A student, (I’ll call her Student One), said she would really, REALLY like to work in the White House. “Hmm,” quoth I. I then mentioned her dream job to another member of the culinary faculty, who told me one of the chef/instructor’s teaches the new chefs employed at Camp David.

That same afternoon, I told another class about this amazing piece of information. Another student, (Student Two), in this class revealed she had recently worked as a sous chef on Air Force One.

Upshot. With these connections and a couple of letters of recommendation, Student One is applying for a job at the White House.

This is actually true, (though I confess that I’m capable of elaborating the truth for the sake of a good story).

I mention this as yet another example of If you don’t ask for what you want, the chances of getting it are pretty close to zero.

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FOOD JOBS really all goes back to two themes I’ve embraced throughout my professional life: finding a niche and taking a risk.

I remind myself that I originally wrote this book to explain and explore for:

Butchers and bakers

And tillers of acres

And food-trivia players

And carrot purveyors

And wielders of woks.

For food fashion leaders

And recipe readers

And fitness-freak jocks.

And salesmen

Who breakfast on lox,

For taste counterfeiters

And writers of letters

And restaurateurs

And entrepreneurs

And connoisseurs.

For greeters

And seaters

Of meeters for brunch

And ladies who lunch.

For winers

And diners

And buyers making deals by the bunch.

For eaters of noodles

And bakers of strudels.

And packers

And craters

And vanishing head waiters

And food innovators who act on a hunch.

For sommeliers with tastevin flying

So clearly implying

They’d like a gratuity

Akin to an annuity

And then a drop more.

For cake decorators

And cookbook creators

And people who munch.

In short, this is neat

For all who eat…

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The conventional culinary job is no longer simply peas and beans and carrots, rather it encompasses an enormously vast array of  options. One can become a chef in a restaurant or a personal chef for a family; a food historian or a food folklorist; a recipe writer or a recipe tester; a flavor maker or a public policy food fighter…

Yet more options open up after you’ve attended culinary school. Which cooking school you apply to is a personal choice largely determined by your particular goals. High-profile schools offer more in terms of visits and cooking demonstrations by superstar chefs, but smaller schools may provide more nurturing environments and are less of a financial burden.

Where the school is located, what times of day or evening classes are offered and how large the classes are also very real consid- erations for many would-be culinary students. Unlike traditional colleges, culinary schools attract students of all ages. Some have special needs that are not always anticipated by other institutions of higher education.

Many professional schools have three divisions: culinary skills, baking and pastry, and hospitality management. Students at some, (though not all schools), are able to combine programs. A degree program can extend for anywhere from six to 38 months with tuition costs varying from $10,000 to more than $70,000. In all cases, financial aid is readily available.

The schools with larger endowments, like The Culinary Institute of America and Johnson & Wales, often have more highly qualified and experienced faculty, better-equipped kitchens, a more extensive library, and even, sports facilities. These schools, and others in major culinary metropolises, may offer student housing, indicating that  they attract students from around the world. They also tend to have higher tuition fees than smaller, non-residential schools.

There are many factors to consider before enrolling in culinary school, and prospective students are urged to take their time before making a decision about what is best for them.

An Associate of Occupational Studies (A.O.S.) degree from a top-tier school is believed to carry more weight when seeking employment, but this is not necessarily so. Great students with good attitudes are offered terrific jobs, no matter which school they attend.

You may prefer to enroll in a small school where there is a strong focus on the individual and a small class size. In the culinary program at Paul Smith’s College in Lake Placid, New York, for example, there is a 14:1 student to faculty ratio. Teachers, mentors and advisers are always on hand. The college has a magnificent library, and its lakeside campus, nestled in the magnificent Adirondack Mountains, is an excellent destination for winter and summer sports enthusiasts.

Community colleges in every part of the country offer degree programs in culinary arts. In addition to more affordable tuition, they allow students to live at home — another cost-saving consideration.

Remember that culinary school should be viewed as an investment and a beginning. There is still much hard work ahead. One more piece of advice: as you scan ShawGuides for suggested schools and begin to apply for culinary school, ask someone at the reference desk of your local public library for the Occupational Outlook Handbook. It lists all kinds of information you would need to know, (including the salary) of just about any occupation you can imagine.

