Job Market Outlook for Individuals with a Culinary Arts Degree

Job Outlook for Individuals Who Holds a Culinary Arts Degree

Apr 3, 2015 | 9:00 am

There has never been a better time to invest in a career as a cook. In the average household, both partners work a job and rarely have the time to prepare meals from scratch, using basic ingredients and time-consuming techniques for balanced, healthy meals, relying instead on microwave items, prepackaged foods, fast foods, deli foods, and nights out at a restaurant. Delivery services are also high on the evening menu. One simple phone call, and twenty minutes later, food services arrive with a steaming pizza, the classic hamburger and French fries, Chinese take-out or any number of culinary favorites.

The Frustrated Student

For culinary arts students hoping to become chefs at a high-end restaurant, the culinary job outlook isn’t the pathway to stardom and riches they may have envisioned after their interest was kindled by watching Master Chef. Most chefs begin their cooking careers on the ground floor, bussing tables, washing dishes and learning how to prepare foods before they ever get to heat a frying pan. It takes years to establish themselves on the line, and once they have acquired knowledge of all the stations in the kitchen, the company they work for will often pay their way through a culinary arts program to learn the necessary management skills of a chef. The culinary arts student discovers a highly competitive industry for that relished chef’s position and that their entry-level position is often that of a line cook. The biggest difference is their preparations have helped them gain promotions faster and they will not have to return to school for a management position.

When Creative Thinking Helps You

A culinary arts degree will help you in gaining the qualifications needed to become a chef at a fabulous restaurant. The culinary job outlook is very good for those with a Bachelor of Food Science degree. While the potential growth for chefs in restaurants is predicted to grow at a five percent rate over the next ten years, the growth rate is considerably higher for those who work in food nutrition and food research. If our mobile society isn’t doing a great deal of cooking in the private kitchen, it has become very health conscious. Its demand is for healthy foods. Your specialized skills in nutrition can land you a job in a bakery specializing in whole grain foods, in a restaurant serving allergen-free foods or in a health food bar.

The culinary job outlook is expected to grow by eight percent over the next few years in the prepackaged food industry, creating attractive prepackaged meals that are both healthy and delicious. It can be an exciting career as you experiment with new recipes, exotic flavors and the increasing appetite for International cuisine.

Global Outreach

Restaurant chains, along with corporate restaurants and hotels have credited in part, their industrial expansion to new overseas business developments. Not only does a culinary degree program teach students the arts of International cooking, it also exposes them to other cultures, languages, and customs. They learn the skills required for hospitality management. The culinary job outlook will increase rapidly as businesses develop their overseas establishments and search for qualified bi-lingual culinary arts professionals.

Your culinary arts degree will open the doors more quickly, if you wish to become a chef, but don’t feel limited by restaurant job offers. Visualize the future of our mobile society that wants both convenience and healthy foods, which travels to numerous locations and has developed an appetite for International flavors. It’s a society that embraces the unique, which explores new territory and is always driven to cuisine that not only looks and tastes flavorful, but beautifully, artistically rendered.