Essay: Culinary Arts Career Opportunities" (42 Characters)

Choose four different sectors of Commercial Cookery in Australia, this could be for example hotels, restaurants, airlines, catering, etc.

Outline how each sector is different and how this can greatly affect career paths as they progress, or alternatively benefit if this is the case.

From Head/Executive Chef down to every person within the brigade explain the hierarchy process in each sector including job descriptions and job roles as well as any financial remuneration that each would receive.

Within the four sectors you have chosen, research any mid and senior management that they would be directly reporting to. Give examples of key performance indicators that may also be included within the roles and responsibilities.

Graph a timeline chart that would be expected for each sector to reach the pinnacle of their career in real time and provide reasonable explanations as to why these timeframes may differ.

Describe and outline the three main areas of hygiene within a commercial catering organisation. Give examples of all and explain preventative measures used in each area within the FSANZ guidelines.

Research who is responsible for the implementation and maintaining of HACCP within a large commercial catering organisation and match the roles and responsibilities to each principle of HACCP.

Sectors in Culinary Arts

The most expected path that can be taken after graduating from the culinary arts is working with the commercial kitchen. Small restaurants generally have only three or four food prepares for the kitchen, while the bigger restaurants have bigger teams. The main chef is in the charge of the kitchen, however, the soups chef, pastry chef, saucier and other members of the team also play crucial role in kitchen (Mitchell et al., 2013) The person can also work in the bakery if he or she enjoys working with the catering company, pastries, can work in the non-traditional kitchen, work as restaurant manager, as personal chef, becomes the restaurant manager, food stylist or can join as the television chef. Irrespective of the job in the culinary field, the responsibility of the employee is to assure that the guests will have best experience with regard to foods. However, the responsibility goes beyond of simply preparing the food of good tastes. They must also ensure that the food shall look good, the kitchen is safe and clean and the overall environment is attractive for the guests. To be in the top position in these sectors, the person shall be strong to play the role of a leader (Brown,  Arendt & Bosselman, 2014). A well maintained kitchen is like a well-oiled machine and the person shall be responsible for the assigned job as well as the whole team.

The four sectors selected for the commercial cookery in Australia are the restaurant sector, hotel sector, catering sector and airline sector. Career opportunities in various sectors are as follows –

Hotel sector – the person can be placed in various kinds of hotels that ranges from five star hotels to international chain of hotels and the job can be got in various departments like housekeeping, front office, beverages and foods preparation as per the knowledge and skill of the person and their preference.

Airline industry – the airline industry is good option for the students of culinary arts. The student can join as Flight Stewards or Air Hostess. The students also have the option of joining as executives of guest relationship or Ground Staff. However, for every position there are training programme.

Restaurant sector – the career opportunities and position in the hospitality and the restaurant sector is more than just a job. As per the statistics, the work related to entry level is often acts as a stepping stone for longer career. 90% of the salaried restaurant employees begin as hourly employee while 80% of the restaurant owners start their career as the hourly employee of the restaurant.

Career Opportunities in Hotel Sector

Catering industry – if the person is passionate for the food and prefers to work in fast growing environment the catering industry is best option for the individual. Some career options available for the catering industry are dietician, head chef, kitchen porter and restaurant manager, bar staff or waiting staff.

Remuneration: Head chef – AUD 8,000, waiter – AUD 2,500, cook – AUD 4,000

Remuneration: Head chef – AUD 9,000, waiter – AUD 3,500

Remuneration: Executive chef – AUD 10,000, Steward – AUD 5,500, air hostess – AUD 6,000

Remuneration: Executive chef – AUD 7,000, banquet chef – AUD 5,500, banquet cook – AUD 5,000

Key performance indicators

The key performance indicators are as follows –

• Active involvement for the cooking and the preparation of foods
• Assure consistency in the presentation, quality and quantity of the foods served.
• Compilation of menus that are suitable to the clients and the staffs are able to prepare
• Assure that the menus has been charged based on the segregation of regular and seasonal foods
• Differentiation of menus as breakfast, Bistro, A La Carte and function menus
• Closely observe the market trends and the availability of raw materials for preparation of food.

