept warm until sold.
- Bake, roast, broil, and steam meats, fish, vegetables, and other foods.
What we would actually use
Nothing in our landscape addresses this work. That is the honest answer rather than a padded list: this activity needs a person present, or a machine rather than a software agent.
Nothing on this site applies. Automation here is robotics and machinery, a different market on a much slower clock, and no software subscription moves it.
Chosen for the cheapest thing that does the job, not the best funded. Nothing on this site is sponsored, and the full landscape is there when you want to disagree with us.
How people actually do it
No workflow names this activity yet, but these automate the same kind of work, with the prompts to paste and what to keep for yourself.
Who does this work
12 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Prepare foods or beverages”. In practice they tend to be done by the same person, in the same sitting.
Method. The activity, its taxonomy placement and the occupations that perform it come straight from the public-domain O*NET 30.3 database. The automatability band is ours: we map each of O*NET’s 41 generalized work activities to how much of its output current software can produce, assuming a person still reviews and owns the result. It is a coarse three-way judgment on purpose. A precise-looking percentage here would be invented.