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Rotation Farming

Boutique and larger scale farming is beginning to look like a very fertile field indeed for job seekers. Ask Chef/restaurateur Michel Nischan, who  has long been a crusader for sustainability in fishing and farming. He is an advocate of pasture-fed beef and lamb and foods that are raised humanely and grown responsibly.

“I never intended the pursuit of healthful, organic cooking to be my lifelong endeavor, much less my passion,” he wrote in his first book, Taste Pure and Simple. “But I am passionate about it: passionate about achieving balance in every meal, about eating what is ripe and best in its season, and about enjoying the pure pleasure of eating simply and eating well.”

Of course, to eat well, the food must be grown well. A Newsweek article written by Tara Weingarten and Joan Raymond describes Bob Jones’ Chef’s Garden:

“They are on their way now, by overnight express, nestled in tissue paper and custom-designed boxes, to any place where restaurant menus take more than a dozen words to describe a $14 salad. Peacock kale and baby red Brussels sprouts, butterball turnips, bull’s blood beets and all the greens, micro-and otherwise, plus 17 kinds of potatoes, in five sizes. From the unlikely neighborhood of Huron, Ohio, where the temperature drops to 18 degrees and below, vegetables from Bob Jones’ Chef’s Garden are in the air, bound even for places like Los Angeles that are perfectly capable of growing their own salads, challenging the reigning orthodoxy formulated by the great advocate of fresh, season, local produce, Berkeley, California restaurateur Alice Waters though when Waters said, ‘We should try to eat from within a range of an hour or two from where we live,’ she meant by truck, not jet.”

Bob Jones uses no pesticides and only vegetable compost and cover crops to fertilize his rich sandy loam. Greenhouses and cold frames extend the growing season almost year-round. Bob Jones has become a model farmer and like every great visionary, he is gathering legions of admirers.

Everywhere children are learning how to grow and cook the harvest from vest pocket gardens. The Web site farmtocollege.org lists more than 100 college buying programs. Local farms are supplying such places as Harvard and the University of California.

The Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities reports that in New York, “local buying programs are in place at Vassar College, Hamilton College, Skidmore College, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the Culinary Institute of America (CIA).” (The CIA annual budget for local produce exceeds $370,000 for the purchase of everything from milk and melons to mushrooms.)

Grasshoppers Distribution in Louisville, Kentucky sells the produce of 100 state farmers to 75 restaurants and schools. We can clearly see a trend is forming a rainbow of opportunities for culinary graduates, career changers and food lovers!

A recent press release from Bon Appetit Management Company in Palo Alto, California reported: “As a new crop of college graduates worries about finding that all-important first job, and students flock to internships in food and farming, Bon Appetit Management Company  has established a program that brightens new graduates’ job opportunities. The sustainable food service leader has created three new career boosting paid fellowships for young campus activists involved in sustainable food and social justice. The new fellows will work directly with farmers around the country to assess overall sustainability, including labor practices in agricultural operations that supply the company’s 400 kitchens in 29 states.”

Chef Dan Barber who grows and raises his own food for his restaurants, Blue Hill New York in Manhattan and Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills, New York, says, “As a chef, if you are chasing after flavorful food, which is what chefs should be doing, you are by definition an environmentalist and you are a nutritionist and by definition, you are an activist.”

But if you think of yourself as none of these, you may still find work on a farm as an accountant, public relations person or any number of other specialists that are needed to ensure the success of a thriving farm.

Think of these whisperings as the genesis of a fast growing new movement: young farmers are planting sustainable farms in land surrounding housing developments, spas, restaurants, and wherever people live — and eat. They are even converting abandoned warehouses into vertical farms, heated and cooled by geothermal energy.

There is more to say about farming in America today. I’ll be introducing you to two different people who became unlikely farmers, yet love the FOOD JOBS they developed.

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Celebrity Chef Wolfgang Puck

Dear Culinary Student,

It is estimated more than 70,000 of you are currently enrolled in professional culinary schools nationwide. How can you stand out from the crowd? How can you find a fulfilling career that will engage all your abilities? What are the possibilities you will become the next celebrity chef?

