Career Options in the Food Service Industry

Explore different positions available in the industry from chefs & cooks to holistic health counselors & mushroom pickers & learn how you can start working in this field.

Career Options in the Food Service Industry

The food service industry offers a variety of career options, from cooking and baking to food styling and nutrition. Explore the different positions available in the industry, from chefs and cooks to food stylists, holistic health counselors, mushroom pickers, food managers, and food scientists. With an accelerated schedule and classes throughout the year, you can graduate and start working in the field of food service management sooner. Cooking is a popular occupation in food service. A cook prepares food in a professional kitchen, while a chef normally oversees the preparation of the meal.

Some people learn on the job, while others attend a two- or four-year culinary school program. Chefs and cooks work in restaurants or cafes, while some work in private settings such as a person's home. Depending on the type of restaurant where a cook works, they may have a specific task at stake. Usually, a chef is responsible for preparing and planning a restaurant menu, ordering ingredients, and directing cooks on the line. A food stylist is one of the most creative jobs related to food.

A food stylist needs an artistic eye and excellent cooking skills to make prepared dishes look good enough to be eaten or photographed. Most food stylists need to have a degree from a culinary arts program. They work with real food and need to understand how they will react to certain conditions. For example, they need to understand how cut fruit will react when placed in a bright place.

In addition to dealing with agriculture and food production, food lawyers also work on issues related to food allergies, dietary supplements, public health and safety, and workers' rights in industry. However, food stylists tend not to worry about the taste of food. Instead, they focus on aesthetic appeal for commercial and editorial purposes, consulting with restaurants, supermarkets and publishers during photo sessions and making sure the food looks as good or better than it tastes. Holistic health counselors integrate natural therapies into their medical practice and often focus on the inclusion of healthy foods, herbal supplements, and wellness regimens such as yoga, meditation and deep breathing. Holistic health counselors who focus on nutrition help their clients plan healthy meals based on their individual goals and desires. Mushroom pickers, also known as mushroom hunters, earn their living by finding mushrooms to sell to restaurants, food distributors and individual consumers.

They work in restaurants, hotels, school cafeterias, etc. Most have a high school diploma and several years of experience working in food service. In limited-service establishments (fast food restaurants, coffee shops, coffee shops, etc.), the food manager oversees food preparation. In full-menu restaurants, the food manager works with the chef. When we think of careers in food, the first thing that comes to mind is a chef.

A chef is a well-trained and trained professional who is fluent in all aspects of food preparation. The popularity of television shows such as Top Chef, Iron Chef and MasterChef is a testament to the public's desire to take their passion for cooking to the next level. And admit it - seeing how common ingredients are transformed into visually pleasing and great-tasting foods can entertain you with the idea of being a chef yourself. There are two ways to become a chef. The usual path is to obtain formal training at a culinary arts school.

The least common and most difficult way is to gain experience working in a kitchen and then work your way up. Either way, all aspiring chefs start in a low position, endure long working hours, and have to get used to hectic fast-paced work. Food scientists study the physical, chemical and microbiological properties of foods to ensure that they are safe for consumers. They participate in the development of new food products, the design of processes to produce food, shelf life studies, the choice of packaging materials and the sensory evaluation of products through panels or surveys of potential customers. Dieticians develop a nutritional plan based on a person's medical condition and individual needs. They are licensed health professionals who evaluate diagnose and treat nutritional problems.

In addition they supervise food preparation develop modified diets educate people about good nutritional habits and participate in research. Many people use the terms dietitian and nutritionist interchangeably. Although these professions are related there are differences between them. In some countries the title of “nutritionist” is not subject to professional regulation. All dieticians can be considered nutritionists; however not all nutritionists are dieticians. And it's worth noting that many cookbook authors attract attention by blogging about food as a complement to their publications. Chefs don't usually have time to source ingredients such as locally grown produce or artisanal products so they hire professional food pickers to do it for them. Among the many great benefits of careers in the food industry are opportunities to advance once you start working in the industry.

However a new professional field is emerging for professional food pickers looking to farmers' markets and other local businesses to obtain food for restaurants. Depending on your specialty you may be responsible for determining the nutritional content of products researching new ingredients or enforcing government food regulations. When you research unique career possibilities in the food industry you can find hundreds of ideas. These are just a few of the options available - if you're looking for inspiration for a unique culinary career read on to learn about some of the best work in this field!.