With approximately 13.1 million people employed at 945,000 restaurants and food service outlets, it's the country's second-largest employer outside of government—a "cornerstone of our nation's economy," according to the National Restaurant Association.
"The best news about the industry," writes Barbara Sims-Bell, author of Career Opportunities in the Food and Beverage Industry, "is that culinary jobs are among the fastest-growing in the United States."
In fact, the industry is expected to add two million more jobs over the next decade. And it's not simply line cooks, bakers, and sous chefs. Sims-Bell's book cites occupations such as kitchen designer, recipe tester, and specialty-food purveyor as surprisingly viable career paths.
"There are so many possibilities today," Tim Ryan, president of the Culinary Institute of America, tells CNN. "Catering, sales, manufacturing—we even have graduates who have launched clothing companies (or) become food scientists."
The food world has become increasingly popular as a second career. A recent CNN story cites thousands of people "who have left their cubicles for culinary school."
The profession's newfound popularity is no doubt due in part to the success and visibility of celebrity chefs like Giada De Laurentiis and Emeril Lagasse and reality TV shows like Bravo's Top Chef.
"The Food Network can probably be credited with attracting a generation of young workers to culinary and food industry jobs," writes Sims-Bell.
Yet some prominent writers and chefs sound a note of caution. "You're not a chef as soon as you finish culinary school," Michael Ruhlman, author of The Making of a Chef, explains to CNN. "To say otherwise would be like saying grads of medical school could instantly be called pediatric neurosurgeons the day after graduation."
Anthony Bourdain, in his now-legendary memoir Kitchen Confidential, is similarly blunt.
"If you've been working in another line of business, have been accustomed to working eight- to nine-hour days, weekends and evenings off, holidays with the family," he writes, "then maybe you should reconsider what you'll be facing."
Yet those with the proper passion, drive, and focus can succeed in the industry. "Don't be a fence-sitter or a waffler," Bourdain writes. "If you're going to be a chef someday, be sure about it, single-minded in your determination to achieve victory at all costs."
Sandro Gamba, executive chef at the Four Seasons Hotel Westlake Village near Los Angeles, in a National Restaurant Association interview, offers an even simpler edict: "Just try to make your customers happy and try to make good food."
