When ICE President Rick Smilow and Anne E. McBride wrote Culinary Careers: How to Get Your Dream Job in Food they discovered a plethora of food jobs they had never heard of before. Since the book’s release, they have been discovering even more interesting culinary career paths. DICED shares some of them with you in a reoccurring feature: “Unique Culinary Careers.”
Pierre Lamielle not only completed culinary school in New York City, but he is also a graduate of the Capilano College Graphic Design and Illustration program in Vancouver, B.C. Now, he has set out on a food media career that allows him to use both his skills in food and design. He is author and illustrator of Kitchen Scraps: A Humourous Illustrated Cookbook, 
which won the prestigious World Gourmand Best Illustrated Cookbook Award in 2009. Currently, he is working on an illustrated Alice in Wonderland cookbook with co-author Julie van Rosendaal. In addition to writing recipes and illustrating them in his own unique style, he can be seen around his hometown of Calgary, Alberta where he teaches classes at the Cookbook Co. and writes for Swerve magazine with the Calgary Herald. With such an interesting mix of both the culinary and visual arts, we wanted to ask him about how he ended up with such a unique career.
How would you describe your job?
A hodgepodge. I write and illustrate a food column for Swerve, publish a blog kitchenscraps.ca, am the author/illustrator of Kitchen Scraps and teach cooking classes.
How did you get this job? What has your career path been like?
Accidental. I worked in newspapers as an illustrator and was asked to do an illustrated recipe that became a regular column, which turned into going to the culinary school and a career in the food media landscape. More…