🔧

Professional Chef

Chef Profesional · TVET

Starting
RM1,800 - RM2,800
Senior
RM6,000 - RM15,000+ (Chef Eksekutif)
Entry
Diploma / TVET
Short answerA professional cook prepares food commercially — in restaurants, cafés, canteens, contract kitchens, hotels, hospitals, schools, work camps, and production kitchens.
The difference between this page and chef de partie, because students often confuse them:
Chef de partie is the kitchen brigade route — restaurants and hotels, with a formal ladder of titles.
This page is the broader trade route, and it includes the parts of the food industry rarely mentioned but which have more salaried jobs with better hours: contract catering, institutional kitchens, and food production.
The law: a food handler course and typhoid vaccination are compulsory.
Qualification: an SKM through JPK — shorter and far cheaper than a private culinary school.

What does a Professional Chef do?

Creates & cooks dishes at restaurants & hotels — from local to international cuisine. Can rise to Executive Chef or open own restaurant.

A day in the life

Professional cooks power commercial kitchens: volume cooking (catering, canteens, hotel banquets!), à la carte stations, consistent quality every plate, hygiene & stock.
Unlike fine-dining stations: volume & speed are king.
From restaurant kitchens to 1,000-pax catering!

Is this right for you?

A good fit if you: are fast & consistent under pressure, physically strong (big woks!), cook delicious 200 times over, and dream of your own shop/catering.
Less suitable if you: only enjoy relaxed family cooking.

Salary & career ladder

Salary range
Kitchen assistant: RM1,500–2,000.
Cook (SKM Level 2–3): RM2,000–3,200.
Experienced cook: RM3,000–4,500.
Head cook / kitchen supervisor: RM4,000–6,500.
Contract catering cook: RM2,500–4,500 with fixed hours, a salary with EPF, and weekends off.
Work camp / offshore cook: RM4,000–8,000 plus allowances, accommodation and food.
Catering manager / F&B operations manager: RM5,500–10,000.
Product development (brand or food factory): RM4,500–9,000 — a salaried role with office hours, and few cooks know it exists.

The lines most worth noticing
Work camps and offshore pay the most for the same reason as a heavy machinery mechanic — site allowances, accommodation and food provided, so your expenses are low. The cost is time away from home.
Contract catering does not pay the most, but it offers something restaurants do not: fixed hours and weekends off. For many people that is worth more than the extra money.

Basic salary is not the real income — and this is mistake number one
Hotels and restaurants pay a low basic salary plus a share of the service charge.
The service charge is collected on customer bills and divided among staff by points or by position.
For many positions the service charge share can be a large part of monthly income, and it changes month to month and with how busy the property is.
What to ask before accepting an offer:
What is the basic salary, and what has the average service charge share been over the last six months?
Is this property busy all year or seasonal?
Students who compare a hotel offer to an office offer on basic salary alone are comparing wrongly, and it is why many rule this career out earlier than they should.

The export market — an option almost no other category on this site has
Malaysian hospitality workers are actively recruited abroad, and it pays several times more.
Cruise lines — six to nine month contracts, accommodation and food provided, and wages in dollars. Many Malaysian workers use it to save quickly.
The Gulf — hotels and hospitality groups in Dubai, Qatar and Saudi Arabia recruit regularly, and salaries are often tax-free.
Singapore — close, wages in SGD, and hotels and restaurants recruit from Malaysia continuously.
International hotel groups — working for an international brand in Malaysia makes an internal transfer abroad easier, and that is a real strategy.
What opens these doors: good English, formal training or an SKM, and two to three years of experience at a recognised property.
Concrete advice: if working abroad is your goal, start at an international brand rather than an independent property — the name on your resume matters to foreign recruiters.

What AI and automation change
Exposed: inventory ordering, cost calculation, scheduling, menu development on paper, and order forecasting.
Kitchen automation is real in some places: fast food and large-scale food production use automated equipment for frying, cooking and packing. Repetitive production work is the most exposed part.
Not exposed, and this is most of the job:
Cooking is physical work. It happens in someone's hands, with heat, in real time.
Taste and adjustment. Judging and correcting is sensory judgement.
Service. Orders arrive at once and someone has to sequence them.
Institutional kitchens and catering — feeding 800 people at noon requires people who are present.
Honest assessment: low exposure for cooking, moderate for repetitive food production. This is among the safest careers on this site, and its real risks are physical and financial rather than technological.

