Food Cooking Machine Operators and Tenders

What do food cooking machine operators and tenders do?

Operate or tend cooking equipment, such as steam cooking vats, deep fry cookers, pressure cookers, kettles, and boilers, to prepare food products.

This describes a U.S. occupation, not a live vacancy. Individual employers may use different titles and requirements.

Job titles to recognize in your search

O*NET reports these titles for this occupation. Compare the responsibilities in each posting before treating titles as equivalent.

• Cooker Operator
• Food Production Worker
• Fryer Operator
• Kettle Fry Cook Operator
• Machine Operator
• Mogul Operator
• Oven Operator
• Peeler Operator

Core tasks to compare with a job posting

• Clean, wash, and sterilize equipment and cooking area, using water hoses, cleaning or sterilizing solutions, or rinses.
• Read work orders, recipes, or formulas to determine cooking times and temperatures, and ingredient specifications.
• Observe gauges, dials, and product characteristics, and adjust controls to maintain appropriate temperature, pressure, and flow of ingredients.
• Measure or weigh ingredients, using scales or measuring containers.
• Tend or operate and control equipment, such as kettles, cookers, vats and tanks, and boilers, to cook ingredients or prepare products for further processing.
• Record production and test data, such as processing steps, temperature and steam readings, cooking time, batches processed, and test results.
• Set temperature, pressure, and time controls, and start conveyers, machines, or pumps.
• Remove cooked material or products from equipment.
• Collect and examine product samples during production to test them for quality, color, content, consistency, viscosity, acidity, or specific gravity.
• Pour, dump, or load prescribed quantities of ingredients or products into cooking equipment, manually or using a hoist.

Prepare an application for this occupation

1. Check the employer’s requirements, location, schedule and any licenses against your situation.
2. Choose two or three tasks above that match the posting and your actual experience.
3. Build a resume evidence worksheet using the skills and software relevant to that employer.
4. Practice explaining your contribution, decisions and results before an interview.

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