People today seem to think that culinary arts and hospitality management is the same field of work but, these two fields are entirely different in many aspects. There are a lot of careers that can be found that use both aspects of culinary and hospitality however, there are more choices for hospitality careers than there are culinary. Which of these two different yet similar fields dominates the other? Taking into account the classes needed to become a manager, the available career choices in hospitality, and the salaries a manager can earn, one can argue that hospitality management is the better career field to work in than culinary arts.
Culinary Arts has been a huge part of the world for quite some time and it is for good reason, culinary artists go through years of training classes and plenty of hands on experience to do what chefs do best. Classes are normally 5 days a week and 7 hours a day and this could only be one class. There are more classes to take even after just this one. Hospitality classes are generally small consisting of 15 to 20 people per class. The students are taught about providing patrons with excellent customer service and being sales driven. Students are learning how to use customer service, planning, and managing others all while they are still in school, all of which can be used in any career field in the world. Students who wish to become managers continue their education and receive the highest degree they can. These classes that are taken are designed to mold future managers on what they should do in their fields and how to manage a few employees up to millions of them in corporations around the world.
Now both culinary and hospitality have a variety of career choices. Culinary artists can go on to be chefs, caterers, cooks, servers, bartenders and so much more. These are all good jobs to have but they are not always given the credit that is due to them with all their hard work. These employees are behind the scenes in the kitchen where they do not always receive feedback for the work they do and some do not want to even see a customer if they are not people friendly. Hospitality careers surround us everywhere we look even in the culinary world. What would a restaurant be if it did not have a good manager to keep it steady? Hospitality is used in all forms of business including event planning, telemarketing and even something as simple as a street vendor. These positions all require customer interaction and customer service. A manager is needed is all forms of business, if you are a manager you have the responsibilities that need to be tended to, these could be from speaking with a guest or preparing a wedding with limited funding.
Chefs today in the world can make anywhere between $20,000 a year to $87,600 depending on how much experience each individual has and if they have a degree. This is a good amount of money if you are on a higher pay scale but with any position in the restaurant world you must first work your way up the ladder of jobs to reach your goal. Starting out most culinary artists only makes $20,000 a year and this is not much to live on in this day in age. Hospitality managers earn as little as $68,000 a year to start and up to $125,000. This does not however; apply to all aspects of hospitality businesses. If you are an event planner you are paid for every event that you plan such as weddings, concerts and even awards shows. These events bring in millions of dollars each event and that is much more than most restaurants can say.
These reasons are why I say that a hospitality career is the far better career to have. We go through more classes for training; we have more career options, and are paid higher than most in culinary arts fields. Hospitality is about providing good customer service and without that we would not want to visit any establishment if the employees are rude. Hospitality teaches us how to be hospitable toward guests, where as in the culinary world you are mainly behind closed kitchen doors and do not have to worry about customer interaction. Hospitality workers run their places of business in all aspects, now can culinary artists say the same? I think not.