It's easy to think of food consulting as a job that takes place entirely in the kitchen. A food consultant works with chefs to improve their recipes, with restaurant staffs to develop faster and easier workflows, and with food specialty companies to develop products.

And to be sure, much of a food consultant's work is done in the kitchen. That's where most culinary professionals shine. But there's a lot more to being a consultant than cooking. 

Nutritional Analysis. These days, people are more concerned than ever about their health, and how the food they eat affects it. It's easy to find things like partially hydrogenated soybean oil and high fructose corn syrup in places where you'd least expect them. Food consultants work with chefs, food companies and restaurants to determine things like fat content and calorie count. FDA regulations dictate that food items in supermarkets be labeled with comprehensive nutritional information, and many regulations require restaurants to do the same. Food consultants help develop those labels.

Purchasing. Restaurant owners and chefs like to use the best ingredients they can in all their dishes; higher-quality ingredients make better meals. But top-shelf ingredients aren't cheap, which is why restaurants -- and especially restaurant chains -- tend to have employees whose sole job is to source and buy the best ingredients at the best prices. Often these purchasers will enlist the assistance of a good food consultant to find the best deals. Many food consultants know about places like farms, farmers' markets, speciality food distributors and meat and fish markets, so often they're the first professionals purchasers turn to when they need help.

Advertising. Running a restaurant or a specialty food store means having a strong advertising component as part of your business. Sure, some restaurants operate mostly on word-of-mouth advertising, but even they have to please customers enough that they'll spread the word. That means hiring a food consultant to help develop daily specials that'll make people sit up and take notice. And if the advertising campaign is more complex, a food consultant can help organize the food stylists, food photographers and other professionals to help develop the specifics of the campaign.

Entertainment. Anyone who owns a television and pays for cable every month knows about shows like Top Chef, Iron Chef, Ace of Cakes, and any of the programming on the Food Network, the Style Network, or public television channels. Quite a bit of work goes into those shows; like any television show, a food show -- whether it's a cooking show, a competition show or a show that spotlights restaurants -- has a big staff keeping it running smoothly. Aside from the star, that means writers, directors, producers, researchers, and an army of production assistants. Often the producers of these shows will also enlist the help of a food stylist who can help source ingredients, choose recipes, prepare food for photography, and a whole host of other tasks.

Product Launches. A food consultant will often be enlisted by specialty food companies prior to a product launch to provide general and specific advice on the product and how to market it. A food consultant might recommend whether a product should be launched at all; he might analyze it and offer advice on making changes prior to launch; he might predict how much success the product will have in the marketplace. He might also be able to provide advice on where to seek capital or how best to advertise the new product.