The Certified Sous Chef (CSC) is the American Culinary Federation's intermediate-level credential, earned through an eligibility review plus a 100-question written exam and a two-hour practical cooking exam. This guide explains the eligibility paths, the three-step application, exactly what each exam covers and how it is scored, the full cost picture, and the five-year renewal rules, then turns the official content outline into a study plan with a worked cost-math exercise.
What the CSC credential covers
The CSC certifies intermediate-level food preparation knowledge and skills, validated through written and practical exams after an eligibility review.
The American Culinary Federation describes CSC earners as having demonstrated an intermediate benchmark of knowledge, skills, and culinary experience in food preparation, with understanding of food safety and sanitation, culinary nutrition, and supervisory management. Certification is based on education, experience, and passing both exams.
This guide reflects the CSC page on acfchefs.org and the candidate handbook the ACF updated on September 1, 2021, which covers the written exam process, practical exam requirements, and renewal rules. Requirements can change, so treat the ACF website as the final word on anything you rely on for an application.
One scope point worth stating plainly: the CSC is a professional credential, not a license. The ACF's Designation Usage Policy makes each certificant responsible for ensuring use of the designation complies with the laws of the jurisdiction where they do business.
Official sources: Certified Sous Chef — ACF certification page — Education requirements, application process, fees, recertification; ACF Certified Sous Chef Candidate Handbook and Content Outline — Updated 9/1/2021; written and practical exam parameters, content outline, scoring, recertification
Eligibility: experience, education, and mandatory courses
You need at least two years supervising a shift or food station, an education qualification with the required entry-level experience, and three 30-hour courses.
All CSC candidates must document two years of experience supervising a shift or food station, and that experience must fall within the past ten years. The handbook describes this as a minimum five-year history as an entry-level culinarian for candidates following the diploma-based path, reduced to three years for those with an Associate's Degree in culinary arts or an ACFEF apprenticeship.
Education and continuing education hours (CEH) follow distinct paths. A candidate with a high school diploma or GED shows at least 50 hours of continuing education; without one, at least 150 hours. An Associate's Degree in Culinary Arts or completion of the ACFEF Apprenticeship program satisfies the education requirement with no additional CEH. Hours from the mandatory courses and refreshers can count toward your CEH total.
Regardless of path, you must document three 30-hour courses: one in Nutrition, one in Food Safety and Sanitation, and one in Supervisory Management. If a course is more than five years old, an 8-hour refresher in that topic is required. ACF approved providers and academic institutions offer these courses, including online options.
Employment documentation matters as much as the coursework. The ACF accepts its Employment Documentation Form or employer letters on company letterhead; if those are unavailable, tax records such as W-2s paired with letters from former culinary peers can work. Business owners can use a letter from a certified accountant or Schedule C, K-1, or Form 1120-S documentation for each year.
- Two years supervising a shift or food station, within the past ten years — required for every path
- High school diploma or GED plus at least 50 CEH, or no diploma plus at least 150 CEH
- Associate's Degree in Culinary Arts or ACFEF Apprenticeship — no additional CEH needed
- Three 30-hour courses: Nutrition, Food Safety and Sanitation, Supervisory Management
- 8-hour refresher per topic if a course is older than five years
Official sources: Certified Sous Chef — ACF certification page — Education requirements, application process, fees, recertification; ACF Certified Sous Chef Candidate Handbook and Content Outline — Updated 9/1/2021; written and practical exam parameters, content outline, scoring, recertification
The application process step by step
There are three steps: initial application, both exams, and final application, with processing times and a three-year completion window.
Step one is the initial application with proof of education, the 30-hour courses, and work experience. Allow two to three weeks for processing. If your application is approved, you become eligible to schedule the written and practical exams. Certification must be completed within three years of that approval; if not, you must reapply.
Step two is scheduling and passing both exams. The handbook lists proctor examples for the written exam, including a school administrator, HR manager, ACF chapter officer, or local librarian, and directs you to ACF approved test sites for the practical.
Step three is the final application, submitted after both exams with your exam pass sheets and copies of supporting documents. Processing again takes two to three weeks, after which your certificate is mailed and a digital badge is issued through Credly. Mandatory courses must still be current at the time of the final application, or a refresher may be required before certification is finalized.
If your application is not approved, ACF refunds the application fee minus a nonrefundable processing fee.
Official sources: Certified Sous Chef — ACF certification page — Education requirements, application process, fees, recertification; ACF Certified Sous Chef Candidate Handbook and Content Outline — Updated 9/1/2021; written and practical exam parameters, content outline, scoring, recertification
Written exam format and the six content areas
The written exam is 100 multiple-choice questions in 90 minutes with a scaled passing score of 72, weighted across six content areas.
Once pre-approved, you take the exam through the ACF Online Learning Center with a proctor who verifies your identity, remains present throughout, and ensures no outside assistance. You may use a pen, scratch paper, and a basic non-programmable calculator. You need high-speed internet and a browser; Chrome is recommended. Scores are reported immediately.
