As interest in food grows, so do culinary-employment opportunities

Central Penn Business Journal, Sep 28, 2007 by Bair, Jessica

REGION

Having a skilled hand in the kitchen is an appealing attribute these days.

Consumers are becoming more interested in how their food is prepared, and those on a career hunt are becoming more intrigued by expanding opportunities in the business. Those opportunities exist nationwide and in the midstate, experts say.

"If you're an entrepreneur, there are a lot of avenues that are opening simply because people in general are becoming more interested in dining and in food. Because of that, more people are interested in financing projects by chefs that have a very clear vision," said Andrew Little, chef at Sheppard Mansion in Hanover, York County.

Little's career path has a few forks in the road. He started with a degree in the music business but gave up on being a professional musician early on. He began cooking at a country club in the late 1990s to help pay for his teacher's certification.

After three years at the club, Little was hooked. He headed to the Culinary Institute of America in New York and graduated in 2002. He worked his way through three smaller restaurants in the MidAtlantic region before settling down at Sheppard Mansion in July 2006.

Sheppard is a nine-bedroom inn with three dining rooms that seat about 65. Saturday night diners generally enjoy a three-hour feast. This fine-tuned, personal experience is at the core of Little's cooking philosophy.

"Instead of the super fast-paced world, we sit and enjoy the process of food, and that's really important," Little said. "One of the things that I enjoy the most here is simply peeling carrots, or even washing dishes."

Food writing is one opportunity created by the general public's revived interest in food, Little said. He pens his own blog at www.chef andrewlittle.blogspot.com. Personal chefs are also becoming more popular in the midstate, he said.

The prepared-food section of a Wegmans Food Markets Inc. store presents new opportunities for chefs, too, Little said. The ability to talk to customers face-to-face and teach them how to perform cooking techniques is what Robert Wierbowski said he enjoys most about working for Wegmans. He is executive chef of the Cumberland County supermarket that opened Sept. 16 in Silver Sp ring Township.

A staff of about 1 60 work under Wierbowski. The store has 132,000 square feet of kitchen space and seating for 300.

"Especially in the last five years, we have people who come to us looking to advance their profession. The supermarket venue is huge," said Chuck Berardi, a regional executive chef for Wegmans. "A lot of top-notch professionals are coming to us."

Berardi supervises 10 Wegmans stores throughout the state, including the Cumberland County site. Berardi and Wierbowski are graduates of the Culinary Institute of America.

Berardi interviewed more than 300 applicants for jobs in the prepared-food section of the midstate store. He said he attributes the interest to the popularity of food television and the heightened visibility of the culinary industry.

"The popularity of food TV has really put the spotlight on the industry and has helped to elevate working in a kitchen or food-service establishment to something that is more prestigious. So that has certainly been a change for the positive," said Chet Koulik, director of career services at the Culinary Institute of America.

There are more positions for trained chefs available than there are trained chefs to fill them, Koulik said. Chefs from the institute end up in all levels of the food-service industry, he said. Those jobs range from designing cookware, ovens or knives to creating spices or new ice-cream and candy flavors. Institute graduates also end up at a variety of independent restaurants, cruise lines and educational facilities, as teachers.

"To be a chef is now a profession," Koulik said. "It's a highly respected, highly recognized, highly compensated profession, where years ago it was not."

But this field is not for everyone, Little said. The days are long, and the starting pay can be meager, he said.

"I don't ever recommend that anyone become a chef because it's not one of those things that you can choose; it kind of chooses you," Little said. "You've been bitten by the bug or you haven't. You either love it or don't even come close to entering it because it will kill you."

BY JESSICA BAIR

jessicab@journalpub.com