These figures represent good news for chefs who hope to take their culinary careers to the open ocean. Each new ship that embarks carries hundreds or even thousands of hungry mouths and requires a large team of skilled cooks to feed them.

If life at sea appeals to you, check out the many culinary job opportunities on cruise lines. Several websites have detailed information about how to find employment on a cruise ship, usually through a recruitment agency. While you may not qualify for the highest-paying positions of executive chef or chef de partie, a job as sous chef or first cook could set you up for a promotion after a few successful contracts.

While not everyone is cut out for the long hours and close quarters of life on a cruise ship, the opportunity to travel, meet scads of new people, and earn a salary that can mostly be saved (room, board, and medical costs are covered by employers), is hard to pass up. Do your research and by this time next year you may be mastering the art of cooking to the rhythm of the ocean waves.

Search Culinary Schools Near You!

Despite her lack of formal training, Harmon decided to take a job as a line cook in 1990 at Street & Co.,  a small seafood restaurant. Although she was new to the business, Harmon threw herself into her new career, putting in 80-hour weeks. In three years’ time she took over as head chef, and the increasingly successful restaurant doubled in size.

While hard work and experience have been the keys to Harmon’s success, she encourages aspiring chefs to pursue career training. “If you know what you want to do early in life, you should pursue your passion, ” she advised in a recent interview. She suggests that young chefs combine formal training with experience in a restaurant where they can hone their skills under the tutelage of a talented supervisor. “Look for a restaurant with a healthy work environment,” she added. “In the right kitchen you can learn a lot.”

This advice has clearly worked in Harmon’s own life. Caiola’s, which has been open for several years, was an instant hit. After 15 years preparing seafood, Harmon is happy to cook “every farm animal available”. Currently her favorite menu offering is grilled cabbage, stuffed with seasonal vegetables and served on hot borscht with fried goat cheese.  Not bad for a recreation management major!

In a recent interview, Ferro explained that her love of culinary art began at an early age. “I started cooking at age five, making mud cakes and decorating them with grass.”  Ferro’s Sicilian father began teaching her the basics of Italian cooking when she was 12, and as a young adult she discovered Julia Child’s television show and cookbook. She was hooked.

Cooking was just a hobby until a friend convinced her to open a small seasonal cafe in downtown Machias. Desperate for ways to supplement her artist’s income, Ferro took the plunge and began sharing her culinary skills with a wider audience.

Although she admits that it was intimidating to cook for strangers at first, Ferro clearly overcame her fears. Nearly fifteen years later, The Artist’s Cafe is the oldest upscale restaurant in town. Taking advantage of the community’s seasonal economy, Ferro closes in the winter and devotes herself to her artwork, which decorates the cafe’s walls.

Ferro’s advice to aspiring restaurant owners? “If you love what you’re doing, that’s all that matters. It doesn’t have to be financially successful; it can be emotionally and spiritually successful.” Combining her passion for cooking with her love of art, Susan Ferro has clearly found her recipe personal success. 

Actors aren’t the only ones helping boost the employment of personal chefs, however. In 2006 The NewYork Times reported that the number of people using these services had grown by almost 50 percent since 2001. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were almost 5,000 private household cooks in 2006. With time at a premium and increased pressure to maintain dietary and physical health, the United States Personal Chef Association estimates that personal chef businesses have more than tripled over the last decade. The growth is expected to continue, with industry revenues projected at close to $600 million by 2012.

How does this trend affect the aspiring chef? Well, for one thing it might impact your course of study. Personal chefs, unlike their restaurant-owning counterparts, must be well-versed in the art of healthy cooking, since they’re working for the same clients each day. While restaurant diners often want to splurge on a decadent treat, the daily meals prepared by a private cook must be nutritionally balanced.

As you plan your culinary career, keep your options open. While chances are slim that you’ll ever set foot in Angelina Jolie’s kitchen, the possibilities of becoming a personal chef to a not-as-glamorous clientele are better than you might think.

Review the biographies of the ten chefs chosen in 2007 and a few things stand out. For one thing, you don’ t have to own a restaurant in New York City to get noticed. Steve Corry, owner of Five Fifty-Five in Portland, Maine (population 230,000) made the list last year, and April Bloomfield was the only New York-based chef among the ten. (She was also the only woman on the list, which suggests an ongoing gender imbalance among professional chefs).

Another trend that stands out is the growing focus on local, seasonal, and organic ingredients that is becoming par for the course in many fine dining restaurants. Of the ten short biographies, six mentioned the importance local, organic, or seasonal products play in the kitchens of these young culinary artists.

Finally, it’s fascinating to see the varied backgrounds represented by this small sample of the up-and-coming in the world of food. Some came into the profession via the traditional route of culinary school, while others gained experience working under well-known chefs both nationally and abroad.

In a few months the 2008 list of winners will be announced. While you may not be ready to enter the candidate pool this year, play your culinary cards right and someday you, too, could make the list, which has included now-famous chefs such as Thomas Keller, Daniel Boulud, Todd English and Nobu Matsuhisa.

If you follow the news in the world of chocolate, you know that tumbling profits for chocolate giant Hershey are continuing. While declining sales may be a problem for big candy makers, gourmet chocolate makers enjoyed $2 billion in sales in 2006, according to a recent article in Business Week.