City vs hometown

People eat in EVERY town — local eateries & catering are always viable.
Good food + good location = the eternal formula.

Study path after SPM / UEC

Culinary ArtsWhat this page offers that the chef page does not
Chef de partie is the kitchen brigade route — restaurants and hotels, with a formal ladder of titles.
This page is the broader trade route, and it includes the parts of the food industry with more salaried jobs and far better hours.
That is the most useful thing on this page, and almost nobody tells culinary students it exists.

The route
SPM → food handler course → work in a real kitchen → SKM Levels 1–3 → cook → head cook → supervision, contract catering, or production.

Food handler law — this is compulsory, not optional
Anyone handling food for sale in Malaysia must:
Attend a recognised food handler course.
Receive a typhoid vaccination.
The Food Hygiene Regulations 2009 set this out, and authorities inspect premises.
It is not an employer formality — it is a legal requirement, and premises can be compounded or closed.
The career side: it is cheap, fast, and it is the first thing you can complete before applying for your first job.

The most important financial advice on this page
Take an SKM, not an expensive private culinary school.
A private culinary school can cost several times more, and kitchens do not pay more because you attended one.
Kitchens hire on demonstrated skill and references — they will ask you to cook at the interview.
An SKM through ILP, IKBN, a vocational college or GiatMARA is low cost and fully accepted by the industry.
When a diploma is worth it: if you are aiming at international hotels or overseas work, where a formal qualification helps with visas and recruitment.

The test to run before paying for anything
Work in a commercial kitchen for three months.
It is hot, loud, fast and physical, and it has nothing to do with cooking at home.
Plenty of people who love cooking find they do not love a commercial kitchen — and it is better to learn that now than after paying for a three-year diploma.

The part of the industry with a normal life
Contract catering — canteens for factories, offices, hospitals and schools. Fixed hours, a salary with EPF, and weekends off.
Institutional kitchens — hospitals, universities, work camps, offshore. Work camps and offshore pay high allowances.
Food production — ready-meal factories, central kitchens, brands. Structured and salaried.
Product development — creating recipes for scaled production. Pays well, and few cooks pursue it.
Restaurants are the most glamorous part and have the worst hours. If you want the cooking skill and a normal life, the part above is the answer.

The skill that bridges the pay gap
Food cost control. Waste, portion size, yield, ordering.
This is what separates a cook from a head cook, and it is most often neglected by people focused only on cooking.
After that: HACCP and food safety, halal knowledge, high-volume cooking, and allergen management.

Basic salary is not the real income — and this is mistake number one
Hotels and restaurants pay a low basic salary plus a share of the service charge.
The service charge is collected on customer bills and divided among staff by points or by position.
For many positions the service charge share can be a large part of monthly income, and it changes month to month and with how busy the property is.
What to ask before accepting an offer:
What is the basic salary, and what has the average service charge share been over the last six months?
Is this property busy all year or seasonal?
Students who compare a hotel offer to an office offer on basic salary alone are comparing wrongly, and it is why many rule this career out earlier than they should.

The export market — an option almost no other category on this site has
Malaysian hospitality workers are actively recruited abroad, and it pays several times more.
Cruise lines — six to nine month contracts, accommodation and food provided, and wages in dollars. Many Malaysian workers use it to save quickly.
The Gulf — hotels and hospitality groups in Dubai, Qatar and Saudi Arabia recruit regularly, and salaries are often tax-free.
Singapore — close, wages in SGD, and hotels and restaurants recruit from Malaysia continuously.
International hotel groups — working for an international brand in Malaysia makes an internal transfer abroad easier, and that is a real strategy.
What opens these doors: good English, formal training or an SKM, and two to three years of experience at a recognised property.
Concrete advice: if working abroad is your goal, start at an international brand rather than an independent property — the name on your resume matters to foreign recruiters.

