Careers for Freshers

All for a good appetite!

Foodcraft and Culinary Arts is a career with an international flavour that is undergoing rapid growth, and offers dynamic opportunities for entrepreneurs who have a taste for cuisine.

Earlier considered an unconventional career, foodcraft and culinary arts is now being accepted in the field of traditional careers. The profession includes providing in flight meals, to catering for private parties and social events. A thriving profession for those who have the flair for tossing the pans, woks and its likes.

The food and the catering sector form parts of the 'service industry', where you would need to serve customers and, in particular, customers who are at 'leisure'. The catering sector has not been known for its high levels of pay, but today the scenario is fast changing and there are ample opportunities for candidates who want to succeed in this profession.

• Eligibility
A diploma or a degree in Catering and Culinary Sciences t is essential to get a good start in this field. An intensive culinary training is a necessary aspect of this job.

• Job Profile
Perseverance is the prime attitude needed for this career. It is the spirit of learning and experimentation that raises you from the superior to the sublime.
The kitchen hierarchy goes like this:

• Corporate chef or Director of food
This is the highest position in the hierarchy of chefs. Their job involves planning and introducing new and innovative cuisines. They also decide on the menu's that would be offered at different restaurants.

• Executive chefs
An Executive Chefs duties may include, but are not limited to interviewing, hiring, training, scheduling, ordering, purchasing, receiving, testing, menu writing, cost calculation, cost control, quality control, food preparation, calling orders, working the "line" (the actual kitchen part where the a la carte orders are finished and plated, and the servers are picking up the food), attending meetings related to F&B business, creating forecasts, business plans and budgets, inventories, initiate and control product transfers.

• Sous chefs
The sous chefs act as a liaison between the executive chef and the kitchen brigade. It is imperative for sous chefs to possess good interpersonal skills in order to communicate effectively.

• Chef-de-partie'
These chefs are in charge of a part of the kitchen that specialises in a particular cuisine.

• Commis 1, 2, & 3
Their job profile involves the mail cooking process and they act as a link between the kitchen and the customer. Chefs in this post need to possess excellent skills in terms of assessing the exact taste, right proportion of spices that need to be added to the dish, presentation of food that would appeal to the customer and the serving of food.

• Apprentice / Trainee chefs
These are Hotel Management students who have either just passed out of college or undergoing training as a part of their internship.

The Indian Academy of Catering Technology and Culinary Arts located in Hyderabad is the only institution in the country that exclusively trains chefs.

• Job Opportunities
After graduating from a culinary college, candidates have various job opportunities. They can be taken as apprentices at leading five star hotel chains (Many hotels themselves run their own catering schools), with specialty restaurants, fast-food joints, private clubs, airlines catering and cabin services, cruise ships, office catering services, hospitals, institutional and industrial catering, and tourism associations.

Education in the culinary arts is available where fine cooking or 'Haute Cuisine' is highly appreciated. The Cordon Bleu Institute in France offers certification in this premium style of cuisine. Cornell at Ithaca, USA, the institutes at Karlovy Vary and Marianske Lazne in the Czech Republic, The Salzburg and Vienna Schools are among the most coveted in the world for specialist cuisines. The best accolade a cook can receive, worldwide is a 3-star rating by the Michelin Red Guide that secretly researches the skills of cooks across the world and the quality of the international cuisine.

• Attributes and Remuneration
The profession requires a keen interest and knowledge about food, practical abilities, capacity to handle people, loads of stamina and skills to work under pressure are some of the attributes a person requires to enter this field.

The future of foodcraft and catering business is extremely bright, although this profession demands a tremendous amount of hard work, there is adequate compensation in terms of remuneration. The remuneration varies according to experience and designation.

To sum up this profession… you can be dead sure that you will never starve even if you don't make it big!!!!!!

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