Monica Elliot, of Monica’s Chocolates , offers an inspiring success story to any chef aspiring to confectionary greatness. Elliot, who received some culinary training in her native Peru, taught herself to make chocolates from library books when she found herself without a job in rural Maine. Five years later, she does a brisk business from her website, to clients nationwide.

Elliot believes that the chocolate business is accessible to anyone. “You have to have patience – and enjoy the craft. Creativity is also necessary so you can make up your own signature recipes, ” advised Elliot in a phone interview.

While starting your own business can be a daunting prospect, a chocolate-based enterprise offers the benefits of low overhead costs and these gourmet treats are best when made in small batches, making them an ideal candidate for small-time confectioners.

Need more fuel for your sweet aspirations? Take some culinary courses. Formal training could provide you with the tools you need to get your chocolate enterprise off the ground.

Prerequisites for Becoming a Chef

Fortunately, there are very few prerequisites for culinary school. The application process varies from program to program, but in most cases, you’ll need an application form, recommendations, and admissions essay. In-person visits to the school can also help improve your prospects.

While Enrolled in Chef School

While enrolled in your certificate, associate, or bachelor program, be sure to supplement your culinary training with kitchen management coursework. Most schools will incorporate this naturally, but make it a point of mastering these areas. Successful chefs not only have a hefty arsenal of recipes, but they also know how to motivate others and supervise workflows in chaotic kitchen environments.

Before You Graduate from Chef School

Networking and connections are very important in the hospitality industry. By introducing yourself to the career office and alumni department at your school, you can more easily stay abreast of new opening and opportunities. Don’t be scared to accept low paying or unpaid positions while enrolled. Many professionals relied on internships and entry level positions on the road to becoming master chefs. After you graduate, however, feel free to become more discerning and choosy. With sufficient training and experience, you should enjoy many job prospects after graduation.

Sources:
US Bureau of Labor Statistics

Try a Degree in Hospitality

There’s a job opening at the hottest startup in Silicon Valley that doesn’t require applicants to know the first thing about computers. The catch: You have to know the difference between béchamel and espagnole.

Facebook, the social-networking Web site with a $15 billion valuation, is hiring a corporate chef. The position looks like a winning lottery ticket for the culinary wiz who gets the job: Google’s corporate chef retired a millionaire shortly after the search engine went public.

The ideal candidate should have “knowledge of food and catering trends with a focus on quality, production, sanitation, food cost controls, and presentation” and, because it’s a startup after all, a “high sense of urgency,” according to the job description.

The Executive Chef is responsible for the leadership of the kitchen by managing and overseeing the activities of the entire kitchen as well as menu development and food quality through purchasing organic products, multi-cultural cuisine, kosher foods, etc. This position is also responsible for recipes including menu item presentation, lunch, corporate, and catering events. He/She is expected to maintain high standards by establishing food specifications and adhering to those specifications via recipes, portion control, presentation, safety and sanitation. This position is full-time and located in Downtown Palo Alto.

Here’s the full posting, via the tech gossip site Valleywag 

When you envision a future for yourself in the food industry, a career in cafeteria management might not make it into your daydreams. Sadly, this profession doesn’t attract the glamour or celebrity status of other jobs in the culinary world, however many would argue that cafeteria managers have as much, if not more, potential to impact the mouths they feed than their famous peers.

As the first line of defense against the growing epidemic of childhood obesity, cafeteria managers in schools across the nation have a responsibility and opportunity to provide balanced, healthy nutrition to the next generation. 

Rhiannon Hampson-Joven, manager of a high-school cafeteria that feeds 300 students daily, finds plenty of opportunities to help her diners stay healthy, from ordering trans-fat free cookies and fried foods to providing healthy and vegetarian choices for the students she feeds.

Hampson-Joven’s advice to aspiring cafeteria managers? “When it comes to certain things that you have total control over [i.e. sourcing healthier foods], try to be as assertive as possible with the administration, because it really is worth it.”

Finding ways to educate the holders of the purse strings to ensure budgetary support of higher-priced, healthy options can be challenging, but with the academic background in nutrition, health, and menu-planning offered by culinary arts schools, your powers of persuasion will be that much more convincing.

Culinary Degrees

Administrative Dietician
Baker
Banquet Captain
Cafeteria Supervisor
Caterer
Chef
Clinical Dietician
Commodity Specialist
Consulting Dietician
Cookbook & Magazine Editor
Corporate Wellness Manager
Culinary Consultant
Customer Relations Representative
Diet Center Manager
Eating Disorder Program Manager
Educational Dietician
Equipment Specialist
Food & Beverage Director
Food Program Specialist (WIC)
Food Photographer
Food Scientist/Technologist
Food Service Manager
Food Services Director
Food Stylist
Food Writer
Garde Manager
Le Cordon Bleu
Menu Planner
Nutrition Counselor
Nutrition Support Dietician
Pastry Arts
Personal Chef
Private Practice Dietician
Product/Recipe Development Consultant
Public Health Nutritionist
Quality Assurance Specialist
Restaurant Manager/Owner
Sous Chef
Test Kitchen Specialist
Therapeutic Dietician
Weight Management Specialist
Weight Reduction Specialist