Airline industry

Differences are there in the timeframes as the job profiles and preferences of different sectors are different. Further, the promotions are also depended upon the performance of the individual employee (Beghetto,  Kaufman & Hatcher, 2016). Finally, it differs as the required service and preference of the customers varies in different sectors and the capability of the employees differs with respect to the successful demand fulfilment.  

Kitchen wall – to assure highest standards of hygiene for the kitchen wall the owner can use smooth plastic that provides hygienic, easy for cleaning surface and that will also help in keeping the kitchen great looking and will save the expenses with regard to redecoration of the kitchen. The same thing can also be used in other spaces like food preparation surface. It can be modified as per the requirement of the owner and the attractiveness and durability (Bergh, 2016).

Career Opportunities in Airline Industry

Storage areas - to assure the hygiene in the storage area, the employee shall keep their hands clean and must wash their hands after each unhygienic act. The storage areas shall be maintained in a hygienic and clean manner. Further, the foods must be stored under the appropriate hygienic conditions as per the type of the foods. The employees must be able to deal with the unexpected circumstances efficiently and and communicate with the proper person who can take necessary actions.

Floors – selection of hygienic flooring is the crucial part as the selection of flooring that is attractive, durable, attractive and easy for maintain. Hygienic and healthy flooring reduces the allergic reactions and enhance the quality of the floor. Various hygienic and healthy options are there for the flooring, for instance, bamboo flooring, cork flooring, recycled glass flooring and hardwood flooring.

For implementation of the HACCP, the team and coordinator are chosen and trained as per requirement. Thereafter, the team is responsible for developing the initial plan and coordinating the implementation. The product teams are appointed for developing the HACCP plan for the particular product. The employees who will be accountable for monitoring required to be trained adequately (Trafialek et al., 2017). Implementation of the system includes continuous application of record-keeping, monitoring, process of corrective action plans and any other activities as per the HACCP plan. Further, maintaining the effective HACCP system largely depends on scheduled activities with regard to verification. The system shall be revised and updated as per requirement. A crucial aspect for maintaining the system is to ensure that all the involved persons are trained properly, so that they can understand their role and can fulfil their duties efficiently (Wallace, 2014).

HACCP is based on seven principles. These are –

• Conduct the hazard analysis
• Determination of crucial control points
• Establishing efficient procedures for keeping the records (Mortimore & Wallace, 2013).
• Establishing the procedure for verification
• Establishing the critical limits
• Establishing the corrective actions
• Establishing the actions for monitoring (Al Yousuf et al., 2015).

References 

Al Yousuf, M., Bin Salem, S., Abdi Ali, B., Saleib, M., Juwaihan, H., & Taylor, E. (2015). Setting the standard: the development of bespoke guides for HACCP-based food safety management systems for different sectors of the hospitality industry. Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, 7(1), 33-49.

Beghetto, R. A., Kaufman, J. C., & Hatcher, R. (2016). Applying Creativity Research to Cooking. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 50(3), 171-177.

Bergh, J. (2016). Hungry for More: Anthony Bourdain and the Cultural Valorization of Chefs and Cooks.

Brown, E. A., Arendt, S. W., & Bosselman, R. H. (2014). Hospitality management graduates’ perceptions of career factor importance and career factor experience. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 37, 58-67.

Mitchell, R., Woodhouse, A., Heptinstall, T., & Camp, J. (2013). Why use design methodology in culinary arts education?. Hospitality & Society, 3(3), 239-260.

Mortimore, S., & Wallace, C. (2013). HACCP: A practical approach. Springer Science & Business Media.

Trafialek, J., Trafialek, J., Kolanowski, W., & Kolanowski, W. (2017). Implementation and functioning of HACCP principles in certified and non-certified food businesses: A preliminary study. British Food Journal, 119(4), 710-728.

Wallace, C. A. (2014). Food safety assurance systems: Hazard analysis and critical control point system (HACCP): Principles and practice.