March 2009

Welcome to the first FOOD JOBS Newsletter, and thank you, my friend, for your continued interest.

Today the need for a food job is on the top of many minds.  Even the creams of the crèmes are worried. We all have friends who are either actively looking for work or fear they soon will be swelling the ranks of the unemployed. I think though Barack Obama is right when he says, “Out of crisis comes opportunity.”

This is a good time to take a huge risk. We should all be actively dreaming about what we secretly want to do and cast aside all those horrid, nagging fears about what we think we have to do or ought to do to make ends meet.

I have found a new role for myself. I’m enjoying being a food jobs mentor, and thought you might be interested in just a few cool solutions I’ve been able to conjure up:

  • A Mom landed a job teaching table manners to culinary students!
  • A former investment banker enrolled in culinary school to study food writing. He has got an assignment to write a column titled “The Dead Beat”. He will compose obituaries of food celebrities.
  •  A herb grower is now selling birthday gift herb bouquets and replacing the flowers on restaurant tables with beautiful bunches of herbs.
  • A former butcher is catering whole suckling pig parties. His wife supplies the side dishes. Guests bring their own beer.
  • A former television producer is offering media training for chefs.
  • A food loving accountant is analyzing guest checks and figuring out how to increase restaurant revenues.
  • A nutritionist is opening a cooking school for diabetics.
  • A retired food lover is supplying a kindergarten school with healthy breakfasts, snacks and lunch.
  • A personal chef is joining forces with an orthopedic surgeon to cook for those who temporarily need a helping hand.
  • A pastry chef is reproducing wedding cakes in acrylic paints.

We all need to help each other. I hope you will help friends by telling them about FOOD JOBS; or be your own best friend and give a gift of FOOD JOBS to yourself.

FOOD JOBS has just won the 2008 Gourmand Cookbook Award for Best Food Book for Professionals in the United States. It will soon be available on Kindle.  And I’m writing a blog so I can continue to discover and discuss new food jobs.

My other news is that the CIA (the Culinary Institute of America) is using FOOD JOBS in its recruiting program, thus recognizing all incoming students will need career guidance. I’ll also be teaching a new course on the subject of food jobs at the CIA. And I just met a teacher from the University of Alaska, who found FOOD JOBS online and is using it as his text for the food jobs course he’s teaching. Hooray! If you have a similar idea, the least expensive way to order books is to contact Erin Smith at Beaufort Books erin@beaufortbooks.com or (212) 727-2450.

I’ve been invited to give FOOD JOBS talks at:

  • FENI (Food Educators Network International)
  • Minneapolis Food & Wine Festival
  • ICE (Institute of Culinary Education)
  • FCI (French Culinary Institute)
  • Cornell University
  • Boston University
  • The James Beard Foundation

(Please check www.foodjobsbook.com for exact dates as it would be lovely to see you in person.)

We are all so busy. With this issue, I hope to be in better touch. I hope you will tell me about your food job and other interesting food jobs you come across.

Cordially,