The jobs every foodie wishes they had can be yours with an apprenticeship
EVER wished you could drink wine and eat pastries and biscuits for a living? Meet the people who do just that and insist it could be a career for you.
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INSTAGRAM culture has catapulted the humble lunch into a hobby but if you’re more serious about food and wine than just finding the right filter for your avo smash, there could be a career in it.
Although a foodie’s dream job might be taste testing pastries, making wine or reviewing restaurants, usually the best place to start is with an apprenticeship.
MasterChef judge and restaurateur George Calombaris started working after school washing dishes, pots and pans at a local restaurant then landed an apprenticeship at Hotel Sofitel.
“I was lucky enough to work beneath some great chefs, Raymond Capaldi and Gary Mehigan and made friends with fellow apprentice Shannon Bennett,” he says.
“I’ve worked almost 20 years to get where I am today. It’s been a lot of hard work and tough hours but I love it, food is who I am. While I’m not in the kitchen peeling the onions anymore, I’m still very close to the flame.”
JOB INTERVIEWS ARE LIKE FIRST DATES
Doughnut Time flavour creator Kylie Simpson left school at 15 to learn to cook.
“I’m a pastry chef and live and breathe all things sweet and savoury, and have found a soft spot creating doughnut flavours that people will enjoy,” she says.
“My job is to come up with the Doughnut Time flavours, make them, test them — the best part — then send them out to the stores.”
She says a chef apprenticeship is a great start to getting into the food industry but attitude is also important.
“Being passionate about learning the ropes and continually sticking at it is definitely key to success,” she says.
SkillsOne chief executive and WorldSkills Australia chair Brian Wexham says people with passion and commitment can find great careers in food and hospitality.
“I would stress it can be a career, it shouldn’t just be a fill-in job while students are doing a gap year,” he says.
“There are opportunities to travel. Its about life experiences as well.
“Working on somebody’s 130ft yacht isn’t a bad life (or) you can work on a cruise ship.”
He says fast food outlets should not be ignored either, with many offering training programs that prepare workers for management.
Sirromet chief winemaker Adam Chapman has been a creating wine for three decades and recommends others that want a career like his to start from the bottom.
“Become a cellar hand in Australia and oversees for a few years, then try the WSET wine courses to see if you see yourself in the wine industry,” he says.
“I suggest this approach rather than starting your wine tertiary studies and finding out it’s not for you. It can be an expensive exercise.”
Chapman describes his role as overseeing the growing of the grapes to the right specifications and ensuring all the processing goes to plan.
“The job really entails numerous tasting, reviewing and discussing the styles and flavour profiles, and how that particular style came into being,” he says.
Chapman is currently based at Mt Cotton, southeast of Brisbane, Queensland but has previously worked in South Australia and France.
He says competition for jobs in the wine industry is high but there is always work overseas.
Read more employment news in the CareerOne section in News Corp Australia newspapers every Saturday
Originally published as The jobs every foodie wishes they had can be yours with an apprenticeship
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