{
  "source": "Cooked Index — occupational AI risk register",
  "page": "https://cookedindex.com/jobs/cooks-short-order/",
  "methodology": "https://cookedindex.com/methodology",
  "notice": "Verdicts are re-examined as evidence accumulates. Re-fetch before relying on this; the page above always carries the current score.",
  "scored_at": "2026-08-11",
  "model": "claude-opus-5",
  "occupation": {
    "title": "Cooks, Short Order",
    "soc_code": "35-2015",
    "category": "Food",
    "us_employment": 138650,
    "median_annual_wage": 35880
  },
  "verdict": "EXPOSED",
  "risk_resistance": 47,
  "contested": false,
  "near_boundary": false,
  "dimensions": {
    "task_resistance": 16,
    "embodiment": 18,
    "liability_shield": 3,
    "trust_premium": 4,
    "judgment_accountability": 6
  },
  "reasoning": {
    "task_resistance": "Cracking eggs to order, flipping a burger by feel, scraping the flattop between tickets and rebuilding a BLT when the customer says no mayo are manipulation tasks no software executes — 16 rather than 19 because the narrow, repeated menu items (fries, patties, pancakes on a griddle) are exactly what Miso-style fry arms and conveyor broilers already handle in pilot stores.",
    "embodiment": "Eight hours standing on rubber mats between a 400°F flattop and a fryer, reaching into a low reach-in cooler, working a two-foot-wide aisle during a lunch rush with grease on the floor — an 18 because the space is hot, wet and unpredictable in a way robot cells aren't built for, short of 20 only because the line itself is a fixed, engineered station a manufacturer can design around.",
    "liability_shield": "A county food handler card is a few hours online and a $15 fee, and no statute makes you personally answerable for a plate that goes out wrong — that's why this sits at 3 and not 0: the card is still a legal precondition to being on the line, and the health inspector's citation names the establishment, not you.",
    "trust_premium": "Diner regulars may know the cook who remembers their over-medium, and at a counter grill you're visible to them, which is the difference between 4 and 0 — but the ticket comes off a POS printer, nobody asks for you by name when ordering, and swapping cooks between shifts changes nothing the customer pays for.",
    "judgment_accountability": "You decide firing order for six tickets, when a chicken breast is done without a thermometer, and whether to re-cook a returned plate — real calls, but they run against a fixed menu, standardized cook times, portion charts and a manager who handles anything past the pass, which caps this at 6."
  },
  "rationale": "Grilling burgers, cracking eggs, dressing sandwiches and plating six tickets at once in a hot, cramped line is physical work that language AI cannot touch — the automation threat here is fryer and grill robotics plus kiosk-driven menu simplification, not chatbots. But the job has almost no licensure beyond a food handler card, customers aren't paying for a relationship with the cook, and the decisions are speed and doneness calls rather than high-stakes judgment. Chains piloting automated fry stations and conveyor grills are the real pressure, and they hit exactly this SOC code first.",
  "outlook": "The work itself won't be done by software, but automated fry and grill stations plus kiosk ordering will thin short-order headcount in high-volume chains over the next decade, while independent diners and scratch kitchens keep hiring humans.",
  "what_would_raise_it": {
    "levers": [
      {
        "dimension": "embodiment",
        "change": "Robotic grill/fry cells (Miso Robotics Flippy, Chipotle's Autocado/Hyphen line) remain confined to high-volume single-item stations; independent diners, food trucks and 24-hour counters with variable menus, cramped non-standard kitchens and no capex keep the full unpredictable-line work human. Embodiment stays near ceiling only if kitchen retrofit cost stays above the labor it replaces — the score is already 18 and cannot rise much.",
        "plausibility": "already happening",
        "would_add": 1
      },
      {
        "dimension": "task_resistance",
        "change": "Task-mix shift within the same job: if fryers and clamshell grills automate the timed, single-item tier, what remains is short-order expediting — reading six simultaneous tickets, modifiers and allergy substitutions, improvising off-menu, holding plate timing across a mixed order. That residual is genuinely harder to mechanize than the fry basket.",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 2
      },
      {
        "dimension": "liability_shield",
        "change": "State adoption of FDA Food Code provisions requiring a Certified Food Protection Manager physically present during all hours of operation (already law in NJ, IL, and several counties) — if that certification attaches to the person on the line rather than a manager on paper, and if allergen-control rules like Illinois' allergen-trained staff mandate expand, a named certificated human becomes required at the cook station.",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 4
      },
      {
        "dimension": "judgment_accountability",
        "change": "HACCP-style logged responsibility for temperature and allergen calls at the station, with the cook named on the record for cross-contact decisions in a documented allergen protocol — insurers and franchisors already push this after allergen-death litigation. Ownership of a signed allergen call is a real consequential judgment.",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 3
      }
    ],
    "ceiling_note": "Embodiment is already near maximum, so upside is capped: even with full CFPM-presence mandates and allergen accountability, the realistic ceiling is around 55-58/100. The threat vector is capital-intensive robotics plus menu simplification, and neither licensure nor trust premium meaningfully blocks a chain that redesigns the menu around what a machine can cook."
  },
  "adjudication": null,
  "employment_history": {
    "points": [
      {
        "y": 2017,
        "emp": 174230,
        "wage": 22740
      },
      {
        "y": 2018,
        "emp": 155840,
        "wage": 23800
      },
      {
        "y": 2019,
        "emp": 152670,
        "wage": 25150
      },
      {
        "y": 2020,
        "emp": 123350,
        "wage": 26570
      },
      {
        "y": 2021,
        "emp": 124800,
        "wage": 28560
      },
      {
        "y": 2022,
        "emp": 133290,
        "wage": 30360
      },
      {
        "y": 2023,
        "emp": 126370,
        "wage": 34130
      },
      {
        "y": 2024,
        "emp": 150420,
        "wage": 35620
      },
      {
        "y": 2025,
        "emp": 138650,
        "wage": 35880
      }
    ],
    "from": 2017,
    "to": 2025,
    "change_pct": -20.4,
    "comparable_from": 2019,
    "spans_soc_revision": true
  },
  "pivots": [
    {
      "slug": "cooks-restaurant",
      "title": "Cooks, Restaurant",
      "verdict": "EXPOSED",
      "risk_resistance": 57,
      "median_wage": 37390,
      "overlap": 88,
      "skills_to_close": [
        "Systems Analysis",
        "Equipment Selection",
        "Operations Analysis"
      ]
    },
    {
      "slug": "cooks-private-household",
      "title": "Cooks, Private Household",
      "verdict": "SAFE",
      "risk_resistance": 67,
      "median_wage": 47940,
      "overlap": 63,
      "skills_to_close": [
        "Operations Analysis",
        "Management of Material Resources",
        "Learning Strategies",
        "Management of Financial Resources"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "license": "https://cookedindex.com/terms"
}