Rita Lorraine Hubbard - Getting a Job in the Food Industry

S o you want to work in the food industry. You ve decided that college isnt for youat least not right nowand you want to explore your job options. Congratulations: youve just made the first of many important decisions that will come your way as an adult.

But what is the food industry, anyway? Is it just bussing tables and stocking shelves, or is there more to it?

To answer your question, the food industry is a large group of companies, organizations, institutions, and individuals that grow, harvest, process, ship, market, and/or cook food. They eat it, too, but thats another story. Food industry jobs range from selling hot dogs from a food cart on a busy street corner to preparing gourmet meals on an ocean cruise ship. But before we explore the jobs, lets look at the experience of one teenager working in the food industry.

Markeyda was sixteen when she landed a minimum wage summer job as a cashier and prep cook at Churchs Chicken. She had zero experience, but she was a hard worker with a good attitude and a flexible schedule, and thats exactly what the employer was looking for. Each morning, she set her alarm clock to ring well before 6 AM so she could get to the restaurant before 7 AM. It was extremely important for her not to be late because her job included counting out a certain number of chicken legs, breasts, wings, and thighs and placing them on long cooking trays to refrigerate until the fry cook was ready for them. If Markeyda was late, the chicken pieces wouldnt be ready, and if the chicken pieces werent ready, the fry cook would be thrown off schedule. If the fry cook was thrown off schedule, the entire restaurant would also be thrown off schedule and unprepared when the rush-hour crowd arrived.

Food service jobs like this one are demanding by nature. This waitress has been on her feet for hours but still sees that each customer's food arrives at the table hot and on time.

Markeydas job also included mixing biscuit batter and scooping out two hundred biscuits each batch, then refrigerating them until it was time to bake them. She also dropped fries and corn and scooped mashed potatoes and other sides into family-sized or single-sized cups. These were placed in the food warmer for later.

Her job involved lots of standing, mentally and physically calculating payments, and dealing with unsatisfied customers. Her advice to other teens is, Be prepared to use your mind. Know how to add and subtract without the cash register. Learn the menu and prices so you can work faster and more efficiently, because when you have to hunt for prices, you slow the process down.

N ow that you have an idea of what a typical day in the food industry is like, its time to take a closer look at the wide range of jobs in the industry. Remember, food covers lots of industries, but weve narrowed it into three distinct fields for you here.

Restaurants, hotels, caterers, and fast-food restaurants are always in need of cooks, bakers, food handlers/prep cooks, servers, and hosts/hostesses.

Cooks and Bakers

Cooks are usually responsible for seasoning and preparing dishes like soups, gravies, and vegetables. If you decide to become a cook, you will have several positions to choose from. As an entry-level prep cook, you would probably arrive long before the other restaurant workers and stay to clean up long after they are gone. Even though the word cook would be a part of your title, you would probably do little or no actual cooking; rather, your job would be to chop or peel certain foods, measure seasonings, and prepare the cooking area for the head cooks use.You might also wash dishes, take out the trash, store unused food or ingredients for later use, and operate special kitchen appliances to grind, chop, and/or mix ingredients. This type of kitchen experience provides excellent on-the-job training (OJT) and is a great way to work your way up to becoming an actual cook.

Restaurant kitchens are usually fast paced and intense. As second in command to the executive chef, this sous chef is working hard to serve a dish that is both delicious and pleasing to the eye.

If you are hired as a short-order cook, you will learn to prepare quick and easy dishes that take a short amount of time to cook and serve. These dishes might include chili dogs, cheeseburgers, cheese toast, or pizzas; in short, any dishes that can usually be prepared quickly on a hot grill. This is the reason short-order cooks are sometimes called grill cooks.

If you become a line cook, you might cook specialty foods like burgers or omelets, but you would not be responsible for overseeing the entire kitchen. You would work under a head chef or head cook, and your responsibility would be whatever dish or whatever area of the kitchen he or she designates. For example, your area might be the grill only, or you might be solely responsible for making cold sandwiches or dishing up the salads. You would probably work alone in your area of the kitchen, but it is not unheard of for line cooks to supervise other kitchen assistants.