You have as good or better a shot of reaching your goal as the next person.

Look around! Look in front of you. Look behind you. Look at someone on each side of you. There is no one quite like you. You are unique. Now all you have to do is go to school to learn why and how things work. Once you know the fundamentals, you can reach whatever goal you set for yourself.

Everyone starts from a different point and is bound for a different destination. You are not competing with everybody else who may be vying for the same job you are seeking. Your only competition is with yourself.

Your road is there waiting for you. You just have to find it. Your horizon is limited only by your ability to envision it.

Besides my personal favorite, FOOD JOBS: 150 Great Jobs for Culinary Students, Career Changers and Food Lovers, one of the most popular resources is The Guide To Cooking Schools, compiled by ShawGuides. It lists more than 800 culinary programs worldwide, 358 of which are geared towards professional training. The courses are listed with such detailed information as: the type of instruction; faculty credentials; tuition costs; student profiles and status of accreditation. ShawGuides also offers a free job-matching site.

Yet this is only the beginning. If you are lucky, your culinary path will match The Road Not Taken poet Robert Frost described.You must be prepared to take a risk. Many risks, in fact.

As I like to say, if you don’t ask for what you want, the chances of getting it are close to zero.

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Cameron Crowder, Culinary Student

personifies the courageous people I meet at culinary school who decide to to take the plunge and embark on a new life in the food world. This doesn’t for a minute mean that they plan to spend the next several years working in a restaurant. On the contrary there are literally hundreds of other job opportunities that await them when they finish their studies in culinary school. Here is Cameron’s story:

I grew up fully expecting to become a writer. My parents, teachers and anyone else who read something I wrote would always say, “Cameron, you’re a born writer,” with the kind of authority in their tone that seemed to add “and you’ll be wasting your life if you try to do anything else.”

So, after dabbling in other directions ranging from drama to architecture, I earned a BA in comparative literature from the University of Virginia (UVA). I even won a prize for my thesis. Anyone who knew me at the time assumed that graduate school and a glorious career in academia, teaching and writing books on obscure French novels was to be my lot in life. I thought so too.

A few months after graduating, I visited the home of my former advisor, the head of UVA’s comparative literature department, to talk with her about graduate programs I might apply to. Her home’s walls were full of built-in bookshelves stuffed with not just with literature, but cookbooks too.

As we sat on her front porch sipping tea and talking about school, I felt a little guilty about the fact that all I wanted to do was curl up with a stack of her cookbooks and read or bake something in her lovely, well-equipped kitchen. I recall that when she realized how interested I was in her cookbook collection, she remarked rather prophetically, “If I hadn’t become a scholar, I would have been a baker.”

It didn’t seem like a life changing moment at the time. But, those words did something to me—they gave me permission to do what I wanted rather than just doing what I knew I was good at. If this professor, who was as brilliant as anyone I had ever met, considered baking a legitimate career choice, then so could I.

About six months later, having chosen not to apply to grad school, I was on the verge of losing my job and my home. My parents, with whom I was still living, and the company I worked for were both moving across the country. Every part of my life was up in the air, just a few weeks away from changing drastically for better or for worse.

Miserable and panicked, I finally asked myself this question: If you had all the money and security and recognition you could ever want, if the only person you had to please was yourself—what would you do? Several answers came to mind (my interests have always been too numerous to be convenient), but the one answer that stood out was becoming a pastry chef.

Wisteria at CIA Entrance, Courtesy of Cameron Crowder

Once I found the CIA’s (Culinary Institute of America) website, it took me all of about 30 minutes to decide that going there was the right path for me. I honestly never looked back.

I sensed from the beginning that any obstacles and doubts I might encounter would be temporary and well worth the effort to overcome. I quit my job almost immediately.

I began working as a baker for a coffeehouse, waking up before dawn to make muffins, scones, cookies—anything that goes well with coffee. Eleven months later, I arrived at the CIA and still can’t believe how bold a turn my life has taken; how fortunate I am to be here, how lucky I am to be certain of what I want to do at a relatively young age.

