If you watch Master Chef and think, ‘I could do that’, then now could be the perfect time for you to go on your own cooking adventure and pursue a career in commercial cookery.

The commercial cookery sector has been growing steadily for the last five years, thanks in large part to Australia’s growing ‘foodie’ culture, as well as an increase in the popularity of owning hospitality businesses, and an increase in consumer demand.

Employment is expected to grow significantly in the next five years, to an additional 91,000 jobs. So dust off your apron and sharpen your knives, because a fast paced career in a commercial kitchen is waiting for you.

Spotlight on industry growth

Statistics say that employment levels are projected to grow in most occupations within the food and beverage services industry, through to 2023. Most employment growth is centred on the café, restaurant, and takeaway food services, specifically in roles like these:

• kitchenhands
• chefs
• cooks
• fast food cooks
• bakers and pastry cooks
• food trades assistants

To reinforce these employment level findings, according to the number of job advertisements between 2015 and 2020, the top six in demand occupations are:

• waiters
• bar attendants and baristas
• café and restaurant managers
• food trades assistants
• chefs.

Spotlight on industry skills

While the skills and knowledge to create amazing dishes is essential to making your mark, for those who truly want become successful within the commercial cookery industry, you need to be driven by strong values, and possess a range of complimentary soft skills.

According to industry forecasts, the top priority soft skills in the cookery and catering industry sector are:

• coordination
• monitoring
• speaking
• social perceptiveness
• critical thinking
• active learning.

The importance of communication skills is backed up by findings that show communication as the most in demand soft skill within the food and beverage services industry. However, when it comes to generic skills within the sector, these have found to be the most in demand:

• customer service and marketing skills
• social intelligence, communication and collaboration skills
• managerial and leadership skills
• technological skills
• adaptability, learning agility, and information literacy
• intellectual autonomy, and self-management skills

Spotlight on industry career: Chef 

With photo sharing apps and critical review websites putting restaurateurs under the microscope and pushing them to even greater heights, high quality chefs have been more in demand than ever. Couple that with the rise of celebrity chefs and instructional web videos, and you soon realise how much this line of work has taken centre stage within our society.

To become successful within this often competitive industry, workers will have to feed off their passion, and develop their creativity working with a wide range of fresh produce, and exploring a world of cuisines.

TAFE NSW teachers are all industry experts who shape their courses to reflect modern trends evolving within the commercial cookery sector. So when you choose to study at TAFE NSW, you can be assured that the skills and knowledge you learn, will help you to start your cooking career the right way.

Career specialisations:

• chef de partie
• commis chef
• demi chef
• second chef
• sous chef.

So explore your options and enrol today in an exciting Commercial Cookery course that could make your career sizzle, and take you (and your taste buds) right around the world.

Explore courses

Sources: Industry employment forecast, job advertisement, top skills, and employer data have been provided by TAFE Strategy. Employment forecast data was sourced from Deloitte Access Economics in February 2017. All job advertisement data was sourced from the Burning Glass Technologies’ Labor Insight™ Real-time Labor Market Information tool and is based on online job postings over the 12 months to October 2018 unless stated otherwise. Average salary data has been sourced from the Commonwealth Government’s JobOutlook website.