Editor’s Note: This special feature focuses on foodservice professionals from various facets of the industry. Culinarians answer questions delving into their views of current foodservice developments and how culinary students can obtain positions within different foodservice segments. Introduce your students to a plethora of foodservice career options. Click here to view the previous profiles.

In what foodservice area do you work? 
I work at Resser’s Fine Food as the Product Development Chef in National Accounts.

Briefly describe your position. 
I am the direct culinary contact with major foodservice national accounts along with our company’s national account sales managers. I will typically work directly with a corporate chef or with a purchasing coordinator at a national chain restaurant or restaurant group. I help with arranging presentations for new and current accounts and highlighting our company’s capabilities.

Where do you see your foodservice area in five years?
Restaurants whose food works best in the third-party delivery industry (such as DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub) will be the most successful.

Describe two current foodservice trends you are seeing right now.
I see developing items and foods that take labor out of the back of the house as a trend with the shortage of people working in the industry right now. Also, cost is a major factor and clients are looking for cost reductions on current items.

What steps would you advise culinary graduates to take in securing a position in today's market?
Don’t be a food snob. This was one of the first questions I was asked in the interview for my current job. It’s easy to come out of culinary school and feel you know the world of haute cuisine, therefore feeling above the world of chain restaurants. Take time to understand the demographics of the people who eat in the many different facets of the foodservice industry. 

Please describe one surprising event in your professional life that made a valuable impact on your career today.
Prior to working R&D for foodservice, I worked in retail accounts. Safeway was one of my bigger accounts. I was visiting my dad one day and he asked if we could stop by Safeway and I could show him something on the shelf I developed. To my amazement, I had developed more than half of the items on that store’s deli department shelf. Before that, I hadn’t kept tabs on the items I worked on that actually went onto the shelves. Some of those same items are still there after all these years.