Food is art and just like art the people that produce them often run on razor thin margins. Aside from being a celebrity or an extremely niche job like being a private chef I am not sure if there is a lot of culinary work that pays very well.

It's certainly an excellent hobby and life skill (you'll never be hungry again) but you can very easily learn that from home by watching other famous chefs.

I haven't worked in the industry since the late 90s so maybe it's better now?

There are positives. I learned that stress is transitory and I don't have to give in to it. Staying calm and working the system is how you survive getting slammed (overwhelmed by orders). I was in charge of a kitchen as sous chef in my early twenties, hiring people, ordering the supplies and ingredients, preparing for banquets and events. This was a massive confidence builder. I learned how to work with people I literally could not stand, and got to work with people I would back up in any situation.

Plus your going to be a good cook for the rest of your life and that's a big plus. You might not want to cook when you are not at work but you can and that's great for family entertaining and your own personal enjoyment later in life.

I also traveled to places I never would have been able to go to if I wasn't working there. I lucked out and worked in high end places, including one featured in the European Vogue Cooking magazine (meant something back then). I also worked in some dives.

I learned so much about people and myself. But you can do that a lot of other ways that pay better!

One last thing. With the exception of one or two really tough manual labor tasks I've done, no job has seemed hard after my time as a cook.

Make her dethrone Rachel Ray and then do a show about cooking her remains.

If she has good qualifications, she could cook in China in a city like Shanghai if she doesn't want to get burnt out. They would give good working terms and conditions, they just want a foreign cook on the team. Moreover foreign cooks are very common in big hotels and can usually run the kitchen as the Chinese staff can still be pretty mediocre at Western dishes.

I'd say so. My wife has a degree in culinary. She's used it to work her way up the hospitality industry and is now a regional GM over a few hotels in our area.