I concede I may end up a writer after all, but not of literary criticism.

Desserts at CIA Courtesy of Cameron Crowder

Food writing (and food photography) is much more to my taste.

* You can follow Cameron on her culinary journey. If you scroll through the archives of this blog, you’ll find other culinary career changer profiles.*

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Mark David Buley, ACE Graduate

My name is Mark David Buley. I am twenty-five years old and I grew up in a small agricultural town in Wisconsin. My mother is a teacher and and my father is an international business man.  I spent much of my childhood listening to stories of my father’s travels, negotiations in the Soviet Union, conferences in China and trips throughout Africa.  His stories always captivated me.  He would come home after weeks abroad, kick off his shoes and collapse into his leather arm chair near the fireplace to share the highlights of his adventures abroad.

When I was eight years old, my father, freshly returned from a trip to Paris, captivated my attention with his description of the dinner he had eaten at the esteemed restaurant, Maxim’s. The stories he told from this trip abroad seemed dramatically different to me. Watching and listening to a man who I thought had seen it all, swoon and sigh about his meal at the famous Paris restaurant struck a chord within me. I knew from that moment what my life’s work would be; I decided I must learn to cook at a level that would make even the most adventurous diners stop and pay attention. My goal became to work in a restaurant where eating was a near religious experience.

The next years of my life found me in and out of the principal’s office, my teachers frustrated at my lack of focus and attention, where my siblings had thrived.  I struggled through middle school and high-school with threats of transfer to St. Johns Military Academy where my grandfather had been the Chaplin.

My only real moments of glory came on the weekends when I worked as a busboy at a restaurant near my parent’s home. For three days a week I had a sense of place. I bussed tables and washed dishes with my eyes fixed on the line where the cooks moved frantically over oil and fire, sliding plates into the window and calling out to the service staff.

I knew my time to focus was fast approaching with my senior year under way my 2.1 grade point average left me with few options.  The reality of the situation set in; I had my eyes fixed on a Wisconsin state school where they offered degrees in Hotel and Restaurant Management, the school would serve as a perfect proving ground for me to get focused and grounded before I turned to the school that held the surest route to my life’s goal  The Culinary Institute of America.

My time at the University of Wisconsin-Stout proved to be one of the best things that ever happened to me.  I found my true sense of discipline and focus. Four years later, I had earned a 3.8 grade point average, a nomination as honor student delegate at the National Restaurant Show in Chicago and held a position as Chef de Cuisine at one of the area’s best restaurants.  At that point I knew I was ready for the rigor of the Culinary Institute of America.  I applied for the ACE (Advance Career Experience) program in the fall of 2007.

I write today as a graduate from the CIA from my new home in Aspen, Colorado and the acclaimed restaurant, Montagna at the Little Nell, still taking steps toward my life’s work.

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John Sadovy / Getty Images

A resume is a summary of your past history. A cover letter declares your hope for the future. Your cover letter is read before the recipient even looks at your resume.

The objective of a cover letter is to get an interview, not a job. Receiving an offer comes later in the job hunting process. A persuasive cover letter is more likely to result in an interview than a resume that looks like hundreds of others.

Your cover letter is your main shot at getting your foot in the door. Take your time with it. Ask someone you respect to read it. It will be ditched immediately by the reader recipient if your tone of voice is wrong, meaning you seem to be bragging; desperate; groveling; inappropriately affectionate (I’m longing to hear from you etc.) or written on “girlie” paper decorated with flowers or puppies.

Read your first draft aloud. If you can’t find anything wrong with it or anything you want to change, you aren’t trying hard enough.

“To Whom It May Concern”
This is the wording to use if you are appealing a traffic ticket. If you are applying for a job from an identified company, make a telephone call to find the name and correct spelling of the Director of Human Resources. Make sure you spell the name correctly. If you are responding to a post box number, address your letter to the Executive Chef. Or ask yourself what would Perry Mason and his private investigator, Paul Drake do to track down the person of interest?

