It would seem obvious that opportunities exist for food studies scholars in the professional field of cooking and serving food, but these opportunities are relatively recent developments. This chapter considers three predominant career and practical opportunity areas for food studies scholars in culinary arts and foodservice management.
For years, the foodservice and culinary industries merged art and craft, but it was not until recent times that academic studies began to align with the world of foodservice and culinary management. To be sure, nutrition departments had been studying foodservice for most of the twentieth century, as had its later spinoffs in hospitality management programs and hotel schools in the US (hotel schools were long established in Europe). But, to generalize, rarely was the lens reversed—cooks simply were not trained in the academic study of food; it was the rare tradesman who had access to higher education. Cooking was a trade whereas gastronomes and food scholars were not cooks by profession, though many no doubt knew their way around a kitchen. Even erudite “chefs’ chefs” like Antonin Careme, Auguste Escoffier, and Fernand Point, leaders in the cooking trade, came up through apprenticeships rather than formal education in the study of food.
For a long time, people who entered the culinary industry, especially in the West, did so because it was a family tradition, because they (or their families) needed the financial security that an apprenticeship could offer, or because it was an industry that allowed for success with minimal formal education. The culinary industry was (and to a large extent remains) an environment filled with drugs, alcohol, and a schedule alternate to that of many formally educated workers. “My cooks, for one: every one of them came from the Fortune Society, guys who spent their off-hours in halfway houses, allowed out only to work.” (Bourdain, 2000: 146). “If the restaurant industry was likened to a class hierarchy, we could think of the back of the house as the working, the front of the house as the middle, and the owners as upper strata” (Sen and Mamdouh, 2008: 122). Culinary skills, techniques, and knowledge were learned within the confines of the kitchen.
Many chefs learned their craft on the job, and not in a college. They worked with craftsmen (and they were mostly men) who took them under their wings and taught them what they knew. Once they had learned all there was to learn there, they would go to another place to learn more or to take over a kitchen. Thomas Keller, one of the best chefs in the United States, began his career in a restaurant managed by his mother and continued his education in Europe where he worked at numerous well-known restaurants (Thomas Keller Restaurant Group, 2007). Joe Bastianich, restauranteur, winemaker, and now celebrity, did the same, after leaving behind a formal education (Bastianich, 2011). Today, culinary and food education are more popular, and more academic institutions have begun to offer degrees within food preparation, food science, and more recently food studies.
The cooking trade stood in sharp contrast to academe, which focused more on nourishing the mind. When food was discussed it was often in the form of agriculture studies, nutrition or food science. The food studies field has managed to convene academics with culinarians and restaurateurs and join forces to allow academics to study food and chefs and restaurant managers to study food with academic lenses.
With the professionalization of the foodservice and culinary field, the ongoing formalizing of Western culinary education, and the media attention and celebrity status brought upon chefs over the last few decades, opportunities exist for food scholars to work with aspiring and established chefs and foodservice operations.
Formal culinary education (differentiating from schools of home economics and culinary apprenticeship programs) in the US began with the inception of the Culinary Institute of America, which opened in 1946 in New Haven, CT, poised to take advantage of returning Second World War veterans using their GI bill tuition. Two women, Frances Roth and Katharine Angell, decided that to make great cooks, a great training program was needed and the school was meant to graduate the best cooks. In the 1970s they moved to Hyde Park, NY, to build a better-suited school on the former campus of a Jesuit novitate (Culinary Institute of America, 2011). Meanwhile, the 1950s saw an emergence of interest in food technology in the United States. Colleges such as Rutgers (Rutgers, 2007), UC Davis (UC Davis, 2011) and many others were founded or expanded within this time, with research done on the chemistry of food. Food technology, culinary arts, and hospitality management became more standard offerings, closely aligned with the food industry. All of these related to the preparation, service, and processing of foods.
In the early 1990s, the emergence Food Network served to glamorize the foodservice and culinary industries. Emeril Lagasse, Giada de Laurentis, Rachael Ray and others made professional cooking look like a fun profession. As chefs and restaurateurs became more glamorized by TV, customers began to expect to see the chef at the restaurant, maybe even meet them. The customer expectations grew and food became more of a subject of interest through over 60 shows and many bestselling cookbooks that followed (Mitchell, 2010). This spotlight on the profession of the chef further demanded that chefs be well-versed not only in cooking skills but the general picture of food and the food system and be comfortable articulating an informed opinion. The study and practice of food became more acceptable, and cooking more approachable. Since its creation, the Food Network has continued to grow in viewership (there is now a separate cooking channel), as has the study of food and the number of culinary arts and food studies programs in the United States and around the world (Mitchell, 2010).
