Contemporary Developments in Business and Management - Dissertation Example

The dedicated food service worker, chef or manager, almost always finds it to be a rewarding, lifelong career. Thus, so many cookbooks written by these chefs have been published and almost all of them shout out and proclaim their love for this art as if they have finally discovered their nirvana. To the nutritionist, however, food is considered a means of therapy and in hospitals, food is one means of attaining recovery to health.Other than financial rewards, running a restaurant gives to its owner another high i.e. the opportunity to meet all kinds of people and to satisfy their palates via the use of their culinary talents.

The restaurant business can be financially rewarding if the restaurateur comes to it prepared with all the knowledge and training and the management skills culled from years of academic training in management or hands-on-training on the same business. So many restaurant entrepreneurs have found their pot of gold in this business with the effect that myriads of other people are encouraged to follow suit." According to the National Restaurant Association data, the industry is comprised mostly of small businesses.

There were almost 731,000 locations offering food service in the USA as of 1993. It is estimated that almost half of all adults are food service patrons on a typical day, and over 43% of the consumers' food dollar goes to meals and snacks away from home. The industry is a major employer- more than 9 million are employed in food service, and employment is expected to reach over 12 million by the year 2005. In 1993, sales of restaurants of all types topped $236 billion" (Alonzo 1996, p. v).