Keep your letter short: no more than three paragraphs nicely placed in the center of the page. Tailor each letter for each job you are seeking. One size or one format doesn’t fit all.

Don’t say you think it would be interesting for you to work for the organization to which you are applying. This is like parking in front of prosperous looking home and asking if the owner will pay you to move in, entertain and educate you and provide you with paid vacations and medical benefits. Instead offer what you will do to advance the profitability of the employer.

State precisely what you want: I want to be the assistant pastry chef.  Proclaim your virtues. For instance, “I always show up on time. I follow directions. I am a team player. I can cook!”

A cover letter should not be a short version of your resume. Search for any connection you have to the company and suggest ways you believe you will be able to contribute your unique talents to it.  Try to be as charming as if you are meeting your future in-laws for the first time.

Sample Cover Letter
A cover letter should be presented on letterhead paper and include your e-mail address and cell phone number and go along the lines of:

Date:    February 14, 2020

Dear Chef Wiffenpoof:

Charlie Huff’n’Puff, a fellow student from The Arts Institute professional culinary school told me you were looking for a skilled dishwasher for your country club in North Dakota.

I have recently married my football coach who grew up in Crossed Forks. We attended the Claude Pepper High School. We have bought a house a 5-minute walk from the club and will be moving there next week. I honed my skills as an extern dishwasher when working at the Danish Laundry.

I have attached three references with my resume.

[End the letter by keeping the power in your hands.  Don’t say “thank you for your time, I am looking forward to hearing from you.”  Instead say I will call you on Friday 13th at 3 P M. If the contact person is not there, leave a message.  If you do this three times, and there is still no answer, Wise up! The answer is "No Thanx."]

Yours truly,

Eager Beaver, Proud Food Jobs book reader

Don’t scrawl a gigantic or dopey signature at the bottom of the page.

Good hunting!

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Thomas Zacharias, Culinary Institute of America Graduate

Here is another example of an  extraordinarily accomplished student, Thomas Zacharias, who showed great courage in leaving his home country of India to pursue his dream. Remember his name. He is destined for greatness. I’ve invited him to tell his story:

It was on an unusually cold June morning in 1998, in my beautiful South Indian state of Kerala when I was first bitten by the culinary bug. The monsoon rains had just kicked in and the air smelled heavily of the earth. I was standing in my grandmother’s kitchen watching her cook lunch for the rest of our family. After years of relishing her food every afternoon, I was finally taking an interest in what actually happened in her kitchen.

That day, she placed a cheena chatti (a precursor to the wok) on the stove and lit it with a match. She heated up a little oil and threw in some mustard seeds, curry leaves, and dried red chilies. I jerked back in fright as the mustard seeds spluttered in the hot oil, releasing its complex spicy aroma.

She smiled as she pointed to the stove and said, “Don’t let the flame scare you. Cooking is about mastering the heat.” Little did I realize that nine years later I would be at the finest culinary school in the world learning to master that very same heat.

After completing high school, I decided to pursue a career dedicated to gratifying people through food and wine. I enrolled at the prestigious Welcomgroup Graduate School of Hotel Administration in India, where I graduated top of my class with a Bachelor’s Degree in Hotel Management.

I had job offers from some of the best hotels in India but felt that I was still unseasoned. To further enhance my culinary knowledge and experience, I left my family, friends, and the security of my home of 21 years to study at my dream school, The Culinary Institute of America (CIA).

When I first drove into the stunning CIA campus, I could sense the rush I was longing to experience for months—like the feeling you get when you make your first perfect consommé. It was pure exhilaration and it was definitely worth the wait.

Roth Hall, the former Jesuit monastery building, stood there in all its celebrated glory; the Vatican of the culinary world as we know it. The beautiful Anton Plaza lay before it overlooking the spectacular Hudson River and the striking fall foliage of the valley. Glimpses of the exquisite award-winning Italian ristorante Caterina de’ Medici, perfectly placed in a Mediterranean setting surrounded with a bountiful herb garden pulled me in. Of course, the Conrad N. Hilton library stood tall, proudly being one of the greatest sources of food knowledge in the world. Five minutes on this campus and I knew I was in the right place.

