Entertainment Magazine: Dining: Education: Culinary

Culinary Career Profile: Restaurant Owner/Proprietor

If you're someone who enjoys business, large projects, teamwork, and fine food, few careers can satisfy you more than restaurant ownership could.

That's because as a restaurant owner or proprietor, you're responsible for every single aspect (culinary and business) of your eating establishment. 

Health codes, inventory, accounting, safety inspections, taxes, state & federal regulations, zoning requirements, human resources, marketing, public relations, customer relations, innovation, and risk management only represent one side of the business.

There is also the baking, cooking, inventory, ingredient selection, menu design, and wine selection that must be taken into account. 

As you can see, becoming a restaurant owner or proprietor is an extremely multidisciplinary field, but the rewards are tremendous.

Not only can you help create delicious food that satisfies discerning diners from around the world, but you can also make an extremely tidy profit if you manage your business successfully. 

But of course, formal training and education, though not required, will vastly improve your overall chances of success.

Attending Culinary School to Become a Restaurant Owner

There are many different paths one can follow to become a restaurant owner or proprietor.  But there are also many different ways to fail, and countless restaurants go under within just a few years.

So even if you have a sizable bankroll and a prime location, neither of these can necessarily guarantee success.  Far more important is your understanding of the larger restaurant industry.

This is why a masters degree or higher from a culinary arts school is strongly recommended for anyone who wants to work in this field.

Alternatively, you can get by with an associates degree from a culinary arts school and supplement that with a masters of business administration (MBA).

The more thoroughly you understand how the business works, what customers want, what your competitors are doing, and what innovations are available in fine dining, the more successful you will become as a restaurant owner. 

It might take you a few years to turn a profit, but if you stick with it and manage to stay ahead of the competition, you can earn anywhere from $30,000 a year all the way up to the six-figure range.