Steering a Cooking Career in the Right Direction

Charging into a cooking career with nothing more than a passion for food will not guarantee success. A full-time cooking career can be a challenge to the best of chefs. Often ventures like catering services fail due to a lack of clear business objectives and not necessarily for a lack of cooking talent or passion.

As the saying goes: “If you aim at nothing you are sure to hit it.” Examples of objectives to aspire to in a cooking career can be as follows:

• Earn a fair profit.
• Generate sufficient catering sales to cover expenses and leave a profit. Often those in a full-time cooking career will agree to projects that hardly pay for themselves. There are times when agreeing to projects with marginal profit will be a necessity. In slow season when business is quiet it is essential to keep well-trained staff paid and loyal to the company. Charity and VIP events give those in a cooking career opportunity to show off to prospective clientele and sacrificing on profit may pay off in future.
• Customer satisfaction means repeat business and referrals.
• Convey an image . It may be a certain type of food, ambience or uniqueness that people associate with the company.
• Reputation for constant quality service . The quality of the food, the way in which it is presented as well as the punctuality with which it is done should be above reproach.
• Reputation for dependability . Fact is; a cooking career can be quit stressful. A client must find a company dependable despite the stress.
• Reputation for flexibility . A client will think fondly of the company that bailed him or her out at the last minute.
• Stay on budget . A sure way to make a hash of a cooking career is to surprise the client with last minute hidden costs.