Culinary Careers, Media & Purchasing

This unit explores career opportunities and professional functions that support culinary operations, including beverage service, culinary media and marketing, public relations, food presentation, and purchasing specialty products and equipment. Students build on foundational culinary skills to create promotional materials, source products responsibly, and prepare tangible portfolio pieces and procurement analyses in advance of the capstone unit.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze beverage-industry roles, required skills, service standards, and relevant safety and licensing considerations to identify viable career pathways within beverage operations
• Apply principles of food styling, lighting, and composition to produce at least one photographic or short-video portfolio piece that effectively showcases a menu item for a target audience
• Demonstrate public relations and marketing techniques by developing a promotional deliverable (e.g., social media post, press release, or menu blurb) aligned to a defined brand and audience
• Evaluate purchasing and procurement options for specialty foods, cookware, and equipment by comparing vendors on cost, quality, sustainability, lead time, and storage requirements to support operational decision-making