Before I knew it, I was immersed in classes. It surely went fast. The school’s Progressive Learning Year (PLY) academic system implied that a student has to be constantly up to date with his assigned daily work. No excuses are entertained — not even the classic “my dog ate my homework,” which could make more sense here than anywhere else.

I nevertheless decided to make the best of my time here and so, it wasn’t unusual for me to spend hours on end in the library reading up on world cuisines and the science behind basic cooking techniques, not to mention legendary chefs such as Escoffier and Careme and Bocuse. They always had to throw me out when the library closed for the night.

I completed my 18 week mandatory externship under accomplished Chef Shea Gallante ’96 at the Michelin-starred restaurant Cru in Manhattan. Though the hours were long and the paycheck small, I was only grateful to be gaining such a valuable experience.

Back in school again and submerged in the heat of classes, I decided that I needed to do beyond just academics and applied for the position of editor-in-chief of the school newspaper, La Papillote. To my surprise, I was hired. It was a position I had dreamt of for more than a year. I had great plans for the paper, which I duly accomplished. My extensive experience as a tutor in the Writing Center helped immensely.

Then one day, while in restaurant row, (the last set of classes one partakes in before graduation), and chopping fresh herbs for service in the St. Andrew’s restaurant kitchen, I was told that there was someone waiting outside to see me. The man—who was of medium height, wore thick-rimmed glasses, and could be in his late 50s—introduced himself as Henry Woods, Associate Dean of Faculty Development at the CIA. My mind switched itself into defense mode and I wondered what trouble I’d gotten myself into.

Dean Woods, however, quickly put me at ease. He informed me that I was selected as one of two students to represent the CIA, the world’s premier culinary college, as a student honor delegate at the National Restaurant Association Education Foundation Salute to Excellence to be held in Chicago on May 16, 2009 — six days before I was to graduate. I was beyond thrilled.

The Salute is an annual event which witnesses hundreds of exemplary culinary students, distinguished faculty, and esteemed industry professionals from all over the country meeting together in one location to interact and talk about the present and the future of the foodservice industry in America. This was one of the greatest opportunities for any student at the CIA; all my hard work and dedication towards this school had finally paid off.

I am now in my last class at the CIA—Advanced Table Service at CIA’s flagship restaurant, Escoffier. I have retired from my positions as editor-in-chief as well as tutor and am preparing for life post-CIA. I have been chosen to be the graduation speaker for my graduation, and possibly may be chosen as valedictorian. As I gather together the words for my speech, I cannot help but reminisce about how far I’ve come from the days I spent in my grandmother’s kitchen. I cannot help but think of all the chefs in this school who have taught me several valuable lessons, both within the realms of the kitchen and beyond. I realize I will soon be part of a larger family of professionals who proudly carry the CIA name with them wherever they go.

I could not be more proud.

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• www.fastweb.com
• www.mach25.com
• www.finaid.org (general scholarships and ones for students with disabilities)
• www.collegeboard.org
• www.supercollege.com
• www.freschinfo.com
• www.cookingschools.com/financial-aid
• www.srnexpress.com
• www.collegeanswer.com
• www.scholarships-now.com
• www.acfchefs.org
• www.eatright.org
• www.aiwf.org
• www.ccapinc.org
• www.theculinarytrust.org
• www.ifec-is-us.com
• www.ifsea.com
• www.jamesbeard.org
• www.restaurant.org/states/
• www.restaurant.org/careers/scholarships.cfm
• www.womenchefs.org
• www.iefa.org (for international students)
• www.scholarships.com
• www.Chef2Chef.Net
• www.finaid.org/otheraid/ld.phtml
• www.miusa.org/sild/index_html
• www.cfscholarship.org
• www.primaryimmune.org/services/scholarship.htm
• www.scholarships-now.com
• www.supercollege.com
• www.studentscholarshipsearch.com
• www.financialaidofficer.com
• www.findtuition.com
• www.thesalliemaefund.org/smfnew/sections/apply.html
• www.thepointfoundation.org
• www.parentsinc.org/finaid – (students with disabilities)
• www.financialaidtips.org

Good luck!

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