The exam is built from a job analysis with ACF subject matter experts, and the passing score is set with a modified Angoff method, a criterion-referenced approach based on pooled expert judgment. A passing score is valid for two years, which matters if you pass the written exam but take longer to finish the practical.
The content outline shows where the questions sit. Cooking and Safety and Sanitation together account for more than half the exam, so weight your study accordingly rather than treating all six areas equally.
One detail the handbook states inconsistently: the retest waiting period. One passage describes a 30-day wait before a second written attempt and 90 days before a third, with three attempts allowed in 12 months; other passages describe a 14-day waiting period. Confirm the current rule with the ACF Certification Department before planning a retake.
| Content area | Exam items |
|---|---|
| 1. Cooking (product identification, methods, equipment, fabrication, presentation, recipe and menu implementation) | 37 |
| 2. Safety and Sanitation (handling, laws and regulations, HACCP compliance) | 25 |
| 3. Baking and Pastry | 5 |
| 4. Nutrition (allergies, dietary considerations and guidelines) | 9 |
| 5. Finance (food and labor cost, purchasing and receiving, culinary math) | 8 |
| 6. Team Management and Supervision (personnel, team development, employment laws, ethics) | 16 |
Practical exam: what you cook and how you are judged
The practical is a two-hour cooking exam scored to 75%, with a required menu of named preparations and four scoring domains where sanitation is a pass/fail gate.
You cook at an ACF approved test site, bringing all your own ingredients unless the site provides staples. The required menu is specific: two cups of Matignon vegetables, Tomato Concasse, two cups of cooked rice pilaf used in the final presentation (parboiled rice is not acceptable), at least one 6-ounce seasoned strip steak cooked to medium rare, a filleted and poached whole flat or round fish, four servings of one salad with a hand-made emulsified vinaigrette, and a four-portion main course built from one of those proteins with appropriate sauces and accompaniments.
Rules of play matter as much as the menu. No advance cooking is allowed beyond limited exceptions such as peeled vegetables, washed uncut salads, pre-soaked beans, and certain pre-marinated proteins whose full process you demonstrate during the exam. You may bring basic stocks but no commercially produced stocks or bases, no finished sauces, and no clarified consommés. Immersion circulators are allowed as personal equipment but do not count as a cooking method.
Scoring runs across four domains. Organization carries 20% and covers mise en place, food storage, work flow, use of time, and portion planning. Craftsmanship carries 40% and covers cooking techniques, knife work and butchering, sauces, stocks, and cooking times and ratios. Finished Product carries another 40%, covering flavor development, doneness, texture and color, serving temperature, presentation, and nutritional balance. Safety and Sanitation is scored separately as acceptable or unacceptable, and an unacceptable score from two or more evaluators fails the exam regardless of total points.
The evaluators watch for the two highest-risk sanitation issues by name: time/temperature abuse and cross contamination. Expect monitoring of cutting board hygiene, towel use, glove use when plating ready-to-eat food, correct product storage temperatures, and covered, properly treated scores and cuts. The handbook also notes that sanitation infractions could lead to a failing grade.
Practical logistics you should plan around: a score of 75% or higher passes, scores are valid for one year, the uniform is a white chef coat, white toque, black or black-and-white checkered pants, leather shoes or clogs, with clean apron and side towels, and you must present a typed menu to evaluators before the start. You also clean your station and are out of the cooking area within half an hour of finishing. Host sites set their own fees and some equipment details vary, so confirm specifics with your test administrator when registering.
A clear limit on what studying can do: reading the score sheets and guidelines prepares you to plan, but knife work, doneness, and timing under exam conditions only develop through repeated cooking practice. The handbook's own study tips say to develop a plan and timeline and practice the menu repeatedly before exam day.
- Two-hour exam at an ACF approved test site; 75% or higher passes; score valid one year
- Required menu: Matignon, Tomato Concasse, rice pilaf, strip steak to medium rare, poached whole fish, emulsified vinaigrette salad, four-portion main course
- Bring all ingredients, personal tools, and china unless the site provides them
- Four domains: Sanitation (accept/unaccept gate), Organization 20%, Craftsmanship 40%, Finished Product 40%
- No bare-hand contact with ready-to-eat food; time/temperature abuse or cross-contamination infractions can fail the exam
- Typed menu required; full cleanup within 30 minutes of completion
What certification costs
The CSC application fee is $250 for ACF members and $490 for nonmembers, with separate retake fees and possible host site charges.
The application fee covers the initial and final applications plus the written and practical exam administration fees. It does not include practical exam local host site fees, which the test site sets, or food, since candidates purchase their own ingredients.
