Your Career: Cooking up a new career

Restaurants alone expected to add 1.8 million jobs in the next 10 years

By Eve Tahmincioglu
MSNBC.com

It’s all about food lately.

Culinary shows like “Top Chef” and “Hell’s Kitchen” are all the rage. Tainted peanuts have us worried about what we eat and how to make it better. Books such as “The Omnivore's Dilemma” and “Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics” are bestsellers. And even first lady Michelle Obama is getting in on the act, planting a vegetable garden at the White House.

Not surprisingly, more and more laid-off workers, those switching careers and young people just starting out are contemplating jobs in the food industry.

Jack Bernowitz, a 44-year-old laid-off broker from bankrupt Lehman Brothers, enrolled in New York’s Institute of Culinary Education this past November with his sights on becoming a chef.

“For 20 years I loved going to work,” he says about his tenure at the brokerage house. “But in the last four years, with the greed, corruption on Wall Street, the love was gone.”

He was ready for a career overhaul.

“I always loved cooking for my family and friends, even bringing food in for the people at work,” says Bernowitz, who has more than 120 cookbooks at home. “Sometimes you need a tragedy to push you to do what you want to do.”

Last year, the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) saw a record-setting 20,000 inquiries for enrollment, up more than 12 percent from the previous year.

“Surging interest and growing enrollment at ICE is directly related to the current economic climate,” says Rick Smilow, president of The Institute of Culinary Education.

“People are re-pondering the importance of food in our lives,” adds Mark Erickson, vice president/dean for The Culinary Institute of America. “I can’t tell you how thrilled I am that food is a topic on the national agenda. People are thinking about the health, social and political implications food has, and it’s a wonderful time to think about a career in the food profession.”

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE…