Other Professional Opportunities

Appears in
Professional Cooking: 10th Edition
Professional Cooking

By Wayne Gisslen

Published 2025

  • About
Not all those who train to be professional culinarians end up in restaurant careers. Professional cooking expertise is valuable in many callings. The following are just some of the employment opportunities available in addition to standard cooking positions. Most of these require advanced training in other fields in addition to food production:
  • Hospitality management in hotels, restaurants, large catering companies, and other organizations with a food-service component.
  • Product development and research for food manufacturers.
  • Product sales representatives for food and beverage distributors.
  • Product sales representatives for equipment companies.
  • Restaurant design and consulting.
  • Food styling for photography in books, magazines, and other publications, as well as for food packaging and marketing materials.
  • Food writing for newspapers, magazines, food industry journals, and other publications—not only restaurant criticism but also analysis and reporting on food-related topics such as nutrition and health, agriculture, and food supply.
  • Training the next generation of chefs in culinary schools and in large hospitality companies with in-house training programs.