Every few weeks I’m invited to speak to the newly arriving students at culinary school. I tell them I teach a class on love affairs.

I am the matchmaker.

I want to know what each student loves (not what he or she likes) to do.

With a little bit of luck, I can suggest ways in which they can marry their hobby or unique skills with their culinary knowledge as they seek a long and fruitful career.

I’m astonished to discover how many budding chefs yearn to own a truck. A truck that serves every kind of food from cupcakes and rice pudding to Korean barbecue.

Today I talked about the calendar. The US Tennis Open is coming up. So is the World Series. A sports fan may want to cook at the private dining room of a sports franchise or become a private chef for an athlete.

Dancing with the Stars employs a personal chef for each competition. Personal chef jobs are on the rise. It is one of the best jobs for an entrepreneur who can start a business without requiring a capital investment.

I spoke about jobs in art and design; photographer, food stylist, kitchen designer, and special event cake designer. Create a wedding cake in oil and acrylic paint to frame and preserve for ever and ever (or as long as the marriage lasts.) become a chef in a museum, create a food exhibit, become a lecturer on the topic of food in fine art? Become a recipe developer for Panera or Starbucks (or Dunkin D’s.)

Tasting is a good and well paying job. Taste ice cream, coffee, tea, olive oil. Chew gum. No kidding. Nestle is one of the companies that employs chewing gum tasters. There are real jobs that require super taster to… well…taste…all day. .

How about becoming an ethicist, a futurist or a trend tracker?

Or work on Wall Street analyzing food companies?

Or work for a food foundation or as a humanitarian or lobbyist or inspector to trace the source of contaminated food.

Here are just a few ideas for working in the food media: investigative journalist, vegetarian columnist, historian, folklorist (why do so many Jews go out for Chinese dinner on Sundays?)  The late Professor Alan Dundes examined this question with his students who also study the allure of violent sports, holiday traditions and even the mystique of the vampire.

Said Dundes: “As a psychoanalytic folklorist, my professional goals are to make sense of nonsense, find a rationale for the irrational and seek to make the unconscious conscious.”

How about taking up a career as a food memoir writer, biographer, commentator, geographer (do you know what a food geographer does?) trade magazine reporter, supermarket observer, radio host, (I’d like this job myself,) essayist, restaurant reviewer, food book reviewer (not only cookbooks but also food books dealing with politics, profiles of food companies etc.), catalog writer, TV star, ingredient shopper for TV star, TV producer, obituary writer for former food celebrities. Preparer of last meals in the federal penitentiary leading to a possible book contract for Meals to Die For.

I had only three minutes to describe my food jobs class so I didn’t have time to even mention careers in education, farming, science and technology or rare, unusual and extraordinary culinary careers so instead, I’ll get around to them in this blog. Please come back soon.

And.

Have a nice day (as they say at the bank!)

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I read three online food news briefs every day: NASFT (National Association of Specialty Food Trade), NRN (Nation’s Restaurant News) and FNJ (Food News Journal). I like to know what’s going on.

I just read this communication from Specialty Food News: NASFT DOWNERS GROVE, Ill., Aug. 18:

Lemon Tree Grocer will host a ribbon cutting ceremony on Friday, August 20th at 3:00 p.m. to celebrate its grand opening.  Lemon Tree Grocer officially opened for business on August 13, 2010.  Located at 5101 Mochel Drive, the new neighborhood “food emporium” features a full service sandwich and salad bar, fresh, flown-in seafood, one of the last “journeyman” butcher counters, hand-made sushi and a full menu of chef – prepared meals. Lemon Tree also features an extensive artisan cheese selection and a barista serving coffee and espresso. The produce is an assortment of locally grown goods along with exotic, international offerings.

This is what is called in the U.K. “bloody marvelous” press writing.

Talk about punching every hot button. The company creates an event complete with ribbon cutting. (The release didn’t mention the idea of inviting Snookie or any other big shot celeb. Pity it is the only touch that remained untouched.)

