Dream job
I dream of having a career involving my favorite subject- food. I was a clothing designer for many years, but I left when I realized It didn't excite me any more. For almost two years, I have taken classes and explored, but I can't find my place yet. If you could have any occupation in a food related industry, what would it be?
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27 Comments:
ice cream flavor test tester!
ceforrester at 8:47AM on 08/22/07
good call, ceforrester.
I'd love to be a cookbook editor, which would combine my love of books and food.
LiveToEat at 9:00AM on 08/22/07
I can't believe I'm saying this, but I actually have my dream food job already. And if I'm dreaming, please please please don't wake me up.
mattbites at 9:21AM on 08/22/07
My dream job is that of camera operator for Bourdain's shows.
LunaPierCook at 9:22AM on 08/22/07
mattbites- So what do you do? Tell us so we can be jealous.
Mich23 at 9:37AM on 08/22/07
check out matt's website mattbites.com - one of my favorite food blogs around!
ceforrester at 10:36AM on 08/22/07
I have half my dream job--I do edit a fair number of cookbooks. I would rather be a recipe tester (something I did briefly in the 1990s), a job that is going the way of typewriter repairman.
Barbara Hanson at 10:42AM on 08/22/07
More to and live in Europe as a contract food writer for American newspapers or magazines. Work in neighborhood grocery stores or brasseries, to learn, first-hand, what life is like in, say, Paris, for the working man or woman, and write these experiences up, with photos, for stateside readers. Oh, I would love to work on a rural Provencial village and learn to grow vegetables and lavender . . .
hatlady at 10:45AM on 08/22/07
I really like working on a line with a crew of other cooks. it is stressful and hard on the body and at times ugly, but on those nights when you are slammed with orders and the tickets seem to be endlessly pouring out of the machine and all of a sudden time just seems to slow down, motions become automatic, you don't even realize the burns on your arms and hands or the pain in your back and feet from the shitty mats that the cheap owner won't replace, ingredients fly and the crew dances around one another, all working together like a machine and, if it's a good kitchen and a good chef and a good menu, together you push out an amazing amount of beautiful and delicious food and when it is over and time returns to normal and you realize 3 hours have passed and you walk by the dish and all the plates are coming back licked clean, it just feels great, it is rare and arguably the horrible hours and horrible pay and the physical torture overshadow that feeling, but in that brief time it beats all.
intheyearofthepig at 11:10AM on 08/22/07
My dream food job would be to do what I do for fun now (food blogger), but get paid to do it.
Deb
Altered Plates
Here and There
hereandthe at 11:18AM on 08/22/07
LivetoEat, as a cookbook editor, I can tell you that the biggest drawback to this dream job is that the pay is absolute crap. Some publishers pay an hourly rate that you would be embarrassed to offer a babysitter.
Barbara Hanson at 12:15PM on 08/22/07
I daydream about being able to cover cupcakes with brightly coloured icing all day...
flye3076 at 12:21PM on 08/22/07
I'd like to write about food. I've done so a few times for a small town newspaper, managing to snag a wonderful pumpkin cheesecake recipe from a local chef. I had the most fun when I judged a chili cook off, tasting from 30 pots of chili, and then writing a first-person column about it. One time I did a restaurant profile, and I wish I had done them more often before I changed jobs. I pretty much like to do any story where I get to eat something!
misseditor at 12:36PM on 08/22/07
@intheyearofthepig:
You describe it perfectly...the exquisite torture of line-cooking! Oh, I miss it, but my 40+ year old knees would probably explode if I tried to go back. The camaraderie, the heat, the sounds and smells...yep, I still dream of those years past...
And you know, a close second is actually dishwashing at high volume...
Cary at 1:22PM on 08/22/07
To be Jason Perlow's sangweech taster.
Colorado Jim at 2:49PM on 08/22/07
i'd be a tiny old grandma from italy.
i know, not so much an occupation, but i'd make such good food...
rebeccadiamond at 3:04PM on 08/22/07
Food and travel writer, food and travel blogger or...be Tony Bourdain.
I would kill to be able to make a decent living by eating and traveling, going to new and interesting places, and meet new and interesting people.
(as is, this poor job-hunting student is taking her expectations down a notch and will settle for administrative assistant. One can still dream!)
fuuchan at 3:51PM on 08/22/07
I'd say I'm currently working at my dream job. I do publicity and branding for chefs, and part of my job is reading blogs like this every day to keep up with what's going on in the food world. Nice, huh?
sawyerriley at 4:22PM on 08/22/07
I didn't know branding people was legal. Ssssssssssssss!
Barbara Hanson at 5:08PM on 08/22/07
I have a similar job to sawyerriley...I read food blogs all day and write my own food blog! Kind of amazing, the only thing that would make it better is if the meals I wrote about were paid for....
Hillary
Chew on That
Chew on That at 6:41PM on 08/22/07
Excellent question for us SE fans! I would have a split personality---as a dietitian, I would like to do additional nutrition research---I know, sounds rather geeky. Then during my other personality, be a chocolatier.
JEP at 7:05PM on 08/22/07
can some one please tell me how to get a dream job in the culinary world. i work in finance and don't enjoy it very much. all i do is read about food and restaurants all day and i love to eat. suggestions?
jaf at 3:56PM on 08/23/07
jaf- Your comment is the reason I posted this question. Right now, it looks as though I will be forced back into the fashion industry-yuck!!!! I too read about food and restaurants all day.
Mich23 at 5:52PM on 08/23/07
I'm starting to think I'd like to be a pastry chef but I'm trying to decide if I have it in me to push hard enough to make it.
jennywenny at 6:14PM on 08/23/07
I'd like to work in all facets of the food industry- recipe development, small scale production (like my own pastry shop), writing. I don't want to pigeon-hole myself so when my knees, back and hands give out I can fall back on something other than baking to earn a living. :)
AuntJone at 11:46AM on 08/24/07
Sommelier.
jonfoxx at 8:31PM on 08/24/07
I'd like to own a restaurant somewhere in Sonoma County in the style of Ad Hoc in Yountville, CA. It is a Thomas Keller restaurant that serves one menu each night. Ideally, I'd only have about 50 diners total, in two seatings each night.
I'd like to have four or five courses: a small appetizer a bite or two more than an amuse bouche, a choice of soup or salad, an entree with two sides-- one vegetable and one starch (with diners able to request a double portion of either,) a small cheese course and a first-rate dessert. I'd like the price point to be about $40 +/-. Alcoholic beverages would have to be extra. I could probably do three ounce wine pours, paired for each course, for about $25.
That's what I would do if I won the lottery. At least until I went broke.
Calichef at 7:24AM on 08/26/07