Catering and Hospitality Jobs

The outlook for a career in hospitality jobs has never looked better with the future for openings being excellent. The reason for the openings is most food service workers move on to higher paying jobs. However if you are looking for a good career you can stay in the food service business and make a decent living in these hospitality jobs. There are courses available at community colleges, trade schools and universities to help you further your education. Here are some of the jobs available:Hotel JobsOne of the hotel jobs is room service which can pay very well hourly and with the tips you receive. Food service jobs are one of the hotel jobs that often requires some sort of college training these employees are normally cooks or chefs. In some instances these employees will have to fill in as wait staff in the restaurant in the hotel. Some times the kitchen will stay open for room service orders and may require longer hours for these workers.Catering JobsCatering jobs are a different kind of hotel job. A caterer is normally a higher paying job than your usual hotel worker because the wait staff do not make any tips and if you are a cook you do not cook from a menu. Catering jobs sometimes are on a as needed basis meaning a lot of evenings and weekends. Catering jobs are highly sought after jobs and normally offered to the best workers.Bar JobsBar jobs are for the outgoing enthusiastic individual who is a team player and will provide quality customer service.These jobs earn income thru an hourly wage and tipsand with good traffic coming into the bar can earn 200 to 300 a shift. Attending a school to become a bartender can help in landing these jobs and previous experience also helps.Hotel Management JobsHotel management jobs often require a college degree normally a Bachelor's degree in hotel management. These jobs pay more and is a high status and highly respected job and offers a lot of flexibility as far as the positions offered. This job does have a high rate of turnover and with the job sometimes requiring the person to move in order to keep being considered for promotion. This industry sometimes has a perception of being a very glamorous industry but this stems for lack of knowledge about the industry.Many of these students come straight from college having never worked in this industry before.A job in the hospitality and catering business is growing by on average 11 percent a year since 2006. These jobs offer opportunities for the regular worker as well as the student with lots of flexibility in this field of jobs.

Hospitality and catering roles

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If you are looking for a job in food service, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has some good news for you--the outlook for openings is generally good because many food service workers move on to better and higher paying jobs. However, if you want a good career in the field, you can stay in food service and make a decent living with some education and experience in hospitality industries to back you up. Depending on the division of hospitality you are interested in, there are programs available at the trade school level, community college level, and university level for you. Here are a few of the jobs and programs available to you. Food Prep Workers Most of these jobs require little education or training, and often these employees learn on the job. Supervised by the chefs and cooks, they prepare ingredients, get equipment for line cooks and chefs, and keep work areas sanitary. Many of these positions are in bars, fast food restaurants, and chain restaurants. The pay is generally low, but that is also true of any entry level position. Many food prep workers are still in high school and are either working for college money or preparing to go on to the food service programs in trade schools or community colleges. Jobs for Chefs Chefs must be able to cook well, of course, but are also responsible for some day to day kitchen management. They must be able to direct the prep workers and line cooks, and serve as head cook. In more upscale kitchens, the chef has opportunities to be promoted to sous chef, executive chef, and eventually restaurant management positions if he or she has had the proper education. Generally, a two year program at a community college is expected for chef positions. In addition to restaurant work, jobs for chefs can include specialty grocery jobs, preparation of cookbooks, and even television appearances. Often busy families will employ a trained chef as household cook. Often they can find employment in non-feed service companies, like large corporations that have kitchens. Many have their sights set on promotions and must make sure they have additional training and education to qualify for them. Wait Staff One of the least favorite positions in the food service industry is the wait staff position. Waiters and waitresses (and hostesses) are often the first line of defense in the restaurant, interacting with hungry people who are of ten a little crabby. They must be cordial and friendly, and make sure the service is prompt, the food is prepared as ordered, and that the guests are happy at all stages of the experience. However, good wait staff in restaurants, bars, and other food service positions are rewarded with high tips and management promotions. High ticket restaurant work requires extensive training for wait staff, and skilled professionals can make good pay waiting tables. Although there are no higher education requirements for wait staff, good communication skills, ability to diffuse negative situations, and snap decision making abilities are highly prized. Catering Jobs Catering is a different kind of food service. Wait staff make no tips and cooks do not prepare from a menu, but these are generally higher paying jobs (hourly) than regular restaurant work. Many of the cooks and chefs have had lots of experience in addition to the required education, and wait staff have been trained in high quality service. Catering jobs are sometimes on an as-needed basis, so often a worker will be scheduled irregularly and works evenings and weekends--this is mostly when corporations have their parties, meetings, and seminars. Jobs in catering are often highly-prized, depending on the catering company. Lots of restaurants offer catering nowdays, and will offer the opportunities to the best of their workers. Jobs in Hotels Many of the food service jobs in hotels are similar to restaurants because they often have a restaurant on-site. However, many of these positions will involve room service, where a worker can make better money hourly and in tipping. Most cooking jobs in hotels require some college education and often the cooks and chefs serve as room service wait staff. A wider range of work hours are sometimes required of hotel food service workers if the kitchen stays open late for room service orders. However, the kitchens themselves are often larger and better equipped than the standard restaurant kitchen. The food service in a hotel will generally match the hotel quality, so it's easy to judge where one should apply when seeking food industry jobs in hotels. Management positions in the hotel kitchen often requires a bachelor's degree in hotel and restaurant management, but the pay is higher, status and respect higher, and the choices of positions more flexible. Specialization in Jobs for Chefs and Cooks Chefs and cooks may find that their expertise falls into a category, such as pastries or presentation. These chefs will need creativity, a little extra coursework, and on-the-job training to find positions in their specialty fields. However, they will be rewarded with higher pay and status. Chefs and cooks may also want to share their expertise with others, and many will go back to the community colleges to teach. These positions are highly-coveted among retired chefs and competition is often stiff. One of the more unique positions for chefs is kitchen engineer. These workers attend specialized training at the university level and apply their creativity, mathematical abilities, and extensive knowledge of kitchen operations to lay out these areas and equipment in an efficient manner. Some kitchen engineers work with architects, industrial engineers, etc. The Future for Food Service The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that in 2006 there were 3.1 jobs in food service, and jobs are expected to increase by eleven percent. Because of the flexibility in jobs in hotels, bars, restaurants, and catering, they are ideal for both the traditional worker and the student, and offer plenty of room for advancement for all.
Louise G Author, SEO and Management Consultant wrote this article about jobs. Visit www.mycateringjobs.com for great catering jobs

Chefs back local farmers

Traditional national dishes such as toad in the hole and bangers and mash made from British-reared pork are under threat as the pig industry faces financial collapse, three celebrity chefs warn today.Gordon Ramsay, Tom Aikens and Rick Stein are backing a drive to persuade consumers to buy British sausages, bacon and ham rather than cheaper European imports now flooding the supermarket shelves.A national petition is to be launched to support British pig farmers, who are facing financial meltdown as a result of rising feed prices and competition from countries such as Denmark and Holland, where animal welfare standards are lower. The Save Our Bacon campaign is being launched by Waitrose Food Illustrated magazine, and other retailers as well as consumers are being urged to support it. Restaurateurs Sir Terence Conran and Fergus Henderson are supporting the campaign.Waitrose is using a sausage-free toad in the hole - "toad on the dole" - to highlight the average loss of £26 which pig farmers incur on every animal they sell. For the consumer, this means that everyday favourites such as bangers and mash or bacon butties could end up becoming an occasional luxury, the campaign says.Without a rise in the price they get for their pigs, many farmers will be forced to stop production, it warns. A survey by the National Pig Association showed that 95% of farmers are considering stopping production if prices do not improve. This would lead to a shortage of pig meat in the long term.