Lemon Tree is a great name for a food emporium.

Emporium is a good word, so is “neighborhood.”

Sandwiches are really hot. Sandwich Consumer Report tells us that 96% of polled consumers bought a sandwich in the last week. I can only guess full service sandwiches are extra, extra good.

Salad Bar. There’s nothing like a nice salad to put a little pep in your step.

Seafood. “Flown in.” Flying fish! And Fresh to boot. Fresh is a reassuring word. (I’m always puzzled by customers who ask: “Is the fish fresh?”)

Butcher. Butchers are the new hotties in the food world. Wegman’s, Whole Foods and other food emporia like to display naked meat. Customers leap to the conclusion there is a real, life butcher hovering with cleaver ready and eager to respond to questions. I don’t know about the word “journeyman.” Does this mean he’s wearing a straw hat and a bow tie?

Sushi. Everyone’s favorite food. And hand-made. Wow! No robots here churning out sushi and sashimi by the thousands of pieces. By the way, have you noticed we don’t eat the food of unfriendly nations? We’d never have touched sushi right after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. No caviar from Iran either. The government has banned it.

Chef-prepared meals. A telegenic iron man or woman chef we hope.

The rousing chorus of extensive artisan cheese selection and a barista serving coffee and espresso, locally grown goods along with exotic, international offerings produces such a buzz of literary exultation, we can only imagine excited crowds are already beating a path to The Lemon Tree with open hearts and willing wallets.

This is the way to write a press release for sure.

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There is a food job right in your own neighborhood. It requires no specific qualifications (other than being nice). It requires no investment. You can choose your own hours. Set your own fees. Have no one to report to. You are your own boss. Hmm. What could this be?

Culinary tourism.

Tourism is a huge and rapidly expanding industry and culinary tourism is becoming a niche market that is experiencing impressive growth.

Anyone with a love of food can get started by simply getting to know the neighborhood.

Plan a tour of  a cheesecake factory, an ice cream plant, a ranch or farm and a farmer’s market, two or three ethnic groceries and a specialty food store.

Explore local wineries and plan a wine tasting. Visit a brew pub. Attend a class at a cooking school. Organize a talk with a culinary historian, cookbook author or television star.

Visit an artisanal baker and a cheese maker. Maybe there is a a chocolate maker or a smokehouse nearby? The yellow pages directory can provide you with many more ideas. Think about organizing a fishing trip. Make reservations for breakfast, lunch and dinner at restaurants you know and love.

I’m sure you will have many more ideas.

Here are few rules though:

Never surprise the businesses you plan to visit. Schedule a specific hour well ahead and make every effort to avoid their busiest time. A homemade food gift from you to the destination owner will surely be greatly appreciated.

Have frank conversations with vendors about whether they can expect payment, or if their compensation might be in form of goodies sold to tour participants.

Consider how many tourists you can handle at a time.

Settle all the details regarding the number of clients you can handle, transportation, accommodations and payment for meals. For a two day tour, you may enter into an agreement with a bed & breakfast owner.

Decide how to market the tour.

Give your company an appealing name and one that is easy to remember.  Don’t be cute and inscrutable. Food Lovers Market Tour is a better name than Have Thyme?

Build and constantly update your web site. Tweet and post your information on other social networks.

Join culinary organizations and local clubs where you can network.

Seek advice from others about fees to charge.

Consider hiring a marketing professional as a consultant.

Prospective clients may also be identified by talking to real estate brokers and kitchen designers about recent home buyers. Talk to religious groups about new arrivals to the neighborhood.

A convention and visitors bureau may be willing to distribute your sales materials. So too may beauty parlors and doctors and dentist offices where patients are often left waiting with nothing to do but read old magazines.

Keep a dedicated telephone number for your business.

Determine other marketing venues i.e. wwwShawguides.com, state tourism department.

Good luck. Start planning today.

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