It’s all about food lately.

Culinary shows like “Top Chef” and “Hell’s Kitchen” are all the rage. Tainted peanuts have us worried about what we eat and how to make it better. Books such as “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and “Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics” are bestsellers. And even First Lady Michelle Obama is getting in on the act, pushing cooking healthy food when ever she gets a chance.

Not surprisingly, more and more laid off workers, career switchers and people just starting out are contemplating jobs in the food industry.

Jack Bernowitz, a 44 year old laid off broker from bankrupt Lehman Brothers, enrolled in New York’s Institute of Culinary Education this past November with his sights on becoming a chef.

“For 20 years I loved going to work,” he says about his tenure at the brokerage house. “But in the last four years with the greed, corruption on Wall Street, the love was gone.”

He was ready for a career overhaul. “I always loved cooking for my family and friend, even bringing food in for the people at work,” says Bernowitz, who has more than 120 cookbooks at home. “Sometimes you need a tragedy to push you to do what you want to do.”

Last year, the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) saw a record-setting 20,000 inquiries for enrollment, up more than 12 percent from the previous year.

“Surging interest and growing enrollment at ICE is directly related to the current economic climate,” says Rick Smilow, president of The Institute of Culinary Education.

And Mark Erickson, vice president/dean for The Culinary Institute of America (CIA), adds: “People are re-pondering the importance of food in our lives. I can’t tell you how thrilled I am that food is a topic on the national agenda. People are thinking about the health, social and political implications food has and it’s a wonderful time to think about a career in the food profession.”

While many individuals like Bernowitz have aspirations of working in a restaurant kitchen, cooking jobs can be very competitive.

The jobless rate among food preparation and related occupations in 2008 was 9.5 percent, compared to the overall rate of 5.8 percent last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But take heart, the food job opportunities go beyond the standard restaurant digs.

“Food is the second largest employer after the federal government,” says Irena Chalmers, author of “Food Jobs: 150 Great Jobs for Culinary Students, Career Changers and Food Lovers.”

The industry is huge, she maintains, “but people tend to think of food as cooking and chefs in a restaurant. That’s a tiny part.”

Chalmers says there are a host of opportunities if you want to cook, including kitchens in nursing homes, retirement centers, personal chefs in people’s homes, and even supermarkets that are doing more prepared food for time-crunched consumers.

Non-cooking jobs, she says, run the gamut from nutritional experts to food safety jobs, to research and development positions for corporations.

Dennis Pitchford, 40, used to work for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra doing marketing but decided to take his business background and combine it with one of his other loves, food.

He graduated from the CIA in June and is now working as the corporate chef for Noble Communications, conducting market research and testing of new food products.

When he went to culinary school, he admits he considered whether he’d be a famous chef like the one he’s seen on TV. “But school straightened me out,” he quips.

Sara O’Brien, a former chemical engineer, admits, “I’m a border line foodie. I get Gourmet and Food and Wine magazine, and Top Chef is one of my all-time favorite TV shows.”

She’s now studying at Boston University to be a dietician with plans to work in pediatric nutrition.

“I got bored with my job and wanted to do something more with my life,” says O’Brien, 27.

While our food crazy culture got her excited about doing something in the sector, it was an experience in her youth that inspired her to make the career move. “A dietician helped me get over some health issues and that affected my life positively,” she explains.

More and more people like O’Brien are looking to careers in nutrition, says Joan Salge Blake, clinical associate professor at Boston University and a spokeswomen for the American Dietetic Association.

The economy, she says, has caused people to rethink their career choices. “I don’t like to call this a recession, I like to call this a resetting. People are resetting what they want to do with their lives,” she explains.

With obesity rates soaring and the aging of the population, she says, people see the value of a career in nutritional services.

In order to become a registered dietician though, you’ll need a Bachelors of Science, a thousand hours working in the field, and you’ll have to pass the ADA exam. But, she adds, individuals who have other degrees may just have to take a few courses in order to meet the BS requirements.

There’s also a burgeoning food safety sector, given all the news lately about contaminated food and a new administration that promises to beef up the regulatory environment.

Gonzalo Checa who worked for Kimberly Clark in its business-to-business division decided to leave his career behind in February and join Steritech Group, Inc., in Chester Spring, PA., that offers food safety and quality assurance services.

Checa, now the president food safety division, became interested in the industry after hearing about the cases of tainted foods like spinach and peanuts. “I thought there were opportunities in food safety, and I also wanted to work for a smaller company,” he explains.

While there are a lot of food-related jobs out there, that doesn’t mean you have to rule out the traditional restaurant route because there are jobs to be had.

By the end of this year, there will be 13 million people employed by restaurants and other food service outlets, according to the National Restaurant Associations forecasts.

“Employment in the restaurant industry outpaced the overall economy in 2008 for the ninth consecutive year, despite several months of modest industry job losses, and is expected to continue to outpace the economy in 2009,” the group reported. “The industry is expected to add an additional 1.8 million positions over the next 10 years, boosting the industry’s workforce by 14 percent to 14.8 million people in 2019.”

John Stephano may have a restaurant in his future.

Stephano, a former vice president of sales for a financial firm, is now a 40-year old student at the CIA living in the dorms.

He saved for a year before he left his financial job in 2006 and then took a 90 percent cut in pay to go work as a sales associate at a Wegman’s supermarket in Pennsylvania. “I wanted to get into the food business and get as much exposure to high-end food and service as possible,” he explains.

After three months, he worked his way up to a position where he was training staff at the store in selling and merchandising products, and soon decided to go to culinary school. He rented his house in Malvern, Pa., got a host of scholarships and enrolled in January.

When he graduates he either plans to develop a high-end food importing business; get into food business consulting; or open up his own restaurant at the beach.

While he says the food mania in recent years ignited his passion to get into the sector, it was the late Julia Childs that fostered his food passion.

“When I was in grade school and I was home sick, I wasn’t like the other kids looking for cartoons to watch. I always would look to find Julia on PBS,” he recalls. “She became the love of my life.”