Budget for the worst case too. If your application is not approved, a $50 processing fee for members or $100 for nonmembers is withheld. Each additional written or practical exam attempt costs $50 for members or $100 for nonmembers. Group pricing is available through ACF's concierge programs for six or more certificants from the same property.
| Cost item | Member | Nonmember |
|---|---|---|
| Certification application fee | $250 | $490 |
| Processing fee if application not approved | $50 | $100 |
| Each exam retake attempt | $50 | $100 |
| Practical exam host site fee | Set by test site | Set by test site |
Official sources: Certified Sous Chef — ACF certification page — Education requirements, application process, fees, recertification; ACF Certified Sous Chef Candidate Handbook and Content Outline — Updated 9/1/2021; written and practical exam parameters, content outline, scoring, recertification
Keeping the credential: renewal every five years
CSC certification lasts five years and renewal requires at least 80 continuing education hours, including mandatory refreshers on the first cycle.
On your first recertification cycle, the three mandatory refreshers in sanitation, nutrition, and supervisory management count toward the 80 CEH requirement. On later cycles, only the sanitation refresher is mandatory, and the remaining hours are self-directed toward your professional development plan. The 80-hour total averages out to about 16 CEH per year.
If you hold multiple ACF certification levels, the renewal totals rise: 120 CEH for two levels, 140 for three, and 160 for four. ACF members who have maintained membership for five consecutive years without a lapse pay no recertification fee.
Plan the margin carefully. If your certification expires, you get a 90-day grace period to finalize payment. Past that grace period, the Recertification after Expiration Policy allows renewal only if expiration was 36 months ago or less; beyond 37 months you must recertify as a new candidate under all current eligibility and testing requirements.
Building your study plan from the content outline
Prioritize Cooking and Safety and Sanitation because they hold 62 of the 100 written items, and drill culinary math until costing questions are routine.
The item counts give you a rational study order. Start with the Cooking domain and its sub-areas: product identification alone carries nine items, as do recipe and menu implementation. Safety and Sanitation is next, with laws and regulations the single largest sub-area at twelve items. Team Management and Supervision, Nutrition, and Finance follow, and Baking and Pastry is a small but cheap-to-review area.
The ACF handbook lists recommended reference materials, including texts on culinary arts, supervision in the hospitality industry, culinary nutrition, culinary math, professional cooking, and ServSafe. Matching your study texts to those recommendations keeps your reading aligned with how the exam was built.
For optional extra practice, ACF sells practice exams that resemble the real written exam in style. The handbook is explicit that purchasing or passing them is not required and does not guarantee success on the actual exam; treat them as a diagnostic, not a shortcut.
Finance questions reward quick, accurate culinary math. The skill underneath most costing questions is converting between cost, price, and margin in both directions, so practice that arithmetic until it takes seconds.
Practice exercise
Your menu lists two items. The appetizer costs $4.80 per plate to produce and sells for $16.00. The entrée costs $14.00 per plate and sells for $38.00. Calculate the food cost percent and the contribution margin (menu price minus plate cost) for each item. If your target food cost percent is 30%, which item is above target, and which contributes more dollars per plate toward overhead and profit?
Show answer
Appetizer: food cost percent = 4.80 / 16.00 = 30%; contribution margin = 16.00 − 4.80 = $11.20. Entrée: food cost percent = 14.00 / 38.00 ≈ 36.8%; contribution margin = 38.00 − 14.00 = $24.00. The entrée is above the 30% target, but it contributes $24.00 per plate versus $11.20 for the appetizer.
Food cost percent divides plate cost by menu price and expresses the result as a percentage: 4.80/16.00 = 0.30 = 30%, and 14.00/38.00 ≈ 0.368 ≈ 36.8%. Contribution margin subtracts plate cost from menu price in dollars. The two measures answer different questions: percent shows how the price is structured, while margin shows what each sale adds toward overhead and profit. That is why an item over a percent target can still be the stronger earner per plate, and why menu decisions should weigh both figures rather than percent alone. These calculations are practice arithmetic for the Finance domain; the exam's own questions will supply their own context and numbers.
Final checklist before you apply
Verify experience dates, course currency, and exam score validity against ACF's timelines before submitting anything.
A short pass through the requirements catches most avoidable delays. Work through this list before you pay the application fee, and confirm anything uncertain directly with the ACF Certification Department at certify@acfchefs.org.
Score validity windows interact with the three-year completion deadline. A written pass is valid two years and a practical pass one year, so schedule the exams in an order that keeps both pass sheets current through your final application.
- Two years of shift or station supervision documented within the past ten years
- Education path confirmed, with 50 or 150 CEH if your path requires them
- Three 30-hour courses current, with refreshers for anything older than five years
- Employment documentation ready on the ACF form or employer letterhead
- Proctor identified for the written exam; approved test site contacted for the practical
- Fee budget includes retakes and the host site charge
- Timeline leaves room to finish both exams within three years of approval
Official sources: Certified Sous Chef — ACF certification page — Education requirements, application process, fees, recertification; ACF Certified Sous Chef Candidate Handbook and Content Outline — Updated 9/1/2021; written and practical exam parameters, content outline, scoring, recertification
Official sources
Facts checked against ACF sources: