19 Insanely Cool Food Jobs That’ll Make You Incredibly Jealous

1. Nerding out science-style as an on-camera recipe developer
2. Throwing parties with an army of food trucks
3. Running america’s most celebrated barbecue institution
4. Judging Top Chef in your spare time
5. Making Shake Shack appear even more delicious
6. Taste-testing some of America’s finest Italian-style cured meats
7. Playing with cool new kitchen toys before anyone else
8. Running a virtual playground for food nerds
9. Combining tech and ice cream in the coolest way possible
10. Talking about whiskey with Anthony Bourdain
11. Pushing jam into taste bud-expanding new places
12. Helping launch some of the country’s most anticipated restaurants
13. Turning major chefs’ delicious work into cookbooks
14. Turning your own delicious work into cookbooks
15. Curating one of the largest culinary libraries in the world
16. Finding new ways to make chocolate taste incredible
17. Traveling the world documenting international food scenes
18. Hosting beautiful famous people for dinner
19. Throwing an anticipated annual food fest

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In a world where throngs of people go bonkers over a job where you get paid to drink beer all summer, it’s clear that many folks are not living their best lives, making it only natural to be simultaneously fascinated by and jealous of the lucky (and hard-working) people who are.

From rubbing elbows with Anthony Bourdain to conducting next-level ice cream experiments, these 19 professionals have amazingly inspirational and enviable jobs in food, as well as some sage advice on how they got there.

DAN SOUZA | COURTESY OF AMERICA’S TEST KITCHEN

1. Nerding out science-style as an on-camera recipe developer

Who does it: Dan Souza, co-executive editor of Cook’s Science and onscreen test cook for America’s Test Kitchen, Brookline, MA

What he does: For Souza, every day at work is different. One day he’s debunking the mysteries behind water ratios and rice, the next he’s off to Penn State to brush up on the physics of ice cream. In addition to cooking on camera, Souza is developing the newest arm of America’s Test Kitchen: Cook’s Science, where he and his co-editor Molly Birnbaum fully nerd out about the science behind cooking though research and recipe development. Cook’s Science will launch online this summer.

How he got the job: Souza left a job in advertising to go make salads for $9 an hour. He then upped his game by studying at the Culinary Institute of America and worked at New York’s famous Le Bernardin. Souza loved the speed of restaurants, but wanted to find a different way to work with food. He tracked down America’s Test Kitchen outside of his native Boston and after two days of “staging” (that’s kitchen code for interning), landed a job on its cookbook team. A few years later he moved on to Cook’s Illustrated and soon became a senior editor.  Now he gets to head up his own team with Cook’s Science.

Advice: Get rid of your fear and worry that your background isn’t right; the food industry has people from so many different walks of life. If you’re interested in the testing side, try and get some science under your belt. And cook all the time!

Read the full article here.