Chefs Christmas

He may be master of the kitchen as a prolific TV chef, but how does Antony Worrall Thompson cope with Christmas lunch at home? He shares his secrets for success with Women's Editor Sarah FosterIT'S clear that Antony Worrall Thompson is very much a Christmas person. Unlike the Ebenezer Scrooges who eschew the festive season he takes pleasure in its magic and the bonhomie it brings. He feels the nicest thing about it is the chance to be with family."It's the best thing," enthuses Worrall Thompson, who's 56. "That's what Christmas is all about. I don't know what we'll do when the kids leave home.It's all about giving and seeing their little faces light up."Home for the Worrall Thompson clan is Henleyon- Thames, in scenic Oxfordshire. The chef is married to Irishwoman, Jay, and has a son called Toby- Jack, his eldest at 12, and ten-year-old daughter Billie-Lara. So do they still believe in Santa or are they now much too grown-up? "Billie does but Toby doesn't," says Worrall Thompson. "We have a saying in the house if you don't believe, you don't receive'."While family Christmases do vary, they're either spent in Henley-on-Thames or with Jay's relatives in Ireland. This year the Worrall Thompsons are hosting - which means they're cooking for 18."There's quite a mob of them," says Worrall Thompson wryly. "The Irish have great hospitality so you've got to reciprocate."AS Jay is also a trained chef she and her husband share the cooking. They may be confident in the kitchen but won't 18 test even them? "It's water off a duck's back really," says Worrall Thompson. "The main thing about Christmas is being organised. We've got two pubs which do Christmas lunches so we'll pop in there at some point."With that number you have to really go for turkey. I love goose, but it's really only good for six people. Turkey has a shocking reputation but that's just the way people cook it."In terms of what they will be eating the Worrall Thompsons are quite traditional. The TV chef says careful planning is of paramount importance. "The key is to be organised really," says Worrall Thompson."I would say to write a list, and it's always very satisfying when you can tick things off. We try to prepare some things ahead - bread sauce, brandy butter and things like that. I always say use the microwave a lot - not many chefs say that - and prepare as much as you can the day before."I make a puree, usually with parsnip and carrot or something like that, which can be made and heated up again in the microwave."FOR many cooks on Christmas Day a major problem is logistics - just how to utilise the kitchen so things are ready at the same time.What Worrall Thompson tends to do is use the oven on rotation. "I part-roast my potatoes for 40 minutes and the same with the roast veg," he says. "I put the veg in the oven while the turkey is resting.A lot of people don't have many ovens - I've got lots.It's down to planning and being organised."One thing he's not afraid to do is allocate jobs to other people. He says the children love to help and so he gives them their own chores. "Get the kids to lay the table the night before then set them some task," advises Worrall Thompson. "I get my kids to do the stuffing and that sort of thing. They're pretty good. They like to feel part of it. I think it's all part of the family spirit."A Christmas lunch would typically start with the traditional smoked salmon, with Worrall Thompson using this to make his crab and salmon parcels.He says that starters should be light so there is room for the roast dinner, but when it comes to the dessert he tends to stick with Christmas pudding."The family like it a lot," he explains. "I always find it a bit too rich. We have lunch at about five so we might have the Christmas pudding quite late."Yet even keeping with tradition you can have interesting side dishes and here, perhaps, is where the cook might do a little showing off. For Worrall Thompson it's tarte tatin that's made with delicate shallots or just a simple, baked terrine that adds a twist to Christmas lunch."You get a loaf tin or a terrine mould and line it with puff pastry, then pre-cook some risotto and spread a layer of that on the pastry, and then spread some veg," he says. "On each layer of veg you put a layer of cheese and basil leaves, then build up different layers and give it a nice colour, wrap the pastry over the top and bake it in the oven for 25 minutes, something like that, and cut it into slices."No doubt his guests will be replete with all the food that he has planned but if their waistlines do expand - and he himself gains extra pounds - you get the feeling that Worrall Thompson won't be inordinately upset. It seems he really does love Christmas and is determined to enjoy it. "I really like Christmas," he reflects. "I think it's a nice time of year."

