When it comes to restaurants, many may think of wait staff, hosts, bus people, bartenders, and restaurant managers in food service employment. But how many people think of teacher jobs, industry food jobs or even mechanics jobs, in relation to food services employment?
Teacher Jobs in Food Services Employment:
There are actually many teaching opportunities in food service employment, besides the home economics teacher you had in high school. Some of the best Chefs come from Culinary School training, and these teachers mix the scientific fundamentals of cooking with creative thinking in their teaching. There are teachers who specialize in Pastry chef instruction. There are teachers who may specialize in French cuisine, for example.
Food service and preparation have some scientific elements, such as certain mixtures of ingredients react at certain temperatures, for example. Teachers instruct students how to use their own creativity to come up with certain outcomes. A pastry chef needs to know the effects of too much flour or too little. A Chef specializing in French or Italian cuisine may need to know different preparations.
Teachers who love food may find themselves drawn to a culinary teaching career and chefs who love teaching may choose the same thing.
Industry Food Service:
Many large companies offer executive dining rooms or employee cafeterias for their workers where they may receive lunch as part of their benefits, or at a reduced cost. These corporate dining facilities often serve food that is above a normal restaurant quality, and can be gourmet status, depending on the facility. The executive dining room in a large corporation may offer 5 star quality meals for busy executives who do not have time to leave the office.
There are industry food jobs, such as those that manufacture frozen food for banquet facilities, frozen meals for weight loss programs, hospitals, schools and TV dinners in the grocery store.
There are also industry food jobs that involve food salespeople who work for suppliers, handle ordering food, produce, and dairy for hotels, restaurants, nursing homes and schools.
Many baseball and football stadiums now offer gourmet food in fine dining clubhouses, or gourmet food stands. There are industry food companies that have subcontracted for the food service of stadiums, auditoriums, and state parks across the country as concessionaires.
Mechanics Jobs in Food Service:
Not many mechanics may think of finding a job in food service, but there is a need for mechanically inclined people to repair all types of food service preparation equipment. Ovens need to be calibrated, freezers need compressors, dishwashers, and disposals of a commercial type have needs a normal appliance repairman cannot take care of.
Chefs do not often have mechanical abilities needed to fix an ice machine, or a fryer that won't heat up. Equipment failures in a kitchen are often an urgent matter that needs to be fixed in a short amount of time, or an important meal, such as a wedding reception, will not be prepared in time to serve. Mechanics in food service equipment are a specialized breed that can work on different brands of equipment, in addition to different types of appliances.
Many of the companies that sell food service equipment will have a staff on hand to assist customers who have bought their product that might need repairs or warranty work. Industrial food production plants may have on-staff mechanics who can keep conveyors and other plant equipment functioning to keep production on schedule.
Food service equipment can have motors, compressors, plumbing, valves, switches, and circuitry that can break or malfunction. A mechanic is needed to keep food service equipment functioning, and this can involve number of technical skills.
In summary:
Because the food service industry is so large, many people do not realize the number and scope of opportunities it offers. It keeps a large amount of people with many different skills busy to keep it functioning on many different levels.
Because it is such a varied occupational field, it can be difficult to know where to start if you have skills that can be applied to the food service industry or a desire to become involved. You may be surprised to find that you already have qualifications that can be put to use in this field, whether you are a teacher or a mechanic.
There are specialized websites that list the positions available in the food service industry, whether it is for an individual restaurant or a large Fortune 500 company. These positions can be varied, and so it makes it easy to find a job in the food service industry on a website that has researched all the career sites, large companies and other sources for these positions.
If you have talents that you think might be of use in the food service industry, the best thing is to check on the Internet to see what opportunities there are, and expand your thinking of the positions that might be needed in the food industry. It's possible the perfect job is just waiting for the skills you have to offer.
