General Career Information: Culinary & Hospitality Jobs
Celebrity chefs are only one aspect of the new waves hitting the culinary and hospitality world. Your culinary and hospitality studies could help you find a traditional role in the field or launch you into one of the latest culinary trends.
Celebrity Chefs, Tapas Menus, & More: Today's Culinary & Hospitality Trends
Hospitality rests on the host-guest relationship. Humanity (and weary travelers) have long depended on good host-guest relationships. In ancient Greek times, when hotels and restaurants did not exist in the Western world, the host-guest relationship was especially sacred, so much that it was believed that bad hosts would be struck down by Zeus. In today's world, those making careers in hospitality fear vanishing customers, not Zeus's lightning bolt. But the desire to make guests feel welcome remains a factor in culinary and hospitality careers.
Culinary & Hospitality Careers
Culinary arts and hospitality careers are expansive. Jobs include:
- Chefs, cooks, and kitchen assistants
- Servers, bartenders, bussers, and hosts/hostesses
- Hotel desk clerks and concierges
- Restaurant, hotel, and casino managers
- Bakers, cheesemakers, and wine consultants
Most of these careers have long been staples in the culinary/hospitality fields and should remain. But as your culinary and hospitality studies should teach you, new career trends are on the rise.
Culinary & Hospitality Trends
In the 2004 USDA article "The Demand for Food Away From Home," Hayden Stewart and co-authors point out that consumer spending at full-service and fast food restaurants is anticipated to grow over the next decades. Further, the larger increase is anticipated to occur at full-service restaurants. This is good news for those in culinary and hospitality careers.
Other trends cause more buzz in culinary education and foodie circles. Celebrity chefs, in particular, have changed the face of the culinary field. Everyday Italian. Nigella Bites. Rocco Gets Real. The TV chef trend has transformed the culinary career and has also hit the hotel and casino market with TV shows like Paradise Hotel and American Casino. Of course celebrity chefs and reality starts represent a tiny fraction of the culinary world, meaning you don't have to look like a movie star to make a career out of cooking or hospitality.
In other culinary/hospitality trend news: According to USA Today, in 2008, airlines began hiring celebrity chefs to prepare first-class airline food. In 2009, Huffington Post cited a survey of 1,800 professional chefs that identified local sourcing and nutrition as hot culinary trends. Tapas menus, which serve small portions of fine foods, are another trend that should continue.
In casinos, University of Las Vegas studies reveal a drop in numbers of casino employees in most states, although states new to the casino industry fare better; Pennsylvania, for instance, experienced a nearly 65 percent increase in employees between 2008 and 2009. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics notes that hotels have increasingly been contracting out their food service businesses, instead of maintaining their own restaurants; but at the same time, jobs for hotel/motel/resort desk clerks is growing faster than other occupations in the field.
Trends and Education
Whatever the trend, completing education programs in culinary arts or hospitality can help you stand out from the crowd, whether your studies take you to be the next celebrity chef or a new casino manager. Certificates, associate's degrees, and bachelor's degrees in culinary arts or hospitality are offered through technical schools, community and undergraduate colleges, and private cooking and hospitality schools.
Do you want to be part of the next big trend? Read more here about culinary and hospitality education, trends, and careers.
Candice Mancini
Hayden Stewart, et. al - The Demand for Food Away From Home: Full Service or Fast Food? • USDA
Hotels and Other Accommodations - Dec 17, 2009 • Bureau of Labor Statistics
United States Commercial Casino Employees, 1998-2009 • UNLV Center for Gaming Research
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