5 Unusual Cooking-Related Professions

If you have a passion for food, a career as a chef could be right for you. But it might come as a surprise that there are a few lesser-known, yet more intriguing careers in the culinary world. And they feed your taste for adventure, thirst for knowledge, and need for creativity far more than the role of a traditional chef.

Hungry for more details? Read on, and discover the top 5 unusual cooking-related professions.

Gastronomic Scientist

If you’ve ever taken any of the best cookery courses, you’ll have noticed that some basic recipes are common to them all. In the supermarket aisles, you’ll also find a common thread between products despite the differing brands.

But have you ever wondered where they get the knowledge about flavor combinations for creating those renowned dishes?

Exploring the Role of Gastronomic Scientist

The top tried-and-tested recipes in those cooking classes are built on the principles established by gastronomic scientists.

A gastronomic scientist seeks to understand the physiological processes that feed the engagement with food. This is a science that explores the link between the sensory experience of food – smell, taste, and even the sight of it – with the enjoyment of it.

In this way, gastronomic scientists contribute to food innovation. They pave the way for new products that meet the needs of the discerning palate, with foods that engulf the senses in new and unexpected ways.

Flavor Chemist: Creating Culinary Sensations

Those popular commercial food products you spotted at the supermarket are constantly updated and improved upon, by flavor chemists.

A flavor chemist has the exciting task of creating new culinary sensations. This is more complex than it sounds, as it encompasses more than just the taste. Aromas play a major role in how we perceive the foods that we eat, too.

A flavor chemist researches these effects, and experiments with new combinations of flavors and chemicals to create new products or update existing ones.

Menu Engineer

When you visit a restaurant you’ve never been to before, what do you base your food choices on? The recommendations of the waiting staff, comments from restaurant critics, or the menu? Chances are, although the first two play a role, the menu has a big impact too.

Designing Menus for Success

A menu engineer has the exciting responsibility of designing and optimizing restaurant menus.

There’s a bit of psychology that goes into this, as well as creativity when choosing the layout and aesthetic appeal. The menu has to do justice to the type of dining establishment as well as the dishes offered there.

Profitable Pairings: Balancing Flavor and Profit

Flavor and profit, what a pairing they make. Although culinary creativity and financial goals may at first seem like two different worlds, the menu engineer has to balance the need for both.

Menu engineers must decipher how to showcase meals in stylish and innovative ways that will make patrons want to pay for those meals. Are the prices in line with the offerings, and will the restaurant make enough of a profit? The answers to these questions mostly come down to the menu engineer’s efforts.

Edible Food Photographer

Those enticing full-color photographs on the front of cookery magazines, in menus, and recipe books are no accident. They require excellent photographic skills but are never left to random photographers.

Those pics that make you salivate are the creation of a food photographer.

Capturing Food in a New Light

A food photographer specializes in capturing visually appealing images of edible substances. These images may be used for everything from restaurant websites to recipe books to food product packaging.

Besides photographic skill and a flair for artistic arrangement, a food photographer has to know what will have the biggest impact on the taste buds. They capture foodstuffs in a new light, often so well that you can almost taste what you’re seeing.

Beyond Visual Appeal: Taste in Photography

This career entails more than just visual appeal, however. A great deal of creativity goes into photographing foods, and quite a few challenges too,

There’s a time limit when capturing images of fresh foods, as fresh produce and meats are prone to spoil after a while. And if they get the studio lighting conditions wrong, what looks appealing in real life may not look quite so appetizing in the picture.

Food Archaeologist

A food archaeologist is, as the name implies, at their heart an explorer. So if you’re undecided between a career that promises adventure and one in gastronomy, this may be the right fit for you.

Unearthing Culinary Histories

Archaeology is the study of our past through the remnants of the artifacts left behind by our ancestors. It tells us much about the cultures and customs of our forebears.

Similarly, the role of a food archaeologist is a very significant one in the culture of food enjoyment. As a food archaeologist, you’ll explore ancient recipes, food preparation techniques, and eating customs.

Culinary Interpretation: Bringing History to Life

Food archaeologists interpret these historical recipes and techniques and uncover the creative aspect of our ancestors’ relationships with food.

They do so by teaching others about what historical groups ate and how they prepared their foods, leading to possibilities for reconstructing ancient dishes.

Take any culinary tour on your travels and you’ll probably hear a few interesting nuggets about the ancient food customs in the area. How do the tour guides know about it? The work done by food archaeologists, that’s how!

Food Futurist

In contrast to the food archaeologist, who explores the history of food, a food futurist predicts the future of our love affair with food. This glimpse into the future of gastronomy is even more thrilling and significant than the lessons from our culinary past.

Anticipating Culinary Trends

The role of a food futurist is an intensely challenging one. They must anticipate the future culinary trends that will satisfy the tastes of an ever-demanding public.

This is an important role and not one to be taken lightly. The new insights that food futurists offer will guide the food manufacturing industry in producing tasty new products for a new market of food lovers.

The food products we buy and eat in the future, are the result of the prediction skills of food futurists.

Innovating for Tomorrow’s Tastes

This relationship between food futurists and food product manufacturers is a powerful one. It shapes the direction of food culture, dictating the tastes of future generations.

By innovating for tomorrow’s tastes, they are the food genies of the culinary world. However, the real magic of their profession is how they build on the foundation of all the other food-related professions. Like all futurists, they understand the link between the past and future, in life and in cuisine.