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New Opportunities In The Restaurant Industry
No one can argue that food will always be in demand. Despite the recovering economy, restaurant career opportunities are numerous, and many individuals are keen to know how to get hired by restaurants. Especially nowadays when people have a more discerning palate, people in the restaurant industry continuously try to innovate and find ways to challenge the gourmet in everyone.
As a testament to this, food bloggers, as well as food critics and food writers, have become very popular over the last few years. Fine dining is no longer reserved for the rich and famous, as emerging chefs try to offer quality dining options at very reasonable prices. There have been also numerous web services that offer ways for people to discover new food places.
Food styling and food photography is also another restaurant career which has gained considerable amount of attention the last few years. It also helps that there has been an emerging movement that pushes for healthier food options. This means more organic, farm-grown and natural products are being used in a number of the food options people have today.
Even large companies are jumping on the bandwagon, which isn’t to say that the fast food industry is struggling because of this. Quite the opposite if one takes a closer look at it. Fast food companies have strived to offer healthier food options among their menus as well, to compete with those in the restaurant industry.
The restaurant industry has been a haven for struggling artists. It is a very welcoming community that looks past one’s educational attainment, and instead learns about people through the superb dishes they create. Not many chefs have college degrees. It is not even necessary to have a formal education to know how to get hired as a chef. Even so, are a number of schools offering culinary education through short courses, diploma courses, and certificates. An aspiring chef can become certified in as little as six months. A rewarding restaurant career can easily be achieved because of the number of options available nowadays.
The options for how to get hired by a restaurant do not end there. There are also hospitality courses available to those who wish to have a career in food service. It was also once said that probably the most opportune time to start a business is when the economy is down and it cannot be any further from the truth with the restaurant industry.
Sales reports from the 960,000 restaurants in America have continued to be strong contributors to the recovery of the economy. The industry represents about four per cent of the United States’ Gross Domestic Product. It is also worth noting that around ten per cent of the United States’ manpower is comprised of people in the restaurant industry, and that its total economic impact goes beyond $1.7 trillion. It continues to be the second-largest employer in the private sector, with 12.8 million employees, and still growing. Finding an opportunity for a successful restaurant career is easy if one has an unyielding drive to succeed and they know how to get hired.
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Posted by Brian Carrick on 6/6/12 at 12:48 PM EST
“Thanks again, Chef Krzak for another fine article on how one goes about finding employment in the foodservice industry and sir, the only thing I would find fault with is the fact that there are so many more opportunities with good wages and great benefits alike if we would but close the border and begin enforcing our labor laws. We also need to rid the industry and the nation of oppressive government as if I were to BEGIN a career NOW, I would not have the same chances I had in the late 1960s. The opportunities that existed simply don’t exist anymore and if something is not done and soon, then we will see the industry devolve into something unrecognizable that none from the Golden Age of Restaurants would know. Sure, there are opportunities to find work but for low wages, practically no benefits, and if one speaks Spanish and does it well. The industry is so different now than it was 30 years ago that it’s frightening to see the changes underway and to me, if we don’t fix the nation first so industry doesn’t have to move to cheaper environs, then we stand to lose everything. Being a corporate chef is not all that it’s cracked up to be and I would rather be the chef of an independent fine dining establishment than be the corporate chef at Lawrey’s or some such other big name foodservice supplier. Thanks as always, Chef Brian Carrick, ACF Member, and WSCA, worked in California, Hawaii, and Washington State and briefly in Arizona. I commenced my career in the late 1960s as a busboy at age 12 and apprenticed to become a chef at age 17 in 1973. I’ve been in the industry for more than 40 years with another 10-15 to go. Publisher of the American Institute of Culinary Politics Online.”
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