🍳 Culinary & food service
Feeding the force — preparing meals in galleys, dining facilities, and the field, and running food operations.
What they do
Culinary specialists plan menus, prepare and serve meals, and manage food-service operations — from large dining facilities to shipboard galleys to the field. Senior specialists handle ordering, inventory, budgeting, and running a kitchen. Some serve in high-profile roles such as flag-officer and White House mess duty.
It is a real culinary trade with management responsibility.
Jobs & codes by branch
Representative jobs in this field and their military occupation codes — not a complete list; each branch has many more and codes change. Use the official job finders below for the full, current list.
Army
92G Culinary Specialist
Navy
CS Culinary Specialist
Air Force
3F1X1 Food Service
Marine Corps
3381 Food Service Specialist
Coast Guard
CS Culinary Specialist
ASVAB areas that matter
The verbal subtests (WK, PC) with Arithmetic Reasoning (AR) — a lower technical bar than most fields. Your AFQT score decides whether you can enlist; individual subtests combine into “line scores” that set which jobs you qualify for. Prepare with our free ASVAB practice tests.
How it transfers to civilian work
Transfers to the hospitality and food-service industry — cook, chef, food-service and restaurant manager, and catering. Credentials: ServSafe food-safety certification, culinary-school credit, and hospitality-management coursework.
See every job & the exact requirements
Codes, availability, and ASVAB minimums vary by branch and change often — confirm on each branch's official job finder: Army ↗ · Navy ↗ · Air Force ↗ · Marine Corps ↗ · Space Force ↗ · Coast Guard ↗.