Cooks are among the occupations the Federal Employment Agency describes as urgently sought. Filipino hotel-school graduates and cruise-line cooks are a natural supply — on the experience route for diploma holders, and as apprentices to Koch/Köchin for the rest.
German hospitality lost cooks in the pandemic and has not recovered them; the 2025 analysis lists cooks with an indicator of 2.0 and gastronomy service alongside. The Philippines trains cooks through four-year Hotel and Restaurant Management degrees, two-year culinary diplomas and Cookery NC II — and its cooks staff cruise lines and Gulf hotel kitchens where volume and standards are non-negotiable.
Degree and two-year diploma holders with two years' experience fit the experience route — at tariff pay in tariff-bound hotels or €45,630 a year, which most kitchens do not pay at entry; the training visa (Koch/Köchin Ausbildung, B1) is the broader route and produces German-qualified cooks in three years. We say which applies to each candidate before you interview.
A live cook to your brief — mise en place, a hot dish, a plating — at Prime Search's Makati kitchen, watched live by your head chef; hygiene and knife skills scored; German to B1 after selection. Everything here is subject to applicable German recognition, immigration, licensing and labour-law requirements.
With a culinary diploma of at least two years or an HRM degree, two years' experience and tariff pay or €45,630 — yes. With Cookery NC II only, the training visa.
Filipino cooks from cruise lines and Gulf hotels cook international, Mediterranean and Asian; German regional cuisine is trained on arrival.
Yes — a common § 16a occupation; B1 required.
General information for employers, not legal or migration advice. Rules change; we re-verify before each hire.