The real comparison, not the usual one
People compare "skills" against "a degree" and conclude the degree wins. That is the wrong comparison for most students reading this page.
The right comparison is between an accredited skills route and the unaccredited private diploma the same student was about to spend tens of thousands of ringgit on.
Against that comparison, the skills route wins clearly:
The cost is far lower — and some programmes offer industry-standard training at low fees.
You start earning 3–4 years sooner.
The qualification means something — an SKM is issued by a government body and can be verified, unlike a certificate from a college nobody recognises.
And the work cannot be offshored. Malaysia's electrical, plumbing and air-conditioning systems have to be fixed in Malaysia.
When a degree genuinely is better: if you will finish it, from a recognised institution, in a field that has jobs. Those are the real conditions, and they deserve testing honestly before borrowing money.

The honest part
Heat, standing the whole shift, cuts and burns, and low pay in the early years.
Restaurant work means nights, weekends and public holidays.
What balances it: the fastest and cheapest way in on this site, a skill that works in almost any country, and a part of the industry offering salaried work with normal hours if you know it exists.

Related fields
Chef de partie — the restaurant and hotel brigade route. Baker and pastry chef — a separate trade with different hours. Food service crew — a related way in. Food researcher — where product development leads.If you are taking the UEC instead of SPM
Everything above still applies to you — the subjects are the same disciplines, only a different exam paper. What changes is the route after it.
The UEC is not accepted for direct entry into a Malaysian public university degree. That is why independent school students overwhelmingly go to private universities in Malaysia, or abroad.
The UEC is treated as equivalent to STPM and A-Level, and it is recognised in the UK, the United States, Canada, Australia and Taiwan — which is why the overseas rate from independent schools is so high.
And the part that costs families real money — read this one properly:
PTPTN eligibility runs through SPM, and a UEC alone does not carry it. To keep the loan available you need a complete SPM, which means two things people get wrong:
Sejarah must be passed. Since SPM 2013 a pass in Sejarah (minimum E) is compulsory for the certificate itself — fail it and you do not have a complete SPM at all.
Bahasa Melayu is usually required at credit (grade C), not merely a pass.
The institution and programme must also be PTPTN-recognised — check that on the PTPTN gateway before you commit to a college.
The UEC route pushes you towards a private degree, and PTPTN is what pays for it. If you have not sat SPM, sit it — and do not treat Sejarah as the throwaway paper.
These conditions change. Verify the current rules with PTPTN before relying on any of this.

Universities

Community colleges, ILP (culinary), GiatMARA — free/cheap.

Tuition fees

Nearly free; the direct kitchen route: zero.

Scholarships

Government-funded TVET.

Certification & licence

Food handler law — this is compulsory, not optional
Anyone handling food for sale in Malaysia must:
Attend a recognised food handler course.
Receive a typhoid vaccination.
The Food Hygiene Regulations 2009 set this out, and authorities inspect premises.
It is not an employer formality — it is a legal requirement, and premises can be compounded or closed.
The career side: it is cheap, fast, and it is the first thing you can complete before applying for your first job.

The Malaysian Skills Certificate (SKM) — the ladder that defines a TVET career
Issued by the Department of Skills Development (JPK) under the Ministry of Human Resources. This is the national qualification system for skills, and it is recognised by employers across Malaysia.
SKM Levels 1–2 — operator / semi-skilled. Can be started after SPM, sometimes without full credits.
SKM Level 3 — skilled worker. This is the level at which you are genuinely employable as a qualified tradesperson.
DKM (Level 4) — Malaysian Skills Diploma. Supervisory.
DLKM (Level 5) — Advanced Diploma. Management, and treated as diploma-equivalent in many hiring contexts.
Why understanding this ladder early matters: employers pay by level, and each level opens work the previous one does not. A student who stops at Level 2 and a student who continues to DKM are in different salary markets.
Check your certificate on MySPIKE — and check that the training centre you choose is genuinely JPK-accredited before paying.

The qualification most worth taking
SKM Levels 1–3 in food preparation or culinary — through a JPK-accredited institution. Low cost, and the industry fully accepts it.
DKM for kitchen supervision.
Public institutions: ILP, IKBN, vocational colleges, GiatMARA.
Check the training centre is JPK-accredited before paying; verify certificates on MySPIKE.
Financial warning: a private culinary school can cost several times an SKM, and kitchens do not pay more because you attended one. They hire on demonstrated skill — they will ask you to cook at the interview.
When a diploma is worth it: international hotels and overseas work, where a formal qualification helps with visas and recruitment.

Certifications that open better roles
Food safety and HACCP — required for supervision, and mandatory in food production and contract catering.
Halal (JAKIM) — certification, segregation, handling and storage. Foundational for a large part of the Malaysian food industry.
Allergen management.
First aid.

The skills that decide pay
Food cost control — waste, portion size, yield, ordering. What separates a cook from a head cook.
High-volume cooking — cooking for 800 is a completely different skill from cooking for 40, and contract catering and institutions need it.
Consistency — the 200th plate identical to the first.
Asian and Western cooking — a combination in demand abroad.
English — international hotels, cruise ships, and overseas work.

Pros

Cons

Future & the AI era

Kitchen robots exist for fast food — but real cooking (wok hei! spices!) stays human hands.
AI helps stock & costs; taste stays the cook's secret.

Step by step, and how long each takes

  1. SPM — and start within daysSPM
    No academic requirement. This is among the fastest careers on this site to enter.
    The first thing, and it takes a few days: a food handler course and typhoid vaccination. Legally compulsory, cheap, and it makes you immediately employable.
    The second thing, and it matters more than any course: work in a real kitchen before you pay for training.
    The honest reason: a commercial kitchen is hot, loud, fast and physical, and it has nothing to do with cooking at home. Plenty of people who love cooking find they do not love a commercial kitchen, and it is better to learn that within three months than after paying RM30,000 for a diploma.
    English — if you want to work in international hotels, on cruise ships, or overseas.
  2. SKM — and why it is the better choice1–2 tahun
    SKM Levels 1–3 in food preparation or culinary through a JPK-accredited institution.
    Check the training centre is JPK-accredited before paying; verify certificates on MySPIKE.
    Public institutions: ILP, IKBN, vocational colleges, GiatMARA — low cost, and the industry fully accepts the qualification.
    Specific financial advice, and it matters:
    A private culinary school can cost several times an SKM, and kitchens do not pay more because you attended one.
    Kitchens hire on demonstrated skill and references. They will ask you to cook at the interview.
    When a diploma is worth it: if you are aiming at international hotels or overseas work, where a formal qualification helps with visas and recruitment.
    Apprenticeship — working while learning. The most common route, and entirely legitimate.
  3. The part of the industry nobody mentions关键
    This is the most useful part of this page, and it is rarely said to culinary students.
    When people say "cook", they picture a restaurant. But the part of the food industry with more salaried jobs, better hours, and fewer weekends is the other part:
    Contract catering — companies running canteens for factories, offices, hospitals and schools. Fixed hours, a fixed salary with EPF, and weekends off.
    Institutional kitchens — hospitals, universities, work camps, offshore. Work camps and offshore kitchens pay high allowances.
    Food production — ready-meal factories, central kitchens, food brands. Shift work, but structured and salaried.
    Product development — creating recipes for scaled production. A different skill, pays well, and few cooks pursue it.
    Why this matters: restaurants are the most glamorous part and have the worst hours. If you want the cooking skill and a normal life, this part is the answer, and almost nobody tells students it exists.
  4. The skills that most raise pay专精
    Food cost control — waste, portion size, yield, ordering. This is what separates a cook from a head cook, and it is the most often neglected.
    Food safety and HACCP — required for supervisory roles, and mandatory in food production and contract catering.
    Halal (JAKIM) — understanding certification, segregation and handling requirements. This is not an extra in Malaysia — it is foundational for a large part of the industry.
    High-volume cooking — cooking for 800 people is a completely different skill from cooking for 40. Contract catering and institutions need it.
    Allergen management — customer safety, and increasingly asked about.
    Asian and Western cooking — Malaysian cooks who can do both are in demand abroad, and that is an ordinary background here.
    Production and recipe development — for factory and brand roles.

