Chefs, cooks, and food preparation workers held 3.1 million jobs in the latest numbers released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This number includes cooks who work for private households, restaurant chefs, line cooks, fast food cooks, and a variety of other food preparation workers who work everywhere from hospitals to hotels.

Jobs in this field are expected to be plentiful in the coming years, but, unsurprisingly, competition for work in higher-end restaurants is intense. However, slicing and dicing isn’t the only career open to those skilled in the culinary arts. Culinary institutes can prepare you for a range of careers. Here are just a few of the possibilities:

Chef: This, of course, is the occupation most solidly associated with cooking schools. A chef is expected to not only prepare food, but also manage a kitchen, conduct its business, and keep it running smoothly and profitably. Some work as personal chefs for individual clients and groups of clients, while others work in all kinds of dining environments, including (but not limited to):

• Restaurants, from small cafés and pubs up to large eateries, hotels, cruise ships, and resorts
• Catering businesses
• Institutions like schools and hospitals
• Business cafeterias

Restaurant and Hotel (Hospitality) Management: If a chef can manage a kitchen, it’s only a small step from there to managing some or all of the other operations of a restaurant or hotel. Hospitality managers are employed in the same types of establishments as chefs, and don’t necessarily have to run the whole show; they’re often employed as food and beverage directors, sommeliers (wine advisors), or in other capacities.

Food Research: Food companies and restaurant chains are constantly trying to make food products taste better or last longer, reduce their fat content or increase their fiber content, or improve them in a thousand other ways. To do that, they employ research chefs and food chemists who develop new ingredients and new processes.

Nutrition/Dietetics: Nutritionists and dieticians are frequently part of the staff of health and educational institutions, where they plan meals for patients and students that are nutritious and tailored to meet specific dietary needs. (It’s not their fault if students still end up with mystery meat and patients are still presented with tiny dollops of some oatmeal-like substance. Really.) They’re also employed by sports teams, wellness centers, pharmaceutical companies, and numerous other businesses that have an interest in shaping their clients’ food intake to improve their health.

Food Sales: Food and beverage companies need people to sell their products to restaurants and hotels; who better to do that than someone trained to work with foods and beverages in a restaurant or hotel setting?

Food Styling and Media: Think of the chain-restaurant menus or posters you’ve seen with the too-good-to-be-true picture of some mouthwatering dish on them. Chances are that a food stylist has made the food look that good, and that a food photographer has arranged and taken the picture. It’s also safe to assume that a professional food critic has at some point actually eaten the item and written a review of it for a newspaper or Web site. A culinary education can help prepare you for any of these careers.

Food Training and Instruction: If you can gain a reputation as not only a good chef but also a good person to train with or apprentice for, you might be hired as a school instructor yourself — maybe even at the same school you graduated from. Companies who market new culinary equipment and processes to food-service professionals also hire chef-instructors to demonstrate their products or to conduct seminars.