Education and food have merged in the practical sense with the opening of more culinary programs both in the public and the private sectors of education. Allculinaryschools.com lists close to 40 different private colleges (typically for-profit institutions) that offer culinary diplomas, certificates, associates and bachelors degrees. In addition, more community colleges such as Kingsborough Community College, Miami Dade College, Oakland Community College, and many more are in the limelight to offer affordable, high-quality education within the culinary, hospitality, and nutrition fields. According to the US Department of Education, there are 378 colleges offering culinary arts programs within the United States and Puerto Rico and 334 colleges offering hospitality programs, many of which include a cooking component, and of course prepare students for a career in foodservice (US Department of Education). These include private, public, and those offering all kinds of degrees and offering financial aid (US Department of Education). In addition to what are now known as traditional culinary degrees, offering culinary skills, cooking techniques, and all the necessary preparation required to enter a career as a line cook en route to become a chef, culinary and foodservice have merged with traditional science, journalism, writing, and other fields to focus on practical applications of the field, or use food to help study the field itself.
Science and food join forces to popularize molecular gastronomy. Hervé This, Ferran Adrià, and many more chefs and scientists have been studying the physical and chemical changes of food. With this understanding, they have been able to modify food and speed up the chemical processes. This has become such a central part of modern cuisine that many chefs are now more interested in the study of food, in order to help them achieve these techniques. On the other hand, scientists use food as a medium of study at Harvard University, where Chef Ferran Adrià has now become a guest faculty member at seminars in chemistry and physics, which have been a part of a series titled “Science and Cooking: A Dialogue” (Andrews, 2010).
Culinary and foodservice careers are no longer just about cooking and running hotels and restaurants. Moving up the ladder in a kitchen—and, increasingly, onto the television screen and newspaper pages—requires more than culinary technique. Due to the myriad opportunities a culinarian or hospitality professional can take, preparation beyond the technical became imperative to be able to compete within the field. The foodservice industry is shaped like a pyramid, where the people within higher positions are very few and the skilled workers at the bottom abound. To better prepare those chefs and entrepreneurs, the curriculum of these colleges is generally well rounded and will include courses in business, culinary arts, and gastronomy.
Culinary colleges include history and culture lessons within their cooking curriculum. The structure of the French-style professional kitchen, also known as the brigade system, is best understood through the culinary history that helped build the modern culinary world. In addition, the use and selection of ingredients and the ability to understand culinary cultures is impacted by the exchange of ingredients throughout history. Due to Department of Education requirements, accreditation requirements, as well as interest in providing a better-rounded education for the students, culinary colleges include general education courses within other liberal arts areas.
A food studies degree becomes valuable within culinary education because it becomes the link between the logical and the practical. Students within culinary colleges will need to be exposed to great chefs, who in turn will teach them how to successfully prepare dishes and hone their techniques. However, they will also need to learn the theoretical areas of the field. Teaching general education courses within culinary colleges is the perfect fit for candidates with a food studies degree, since it introduces the discipline through a food frame.
Colleges are in need of food studies experts, since when the programs are being developed, it is important to understand the practical needs of a graduate as well as the theoretical knowledge that will complement it. The curriculum should be developed in a manner that will incorporate both aspects: Practical and theoretical. Food studies has been a field that has elevated food education to an intellectual level, which allows for people with this background to have an education appropriate to consult for curriculum development in colleges, among other aspects.
Of special appeal are jobs in food studies for candidates who possess both a practical and theoretical understanding of food, to build credibility among students. This type of “scholar in whites” can model for students the value for cooks of having a well-rounded perspective. Relevant coursework common to culinary programs includes culinary math, food history, food and culture, international cuisine, cultural foods, food policy, and food product identification and selection.
Beth Forrest, a graduate of Boston University’s history department, has dedicated her research to food. As a food historian, she has joined the ranks of food education, first at Boston University, where she taught a research methodologies course for the Food Studies Program. Understanding the impact of food history and gastronomy in the lives of culinarians, she has since begun teaching gastronomy at the renowned Culinary Institute of America. Her experience working in restaurants throughout her life allows her to demonstrate that combination of the practical and theoretical within the foodservice and food studies field.
Large food companies rely on food scientists and engineers to create new products, but it is the marketing people who sell the product to the world of consumers. Gastronomy can include more than just a liberal arts perspective to food. Within the area of the business of food, as well as a sociological and anthropological approach of the study of people and their consumer behaviors, we are able to study trends and behavioral patterns.
Kara Nielsen, a graduate of the Boston University Gastronomy Program, has taken this direction and joined her degree in gastronomy with her prior culinary and management experience to the Center for Culinary Development, where she is a trendologist. The center develops products within the foodservice industry and relies on Nielsen’s experience to discover the trends within the areas and study the community’s consumer behaviors. What do people want to eat? What are they buying? What products are needed within the market to satisfy these needs? What will consumers want next? And years from now? These are some of the questions they seek to answer.