Chefs Wage

Not long ago, my renewed attempt to make a living on a freelance basis took me worryingly into debt and to the brink of disaster. I had to get a regular job - any job - immediately. After an “interview” that lasted 10 seconds, I found myself in the bowels of the Albert Hall in central London, about to start my first shift as a barman earning £5.60 per hour: 8p above the minimum wage. I knew it was a miserable amount. What I did not know was that I had just begun a crash course in the poverty and exploitation of those trapped at the bottom of Britain’s pile. In the small, neon-lit changing room lined with dilapidated metal lockers and full of staff putting on their regulation black, I was the only white British male. Two tiny Chinese girls were huddled together in a corner, whispering. My supervisor, a 30-year-old West Indian with elaborately shaved sideburns, assigned me to the quietest of the bars in the concert hall. Related LinksGo on, bunk off Christmas The year that changed my life The gospel truth about China’s Christian millions It may not be the most highly skilled job, but there’s a knack to being a barman. You have to be well organised and fast on your feet. One of my coworkers, Pavel, is a 25-year-old Pole who lives far out in the suburbs, where he shares a room with his former girlfriend. “I don’t go to pub, to cinema, to shops,” he tells me. “I work, work, work, all day, all night. I’m strong Polish man.” There are Brazilians, Mexicans, Filipinos. They come from everywhere, it seems, except Britain. Though they work nonstop, they are all desperately poor. Amala, 40, from Mozambique, doesn’t travel on the Underground. She simply cannot afford it. The bus is cheaper. Her conversation consists of a series of sighs and laments, and my heart bleeds for this lost figure who lives alone in a bedsit on the fringes of London. Pavel has youth and energy. What does the future hold for Amala? In the meantime, our employer - Leith’s Catering, part of the Compass Group, is laughing. The Albert Hall has outsourced the running of its bars to Leith’s, which employs a skeleton staff of supervisors and relies on a pool of dispensable casual workers. We might be asked to work just four hours in a day, or 12, or even 16. You never know - everything is always at the last minute. Any idea that Leith’s might care one jot for us was rapidly dispelled. Soon after I started, one of the supervisors called my mobile as I was on my way to work. This, he informed me, was a “courtesy call” to say I needn’t come in; they were covered for the day. It was useless to point out that they had booked me, that I was halfway there. Only when my first weekly pay cheque arrived, emblazoned with the company motto “Great people, great service, great results”, was I obliged to face the awful truth. After deductions for tax and National Insurance, I received £168 for 42 hours’ work - or a net hourly wage of exactly £4 (there is no overtime for evening or weekend work). Let’s do some simple calculations. For a four-hour shift I clear £16, minus £4 for the Tube. That’s £12 in my pocket. Include the time spent travelling to and from work and you’re looking at £12 posttax for almost seven hours, or £1.70 per hour. Basically, I’m working for free. If I get back home late after 13 hours’ work, then I clear £48. That’s about £675 net per month. There is no way you can function as a normal independent adult on this. Very rapidly, therefore, you become obsessed with money. I am sitting in a pub, having a pint of bitter. Cost: £3. That’s almost one hour’s work, so I shouldn’t be here. The food smells tantalisingly good, too, but of course it is out of the question to order any. Then a couple walk out, leaving a steak sandwich almost untouched. That’s £10 of food about to be thrown away. Two-and-a-half hours’ work. I’d love to grab it. But of course I can’t. Even worse, I’m thinking like a tramp. And the same with everything else. A £2 cup of coffee is now a foolish extravagance; the cheapest £10 haircut is an issue; the new pair of glasses that I need are suddenly the stuff of dreams; and socialising - involving, as it does, the expenditure of money - is impossible, unless friends pay. As for Christmas consumption, the thought simply does not occur. There are no two ways about it. This is akin to slavery. But at least the slave drivers of old had to house, feed and clothe their slaves. I can feel myself becoming more scruffy by the day. Never in my life have I felt less like an alpha male, never less appetising as a prospect for any woman. I have given up the five-mile daily runs that used to keep me in shape. My love life is nonexistent. And it is the same everywhere. The willing Poles who serve you in cafes, the countless others - mainly foreigners - who work in laundries and nursing homes and do the mundane jobs that keep our economy going. For all these, the standard pay is the minimum wage. With surprising speed a vast underclass has come into being that lives a shadowy existence in a twilight world; invisible and yet in our very midst. There is no chance of a bonus, or of pulling off a nice deal. There are no freebies, no lazy days. It’s just £4 or £5 net per hour, relentlessly. So they work 60 hours a week and try not to think too much. This affects us all; it’s just that the invisible workers are the first to suffer. With the bottom of the job market swamped with cut-price labour, with unemployment at 1.6m, and competition for the better roles becoming more fierce, countless jobs that used to pay a living wage no longer do. When the middle classes see that poverty is working its way up the social scale, that the prosperity they enjoy is an illusion financed by debt they can’t afford, then the public mood may be far from festive.

