Creating Your Cooking Career from Scratch

A career in the culinary arts can mean anything from baking or working as a pastry chef to serving as a soup and sauce cook, banquet manager, wine steward, executive chef, or restaurant manager.

Specific career training is often required for success. For instance, chefs specializing in baking and pastry need to know how to create, decorate, and present various pastries and desserts. Executive chefs need cooking skills as well as business training in planning, budgeting, and staffing.

Prepping Your Culinary Career

The best way to find a great job in the culinary industry is to combine formal training with experience. Consider a diploma or degree from a culinary school, or attend a few cooking classes in unfamiliar cuisines. Career training can help prospective chefs land that important first internship or professional position. Many culinary schools offer career placement services to help their students get internships and jobs after they graduate.

Cooking Industry Outlook

The job outlook in the culinary arts is above average, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Jobs in the culinary arts are projected to increase by more than 12 percent through 2016. Salaries for culinary positions vary widely, but 2008 figures from Salary.com indicate that that median annual salary range for executive chefs is between $62,028 and $94,560. The U.S. national average base salary range for pastry chefs is reported to be between $24,625 and $54,659.

An average day in the life of a chef often starts early in the morning supervising food preparation and ends late at night after the restaurant closes and the kitchen is clean. Chefs routinely work on holidays and weekends, and the work can be physically demanding and mentally stressful. But if you have a passion for food and love being creative, a culinary career could be just right.