Most large food companies continue to innovate products to compete with other companies and maintain consumer loyalty. Food studies professionals who understand business, consumer behavior, and food, can be the perfect candidates for such a company. Understanding what people want to eat, and how to make a product with a competitive advantage over those already in the market that may be comparable, is important for the survival of a food company wanting to keep up in the highly competitive consumer packaged goods and foodservice markets.
Food corporations with research and development departments rely on people with research skills for market research, sensory and consumer analysis, and trend reports, to name a few. In addition, foodservice operations experience an ongoing struggle to stay in front of consumer needs—creating culturally relevant menus, communicating sustainability philosophies, introducing cultural foods to a new market, and projecting future trends and demands are all opportunities for the food scholar working with industry.
Improving upon a business sometimes is done best from the outside. Business consultants exist within every field, including foodservice. In order to consult for a business, a person must be equipped with practical and theoretical knowledge. Within foodservice, there are numerous areas of consulting: Restaurants, food companies, and universities are a few.
Consulting for restaurants can include creating a concept (menu, décor, service style, theme), writing a business plan, finding investors, and doing market research. All of these would require knowledge easily acquired within a food studies program. Food studies graduates who have taken a business approach or have industry experience can consult on the financial health of a company and how to improve it. This can be both a for-profit or non-profit food production or foodservice operation. Having a higher education and understanding social aspects of food make great grant writers, food journalists, and promoters.
Market research is one of the most important components of a business plan, financial success for a company, and its competitive advantage. Food companies compete with one another, oftentimes with the same type of product. Understanding what the competing companies are offering, about their products, and the demographic they promote to and target, will allow for new product development, better marketing, and sales.
Plenty of food magazines, television shows, blogs, and other media require people who have an understanding of food, research methodologies, and writing skills. Publications such as America’s Test Kitchen and Cook’s Country are research-driven from both the theoretical and practical perspectives. The test kitchen develops recipes through trial and error, while the editorial department thoroughly looks to find out the theoretical behind the practice, and explain it in layman’s terms that will appeal to the regular home cook.
In addition, a number of trade magazines for the culinary and foodservice industry seek to make industry research accessible, inform readers of new trends and developments, showcase innovative practices, and provide advice. Food scholars, especially those with practical experience, often write for these publications. Restaurant Business, Nation’s Restaurant News, and the American Culinary Federation’s The National Culinary Review are just a few of the many publications within the trade.
The food sections in newspapers are a good entry into the world of food writing for students interested in food journalism. These serve as a platform to build a portfolio that can be expanded into feature writing within national magazines such as Food and Wine and Saveur and other consumer publications. Often these publications demand both the practical (recipe or instructional article) and the theoretical (history, culture, or folklore of the food), so work in this field is well suited to a food studies scholar with practical training.
Research among food scholars in culinary arts and foodservice management is very much applied research, often serving industry or an organization. Examples of published research include program evaluations, studies of a practice used in the profession, or analysis of a program in culinary, foodservice, or hospitality education. Of course much of the research in culinary arts and foodservice is intended for market understanding and is not intended for publication. A wide range of qualitative and quantitative methodologies are drawn upon, with a prevailing guideline of using the methods that have the potential to best answer the research question.
An example of relevant research illustrating each of these areas follows:
Program evaluation: Raizman, Debra J.; Montgomery, Deanna H.; Osganian, Stavroula K.; Ebzery, Mary Kay; et al. “CATCH: Food service program process evaluation in a multicenter trial.” Health Education Quarterly Vol. Suppl. 2, 1994, S51-S71.
Excerpt from Abstract: “Describes the process evaluation system for Eat Smart, a component of the Child and Adolescent Trial in Cardiovascular Health (CATCH), which focuses on menu planning, food purchasing, food preparation, and program promotion within schools. Eat Smart aims to decrease total fat, saturated fatty acids, and sodium in school meals. The Eat Smart process evaluation assesses the intervention, contextual factors, and external and competing programs that may affect implementation and influence study outcomes.”
A practice in the profession: Lisa Sheehan-Smith, “Key Facilitators and Best Practices of Hotel-Style Room Service in Hospitals.” Journal of the American Dietetic Association Vol. 106, Issue 4, April 2006: 581–86.
“This qualitative study sought to identify the features, advantages, and disadvantages of hotel-style room service; the barriers to, and facilitators for, implementing the process; and ‘best practices.’ The study took place in four heterogeneous hospitals. Participants included hospital administrators, managers, and room-service employees. Data-collection methods included semi-structured interviews, observations, and document analysis.”
A program in hospitality education: Alison Morrison and G. Barry O’Mahony “The liberation of hospitality management education.” International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 15 Iss.: 1 (2003): 38–44.