Key SPM subjects

Sains Rumah Tangga (bonus), mana-mana subjek

Sains →

Questions students actually ask

Do you need an expensive culinary school to become a cook?
No — and this is the advice that saves the most money on this page.
Take an SKM. SKM Levels 1–3 in food preparation or culinary through ILP, IKBN, a vocational college or GiatMARA is low cost, and the industry fully accepts it. Check the training centre is JPK-accredited before paying, and verify certificates on MySPIKE.
A private culinary school can cost several times more, and kitchens do not pay more because you attended one. Kitchens hire on demonstrated skill and references — they will ask you to cook at the interview.
When a diploma is worth it: if you are aiming at international hotels or overseas work, where a formal qualification helps with visas and recruitment.
Before paying for anything, run this test: work in a commercial kitchen for three months. It is hot, loud, fast and physical, and it has nothing to do with cooking at home. Plenty of people who love cooking find they do not love a commercial kitchen.
And one thing almost nobody tells culinary students: restaurants are the most glamorous part of the industry and have the worst hours. Contract catering (factory, office, hospital and school canteens) offers fixed hours, a salary with EPF, and weekends off. Work camp and offshore kitchens pay RM4,000–8,000 plus allowances, accommodation and food. Product development for a food brand is a salaried role with office hours.
If you want the cooking skill and a normal life, that part is the answer.
And complete this week: the food handler course and typhoid vaccination. Legally compulsory, cheap, and it makes you immediately employable.
Practice SPM Sains →K1 papers + AI answers · 3 languages

Where to study — universities and total fees

University Course Total fees Duration Location
Le Cordon Bleu MalaysiaDiploma · Diploma in Plant Based Culinary Arts - CuisineRM 26,5003 monthsSunway, Selangor
Berjaya University CollegeDiploma · Diploma in Culinary ArtsRM 28,7002 years inclusive of a 16-week internshipBerjaya Times Square, Kuala Lumpur
Le Cordon Bleu MalaysiaDiploma · Diploma in Plant Based Culinary Arts - PâtisserieRM 29,5003 monthsSunway, Selangor
Berjaya University CollegeDiploma · Diploma in Heritage CuisineRM 29,5202 years inclusive of a 16-week internshipBerjaya Times Square, Kuala Lumpur
SEGi University & CollegesDiploma · Diploma in Culinary ArtsRM 30,1253 YearsKota Damansara / KL / Subang / Penang / Sarawak
Le Cordon Bleu MalaysiaCertificate · Cuisine Certificate (Intermediate Cuisine Certificate)RM 33,1003 MonthsSunway, Selangor
YTL International College of Hotel ManagementDiploma · DIPLOMA IN CULINARY ARTSRM 34,0002 years 3 monthsBukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur
UCSI University / UCSI CollegeDiploma · Diploma in Culinary ArtsRM 35,4852.5 yearsCheras, Kuala Lumpur
UOW Malaysia (KDU)Diploma · Diploma in Culinary ArtsRM 43,4402 yearsBatu Kawan,Penang and Glenmarie, Selangor
Crescendo International CollegeDiploma · Diploma in Culinary ArtsRM 45,0002 yearsUlu Tiram, Johor
Sunway CollegeDiploma · Diploma in Culinary ArtsRM 45,7602 yearsBandar Sunway, Selangor
INTI International University & CollegesDiploma · Diploma in Culinary ArtsRM 46,5882 yearsNilai / Subang / Penang
UOW Malaysia (KDU)Degree · Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in International Culinary ArtsRM 51,1593 yearsBatu Kawan, Penang
Berjaya University CollegeDegree · Bachelor of Culinary Arts Management (Honours)RM 53,9203 YearsBerjaya Times Square, Kuala Lumpur
Taylor’s University / Taylor’s CollegeDiploma · Diploma in Culinary ArtsRM 60,6822 yearSubang Jaya, Selangor
Sunway UniversityDiploma · Diploma in Culinary ArtsRM 63,9002 Years (full-time)Bandar Sunway, Selangor
UCSI University / UCSI CollegeDegree · BACHELOR OF ARTS (HONOURS) IN CULINARY MANAGEMENTRM 67,0503 YearsCheras, Kuala Lumpur
Sunway CollegeDegree · Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Culinary ManagementRM 90,7503 Years (full-time)Bandar Sunway, Selangor
Sunway UniversityDegree · Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Culinary ManagementRM 108,9603 Years (full-time)Bandar Sunway, Selangor
Taylor’s University / Taylor’s CollegeDegree · Bachelor of Culinary Management (Honours)RM 112,5603 yearSubang Jaya, Selangor

Fees are a guide only and change every year. Confirm the current figure with the university before you decide.

Get all these colleges to contact me Tap to message Allite on WhatsApp. We pass your enquiry to the colleges above — no form to fill.

Sources

Figures and policy on this page are checked against these reports. Last reviewed 2026-09.

© 2026 Allite — Kerjaya selepas SPM