That includes chef positions at the top restaurants and hotels. The hours required for these positions and the stress that is inherent in them create a churn in even the top ranks of culinary employees. So when a culinary school graduate takes an “entry level” position, remember that in the kitchen you can expect personnel changes to be the norm. Here are some suggestions about tempering your expectations during your job hunt.

1. There is tremendous variation in restaurant personnel structure. There are small, individually run restaurants. These could be family restaurants or a chef-owned fine dining establishment. If the cook is also the proprietor, don’t expect to have a shot at the chef’s role in that establishment.

2. Larger operations such as restaurants that have multiple outlets may be advertising for a chef or sous chef but are actually looking for a kitchen manager. Restaurants at this level, particularly those with multiple outlets, use their menu as a marketing tool. For that reason, every outlet has to serve identical fare.

These companies have chefs that create new menu items, but it is not only culinary creativity that is involved. The menu items must have strict cost control built into them and must be simple enough to be prepared by employees you’ve never met. The kitchen staff at each outlet works off a corporate menu.

3. Institutional food service (retirement homes, corporate lunch rooms, hospitals and schools) are not always on the cutting edge of culinary. They are a good opportunity to learn what running a high-output kitchen is like, and the job probably has good benefits.

One of the factors in this job segment is that the culinary school graduate is going to have to understand dietary needs and how to meet them. It’s a good opportunity if you’re looking for less stressful culinary employment, but it’s not an outlet for creativity.

4. A job as personal chef to a family or private household seems like a golden opportunity for culinary school grads who wish to avoid the tough competition and tougher hours that chefs in fine restaurants confront. However the role of personal chef is in many cases different today than in past eras.

Chefs often have several clients, and rather than cook on a daily basis, they prepare a series of meals to last the week. It’s almost like running a catering business - and you may find yourself using your own kitchen. A good business, but once again a business that is as much planning and logistics as it is cooking.

Their statistics for these categories, however, do not include those who both prepare and serve food in fast-food restaurants. This discussion will not include some of the jobs available at the various McFood chain restaurants that seem to be sprawling across the landscape.

Culinary workers include chefs, cooks, and food preparation workers. Service staff (waiters and waitresses, etc.) do not train in the culinary arts and aren’t included in our market analysis either. Food service managers include restaurant and cafeteria managers, along with hotel catering managers.

The culinary industry is in a state of flux, in the sense that true full service restaurants and hotel catering operations are beginning to expect formal training for their cooks, chefs and managers. Here’s a look at the fastest growing jobs in the culinary industry.

1. Food preparation workers. This category can include kitchen workers who prep salads or perform other similar tasks in kitchens with a large output. One of the large growth areas for food preparation workers will be in the institutional kitchens, which include health care facility kitchens, schools and industrial cafeterias. This is an entry level job, requiring speed and the ability to make changes on the fly.

2. Cooks, and food preparation workers who prepare meals-to-go, such as those who work in the prepared foods sections of grocery or specialty food stores. The Labor Department says that these jobs will mushroom as take home specialty outlets expand their competition with full service restaurants.

3. Higher-skilled chefs and cooks working in full-service restaurants-those that offer table service and more varied menus. These are trained and often certified culinary school graduates. This job category’s rapid growth is due to the established social trend toward eating out more often.

4. Institution and cafeteria cooks, and food service managers. These positions not only require training in the traditional culinary skills, they often require knowledge of dietary guidelines. These positions usually pay decently, and experience in the field provides a lot of flexibility in relocating.

5. Sous chefs and pastry chefs for higher grade full service restaurants and quality hotel kitchens. These jobs are where culinary graduates often break in. They include long hours and maybe a temperamental executive chef, but there is no better way to break into the top of the culinary industry. In recent years, there has been a distinct trend toward in-house, quality desserts and morning pastries among the better restaurants and hotels.

6. Chef, or executive chef at a quality restaurant or high-end hotel. These jobs are highly competitive, but there is also a high turnover rate. It’s what most culinary grads strive for - and despite the competition, with the right education that turnover rate will provide you an opportunity.

Most jobs in the culinary field are expected to grow by 11% in the decade 2006-2016, according to the Labor Department. That’s a pretty good statistic in the era of offshore outsourcing. The best way to secure a future in the culinary field is seeking some formal training at a culinary school.

There are levels of training and certification for every type of food service worker - you can spend a year obtaining a certificate in culinary education, three years in culinary school learning all the skills of a chef, or four years in a specialized culinary academy (or college) obtaining a degree. Here are four areas where the statisticians see the most growth.

1. Chefs, cooks, and food preparation workers who prepare meals-to-go, such as those who work in the prepared foods sections of grocery or specialty food stores, should grow faster than average. These services compete with restaurants; as their quality and range of products grow they will take business from restaurants. There is also a consumer trend toward convenient, healthier, made-from-scratch meals.

