What comes to your mind when you see ‘food’ and ‘career’ in the same sentence? Taking a wild guess, I’ll say, Caterer… Chef. Sous Chef, Chef again but this time in a private kitchen. Then maybe a food photographer.

But what if there are other interesting careers for a gourmet or gastronome or cuisine connoisseur or whichever name you choose to go by? Just as there are diverse foods in different cultures all over the world, so are there diverse careers you can explore if you are deeply fascinated with food.

Here are five unusual jobs to consider and make a career out of if you love food.

1. Food Stylist: If we have stylists for our hair and clothes, why not for the food that keeps us alive?

Anyone can cook, but not everybody can present dishes in a way that is instantly appealing. Food stylists put together picture-perfect dishes, and, if you are good at colour theories and compositions, and also at prepping dishes so that they look good in front of the camera, then, this job is for you.

You can even combine this with food photography and sell your images to those willing to pay for them.

2. Forager: Let’s get real. Who do you think buys food for eateries, restaurants or hotels? The chef?

I didn’t think so too.

Foragers are responsible for seeking out the best fresh foods in the area where the establishment is. While food markets may abound, it is a forager’s job to look beyond them to places where the freshest produce and ingredients can be gotten so that the final meal is as tasty as it can be.

If you are keen on research and know how to drive a good bargain in addition to your love for food, then, this is a job you should look at.

3. Holistic Health Coach: maybe you are not as keen on beautiful dishes as you are about meals that can increase the body’s overall general health while keeping it at a certain weight.

Becoming a holistic health coach might just be the career you need. This is a professional who “uses an integrative approach to both diet and lifestyle changes to improve their clients’ health. Working as a guide toward an overall healthier life, they will look at their clients’ nutrition patterns, relationships, physical fitness, spirituality, and more.”

4. Molecular Gastronomist: it is possible to love more than one thing at the same time and in equal proportions. So, you can love the sciences the same way you love to whip up a delicious meal.

Molecular gastronomy is the scientific discipline that studies the physical and chemical transformations that occur during cooking. It focuses on the mechanisms of transformation that occur during culinary processes at the level of domestic and restaurant cooking.

Who would have thought cigar smoke ice cream was possible? Only a molecular gastronomist! If you decide that this is a career for you, you would be an invaluable resource to restaurants and dining houses looking to try out new and unusual recipes.

5. Food Historian: this seems to be a career that should be more common until you look around your immediate environment and see that no one is studying the history of how a recipe came to be, why food is prepared the way it is, and possible recipes that may have disappeared with a generation.

Being a food historian means you are someone who is so enamoured of food that you are driven to think about it, research it and document your findings. Of course, it would also help if you love to travel as foods are best studied in their ‘natural habitat’, the culture from which they originated.

Whether you are considering a career change into the food industry, or you think there is a gap in this industry that needs to be filled, or you are just starting out and are considering a career in food, these unusual and not-so-common careers may just be what you need to get started.