Introduction
In the culinary industry, being a chef is generally regarded as the pinnacle role in a food professional's career. Many new students and hobbyists fancy themselves as the head chef in a luxurious restaurant, or in a cosy independent spot that wins the local hospitality rewards year in and year out.
Oftentimes, however, life is not as simple as this. For one, being a chef is not right for everyone, but secondly even long time chefs find themselves in need of a career change, or some different scenery. In this article, we’ll be taking a look at the skills a chef has and what other potential careers they might make their way into in the food industry.
The point of this is to show just how few limits there really are with a career in hospitality or the culinary arts, and hence why studying this field might be just right for you, even if you don’t intend on working as a chef in the future!
Let’s get right into it.
The Transferable Skills of a Chef
Let’s briefly go over some of the transferable skills from the chef profession that make chefs some of the most diversely talented workers on the job market.
Having access to all of these skills makes you irresistible to employers; therefore, studying to become a chef is one of the best things you can do if you’re interested in the culinary world, even if you don’t end up becoming a chef in the long run.
If you’re interested in learning about chef’s skills in more detail, we have another article here on the Superprof Blog, talking about them in detail. Make sure to check it out!
Here is the synopsis:
| Skill: | Opportunities: |
|---|---|
| Cooking Skills | Chefs are of course the crème de la crème when it comes to cooking skills, they can not only follow their recipes, but innovate with ingredients to create new and exciting dishes. This skill is transferable to almost any other culinary position, as it is a key part of the understanding of the industry itself… I.e. how food works. |
| Leadership | Chefs are leaders by trade, managing the restaurant staff and organizing the complicated mechanism that is a kitchen. This naturally means that chefs can use this leadership in other positions of management and can take advantage of the increased salary offered by positions of leadership. |
| Creativity and Ingenuity | Chefs need to think on the fly to come up with new dishes and to survive in the competitive business of food and hospitality. In some ways, this makes a chef an artist and gives them excellent critical thinking skills. A chef could use these skills to become a critic themselves, or to devise their own unique products for commercial sale. |
| Problem-solving | Chefs run into all kinds of unexpected problems while running and maintaining a kitchen, as a result, problem-solving becomes a mandatory part of their skill set. Problem-solving is perhaps one of the most universally applicable and sought after skills in any industry, so chefs have a leg up on the competition when it comes to changing careers! |
Now that we’ve looked at what makes a chef so versatile on the job market, let's take a look at some of the most popular alternative career options for chefs, while still remaining in the scope of the culinary industry.
This isn’t to say that chefs are eternally bound to the same sector, and in fact plenty of chefs switch to something completely different. These are simply the most logical and accessible transitions a chef or prospective chef could make.
Culinary Educator/Teacher
While some might prefer to change careers entirely, some chefs will gladly take the opportunity to use the same skills they’ve already mastered in the context of education, in culinary school.
This career is an excellent choice for the chef who’s no longer keen on the high octane, high pressure environment of a busy kitchen and would rather use their experiences to prepare other culinary arts students for their busy jobs in the future.
It’s unlikely that a teacher would make as much as the head chef in a Michelin star restaurant, but teaching jobs are known for their comfortable job security and benefits.
Some educators prefer to go down the route of tuition, which might suit those who would rather dedicate their time to one student at a time with a more detailed approach.
Business Management/Culinary Entrepreneur
With superb leadership skills and a strong insight into the operating principles of the culinary business, chefs naturally make excellent business managers and entrepreneurs.
It’s easy to see how an experienced chef could make such a transition, after getting their certifications.
After working in another business owner's kitchen for a while, they might decide to try opening their own restaurant and potentially taking a more laid back managerial approach instead of the hectic non-stop action which being the head chef entails.
Who better to be in charge of chefs and their staff than a former chef themselves. Certain culinary arts students might choose to jump straight into this kind of venture, rather than directly taking on a career as a chef in the first place.
Food Consultant
Another way that a former chef, or someone with those skills might diversify their career is by becoming a food consultant… But what exactly is meant by this title?
A food consultant is an expert of the industry who specializes in standards, protocols, and works together with businesses to ensure they are operating up to industry standard, providing them with opportunities to improve and grow their business.
To do this job requires a deep insight into the culinary industry and an understanding of the systems in place, which are something that a chef would certainly have all, if not most of under their belt.
The job is once again considerably less stressful than working on the kitchen floor and actually pays impressively even at the entry level, beating out the salaries of most graduate’s first jobs.
The biggest challenge when it comes to being a food consultant is taking your theoretical and often abstract advice and showing clients tangible results. Quite literally, easier said than done!
Nutritionist
It’s par for the course for every chef to be deeply familiar with the nutritional qualities of the food they produce; therefore, it’s not a tremendous stretch of the imagination to see a chef convert this knowledge into the alternative career of nutritional specialist.
In fact, many of the wealthiest people in society hire a combination of the two as personal staff. While this might be too niche of a career for most chefs to actively pursue, it is a superb demonstration of the crossover between the two independent careers.
In the same vein as being the chef/nutritionist of a wealthy client, some chefs might use their nutritional and culinary expertise to feature on cooking shows where they might demonstrate healthy recipes and guide viewers through diet plans while giving them tasty alternatives to the less nutritional foods they can’t seem to quit.
As a traditional nutritionist, even though there is no fixed barrier to entry, it is common for nutritionists to have a degree or comparable qualification in the subject.
As a result, if a chef chooses not to go down one of the less orthodox routes, it might be worth considering a brief return to study in order to have the highest chance of success with their new calling. There are many different jobs in the culinar world.
The medical equivalent of this job is referred to as a ‘dietician’, and recently, this career is accessible via not only degrees, but also through apprenticeship, allowing applicants to earn while learning.
Writer/Blogger/Food Influencer
In the age of the internet, one of the most sought after and idealized careers is that of having some degree of fame or relevancy online. Chefs have an easier time than most at doing this, since their expertise, critiquing and social skills lend themselves perfectly to entertaining an online audience.
- Writer: The classic alternative revenue stream for chefs which predates the internet is to write down one’s recipes in a recipe book. While doing this traditionally requires some level of celebrity, we can get around this these days by using social media and online marketing to more easily promote and distribute such a product.
- Blogger: Chefs are easy to trust as experts when it comes to their takes on anything related to food. This makes them the perfect people to start a popular food blog.
- Influencer: The influencer masterfully uses popular social media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok to reach wide online audiences. The end goal of such ventures is to gain a loyal audience to which one can share sponsored advertisements with. Chefs can do this by publishing pictures of their work, filming tutorials of their recipes, and collaborating with other online personalities to increase their reach on the web.
Afterword
Thank you for reading this article about alternative careers for chefs. We hope you managed to learn something and potentially pick up some ideas about how you might diversify your career in the future, even if you aren’t a chef yourself.
If you want to learn more about the culinary industry, or a plethora of different subjects, make sure to take a look at some of our other articles right here on the Superprof Blog.
While you’re here, why not check out Superprof’s Premier service, which strives to get you in touch with the best rated tutors in your area, to galvanize your learning experience. Most of them offer the first lesson free! Give it a try!
Until next time, bye bye for now!
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