2. Employment of institution and cafeteria chefs and cooks will show growth “about as fast as the average,” according to the Labor Department. However those jobs will be amplified by the fact that increasingly offices, schools, and hospitals contract out their food services in an effort to make “institutional food” more attractive to office workers, students, staff, visitors, and patients.

That’s where the rapid growth will be. In this field, of the growth for people with culinary degrees will be in contract food service establishments that provide catering services or food management for employee dining rooms, sports complexes, and educational or health care facilities.

3. Dining trends suggest that an increasing number of meals are eaten away from home, which creates growth in family dining restaurants, but greater limits on expense-account meals is expected to generate slower growth for up-scale restaurants.

However the opportunities for top-the-line cooking jobs available to highly trained culinary school graduates will be boosted by two factors. One is the increasing number of convention centers and hotels that are developing first rate food service. The other is the high level of turnover in top-grade commercial kitchens due to the pressures of the job. Jobs for restaurant chefs will increase by 12% over the next decade.

1. The food service establishment with three generations (or more) of tradition. What we’re referring to here are restaurants that have enjoyed many years of local popularity and are a quick recommendation by many of the city’s hotel concierges. Many times, restaurants like this have been in the same family since they were founded.

More importantly, they’ve got the same menu that was popular when the doors were opened. If you are hired into a place like this to cook a shift or provide professional assistance to an on-the-job cook that’s part of the family, it’s going to take extraordinary diplomatic skill to begin to make menu changes.

Take some time to earn their appreciation for your kitchen efficiency; eventually that will earn a little respect. Then begin to suggest changes you think would update the menu. Some you’ll win, some you’ll lose.

2. The restaurant that’s part of a chain. Here, we’re referring to full service restaurants with a limited number of locations. These are often the result of a single restaurant that has enjoyed major success and attempted to extend that magic to other sites. Once again, the original site may be a family operation where the intangible that drove the success has been the family members that run the place.

Now you’re managing a kitchen at one of the remote sites, your menu is identical to the original and you’re not achieving the traffic you want or the return business you need. Many times that may be because the restaurant is located in an area where the clientele is going to be younger (or older); a little more (or less) affluent than at the original restaurant.

Your creativity is going to be challenged because you’re going to have to maintain the continuity that tradition demands along with the changes that will make your outpost popular with the locals. It may require you to start with simple changes like different portion sizes and family rates, lighter sauces, etc.

3. Taking over a chaotic kitchen. You may be offered a job as chef or sous chef at a large, established restaurant - perhaps in a hotel - that seems like an opportunity too good to be true. On arrival, you find a kitchen mired in morale problems, beset by union conflicts and devoid of any employee loyalty.

This is going to be a team building exercise. The first step is going to be stabilizing the quality of the kitchen’s output. Every item on the menu has to be the same every time it’s presented, on every shift.

That is a good focal point for opening discussions with the staff about cooperation. Taking it from there, reward what should normally be merely competent performance and begin to build a little respect for your management role.

That is no longer the case. There are now over two hundred certified culinary schools turning out graduates with either specialized culinary training or actual culinary degrees. You can find a culinary program at almost any level, from the vocational schools to community colleges through four year culinary academies.

To a great degree, your culinary education will dictate the level at which you enter the industry. To a lesser degree, the opportunity to move up with the accumulation of experience is still possible. Many executive chefs start out as sous chefs or pastry chefs. What is important, however, is that they have had the requisite culinary education to be an executive chef.

Fast food cooks: These jobs involve limited menus and quick turnaround on orders. A culinary certificate in food handling or a basic culinary school program in general cooking skills is all that is required for entry into this level of the profession.

Institutional chefs and cooks: These professionals manage the kitchens in cafeterias; hospitals; institutional cafes and other large service situations such as extended care facilities. Most facilities at this level will require certification for some level of culinary education. An associate’s degree in culinary arts may suffice; graduation from a culinary school would probably be a step further; and a four year program at a college or culinary academy would be even better.

Pastry chef; sous chef: These positions require a culinary degree from a quality culinary educational institution. In a culinary arts program, you could expect to learn basic culinary skills and the preparation of hors d’oeuvres and appetizers; meats and seafood; fruits, vegetables, salads; soups, baking and pastry. The role of pastry chef is one function in a fully staffed kitchen; the job of the sous chef is another. Both positions also require study of food sanitation, storage, cost control and the use of culinary equipment.

Chef de cuisine: This job requires the most that you can get out of a curriculum in culinary arts. Beyond the food preparation skills described above, a culinary academy-trained chef will have also delved into classic French, regional, or current trends in cooking. A chef’s culinary program will also teach management skills in a large kitchen, food ordering and menu planning.

Executive Chef: A chef de cuisine is responsible for a single kitchen. An executive chef is in charge of all food service operations within an organization and also may supervise the many kitchens of a hotel, restaurant group, or corporate dining operation. This administrative job combines the economic skills of a business manager with the culinary arts provided while obtaining a culinary school degree.