Can You Make Money In a Catering Career?
Most people don’t go to culinary school because they’re after an easy fortune or instant fame. Professional cooking, with its long hours and often back-breaking work, is very much a labor of love, and people enter the field because they are passionate about food. Money usually comes second.
But that doesn’t have to be the case. Although you aren’t likely to strike it rich right away, a career in catering can be a great way to enjoy your love of cooking while also making a decent wage and enjoying great benefits.
Why Choose Catering?
Catering companies can be part of private restaurant businesses, a hotel or hospitality company, or a package of wedding services. They can also run out of a successful bakery or be like one guy working out of a van. As is the case with traditional restaurant work, you’ll find everything from five-star cuisine to cheap and easy catering solutions for small parties.
The money in catering is good because it lacks much of the prestige of working in a restaurant. Most catering companies that hire are attached to large hotel chains or very successful restaurants that can afford to offer higher pay rates.
Working in catering also requires some flexibility (you might have to work all weekends and evenings to cover weddings and private parties or work every holiday in which brunch plays a role), so rates of pay are higher to compensate.
Catering Salaries
The average salary for catering work is $37,000 per year—well above the national average for entry-level cooks, which is around $22,000 per year. Although salaries will necessarily vary due to location, employer, industry, and other factors, most culinary professionals just starting out will encounter higher pay rates here than they will in traditional restaurant jobs.
Of course, working in “catering” means quite a bit. You could just as easily make omelets to order on a buffet line as you could manage a catering staff of hundreds. You might be an executive chef planning menus or a hospitality manager who helps plan weddings and large events.
Depending on your level of responsibility, you could earn anywhere from $20,000 to $100,000 per year. As is the case with any type of culinary career, your education and personal goals will also influence this number.
Is A Culinary Career Right For Me?
- What Happened to All the For-Profit Culinary Schools
- Culinary Careers and Hollywood Fame
- Cooking for Business or Pleasure
- Give the Gift of Cooking Classes
- What It Takes To Become An Executive Chef
- Which Hospitality Management Jobs Pay the Best
- Interview with Top Ten Pastry Chef in America Mary Cech
- 10 Things To Consider Before Getting Into The Culinary Industry
Robert Jackson
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