“Hospitality management higher education’s historic origins have resulted in a strong vocational ethos permeating the curriculum. Knowledge about hospitality has been drawn from the industry and the world of work rather than from the many disciplines or other fields of enquiry, which can help to explain it. By the late 1990s there was a strengthening international movement, driven by higher education hospitality academics towards the liberation of hospitality management higher education from its vocational base and to explore the inclusion in the curriculum of a broader and more reflective orientation. This paper investigates the historical evolution of hospitality management education, concepts associated with liberal education, and provides an illustrative case study that evaluates how a more liberal base was introduced into the curriculum at two universities located in Australia and Scotland respectively.”
In all three of these “baskets” of research traditional research methods are enhanced by a researcher’s understanding of the practical considerations of foodservice management and culinary arts or hospitality education and applied to practice, including for-profit, non-profit, and education. Venues for presenting and publishing work in this area include the meetings of the Association for the Study of Food and Society (ASFS) and Agriculture, Food and Human Values Society (AFHVS), the International Council of Hotel and Restaurant Industry Educators (ICHRIE), Foodservice Educators Learning Community (FELC), and the International Food-service Executives Association (IFSEA). Relevant journals include the Journal of Foodservice; Food, Culture and Society; Agriculture, Food and Human Values; Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Education; Ecology of Food and Nutrition; and Cornell Hotel Administration Quarterly.
In addition to the types of research delineated above, the coming years will bring many more opportunities for food scholars in culinary arts and food management. Examples include:
A food scholar looking to have impact in the culinary and foodservice world is best served by having both practical and food studies education. Practical culinary training coupled with industry experience gives a candidate a strong footing to be a credible trusted source when working with industry. In addition, graduate study in any discipline with a focus on food or in an interdisciplinary food studies or gastronomy program can provide the research and writing skills and food studies and food systems knowledge needed for success in this field.
Both food studies and culinary programs often make available scholarships for study. These scholarships are often funded by individual hospitality or foodservice companies (such as Hilton or Aramark), or industry associations (such as the National Restaurant Association Education Foundation or Les Dames d’Escoffier). Often, universities will also offer assistantships for the students within these departments to work in their administrative offices or teach, in exchange for tuition reimbursement. Some departments offer limited funding for students and sponsor their graduate education as well.
Many trade associations host conferences where graduate students can compete by submitting their papers. Oftentimes these competitions will offer a cash prize to the students who place within the competition. Many departments will fund the student’s registration fee and travel expenses to these conferences, offering scholarships for their advancement within the field. These conferences are also a great networking tool for students trying to integrate their practical background into the theoretical realm of food studies. Membership within an association such as the American Culinary Federation and participation in their events, competitions, and expositions, will allow for the honing of practical skills and the building up of a network of skilled workers. In addition, medaling at their competitions will usually include cash prizes and scholarship opportunities, depending on the type of membership held.
Trade associations are a great source of educational resources and networking opportunities. Some associations focus on the practical needs of the industry. The National Restaurant Association gathers information needed for restaurant business owners to run a successful operation. They publish educational resources that provide training materials for the most important certifications and applications of the foodservice industry.
The American Culinary Federation is divided in regional chapters where chefs, cooks, and culinary students can get to know each other and use each other as resources. They promote furthering education through their certification programs, which range from certified culinarians through Certified Master Chefs and Certified Master Pastry Chefs. Those certifications require practical examinations as well as theoretical courses and tests that will mark the levels of accomplishment of chefs moving up the ranks. In addition, they have the CCE (Certified Culinary Educator), which requires the educator to film a class in which they are performing specific culinary skills in front of a class of students. Based on the video coupled with a written evaluation, the chef will achieve that level of certification (American Culinary Federation).
The above mentioned are just two of the many associations within the culinary and foodservice field from a practical perspective. Others include the Bread Bakers Guild, the Hotel Lodging Association, Research Chefs of America, International Association of Culinary Professionals, among many more. All of these require membership.
Many academic disciplines also have their own trade associations. However, for more academic participation, some of the interdisciplinary organizations become a more obvious choice for foodservice professionals. Membership in associations such as the Association for the Study of Food and Society (ASFS) and the Association for the Study of Food and Human Values Society (AFHVS) allow practical and theoretical approaches to be intertwined. The members of these associations are widespread in their experience and expertise and their joint conference invites a wide variety of subjects and lenses of the study of food and agriculture.
Each of the before-mentioned associations have their unique publication that allows for readership and contribution from their members. The culinary associations generally have a less academic approach to their journals, with more of a newspaper/newsletter style to their publication. These publications are weekly or monthly, allowing for frequent updates on the happenings within the industry. The interdisciplinary and academic associations, however, publish quarterly journals, which are more academic in style. Portions of papers and reviews of academic books are featured within them, making the readership smaller than the ones previously mentioned.
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