Why study catering

If you are thinking about a career in culinary arts then studying in a culinary school is a must. You may be a great cook but you will never become expert learning culinary arts yourself. Farther taking up a job as a chef in a good restaurant demands a professional qualification, which comes only after attending a regular culinary school.There are many myth surrounding culinary arts. For example people say culinary is an art and art cannot be taught. This is not true. First culinary is not just an art, its science too. You must know about the ingredients you are using while cooking. You should also have through knowledge of the contents of the ingredients or additives you use to cook food. It helps you to be an informed chef.Another myth is that culinary education is very costly. You see, any education is costly. Culinary is not an exception. But if you compare, a Bachelor of Engineering Degree is much more costly then a diploma/degree in culinary.One of the worst myths is that chefs live a great life - full of glamor and no work. This is not at all true. Most of a chef’s time is spent in kitchen with hot oils and burning temperatures.If you love to cook - culinary school should be your destination. It is never too early for you to think about the opportunities that will come along after culinary training. America need good chef - you can be one of them.Chef, caterer, pastry chef and restaurant cook are merely the most familiar four options, but there are hundreds of jobs in the food industry. You may want to consider preparing for positions in management as executive chef, or in sales as catering director or in administration in food and beverage management. Maybe you’ll want to explore developing specialty products - a line of sauces or dressings, for example - for retail or wholesale markets. Maybe you’ll want to become a restaurant consultant to entrepreneurs who want to start restaurants. There are also teaching opportunities in professional cooking schools. Still another option is food writing and editing for magazines and books devoted to food and cooking. The options are endless.For any of these career directions, you’ll find the best preparation in an accredited school program - you’ll come out with a certificate or a degree. This training will provide you with a lifelong basis for understanding quality raw ingredients, creating balance and pleasure in combined flavors and presenting a beautiful plate to the diner. Yes, you keep learning on the job, but culinary school gives you a base of knowledge to test and compare to new trends, new ingredients and your own creativity.

Taking Chefs Jobs Outside Your Area

There are times when you simply won’t be able to find the chefs jobs you desire within the area where you live. You may be required to take a job in another city or even country, just to get the position you want. Often, it is possible to find a lower position in your own area, but if you want to advance in chefs jobs, it may be necessary to consider elsewhere.It is relatively easy to find jobs that you can apply for in another town, without having to travel all over the place. You can simply look for jobs online. Most chefs jobs websites allow you to browse all available jobs, so you can just look until you find one that interests you and that you are qualified for. You can also put your CV online for potential employers to take a look at.Apply for the job online or by phone and you save travel expenses. The only time you may be required to travel is when you have to go for an interview, but often employers are willing to do the first interview over the phone. A second interview may be done in person, but depending on the position and the employer, you may be able to meet halfway between the job and your current city. Another option is to schedule several face to face interviews in the same area for the same day, so you won’t have to make multiple trips.Should you consider taking chefs jobs outside your area, you also need to consider the fact that you will have to relocate. If you are simply renting a flat, that shouldn’t be terribly difficult. It will mainly consist of giving notice and finding a new place in the city where you will be working. Ask if relocation costs are covered by your new employer. This is not that likely for lower positions, but if you are a good chef with higher qualifications, many times you can negotiate a deal to help you move. Even if you are not in the position to ask for moving expenses, you should consider asking for help with finding a new flat to rent while there. A kind employer should be able to point you to available places.You really open up your possibilities by searching online chefs jobs in cities other than your own. There may be higher pay and fewer hours required in chefs jobs that are on the other side of the country. It is an option well worth looking into.