During the last few months CULINART partners were working on the setting of strategic goals for the development of the Joint VET Qualification in Culinary Arts.

As the obstacles encountered in the implementation of the project were too many and insurmountable, given the pandemic situation, the CULINART project partners prepared and submitted to the European Executive Agency for Education and Culture /EAECA/ a request to extend the contract by 9 months.

As a consequence of the measures taken to prevent COVID19 disease, our consortium had to postpone the pilot training across Europe. Pandemic paused society activities on so many levels including exchange of experience and knowledge in face-to-face settings.

In September, we gathered again to agree on a specific plan for our next activities and tasks.

At the beginning of 2020, when the consortium expected the pilot training to happen, we had a global crisis knocking on our doors, and unexpectedly but inevitably we had to postpone them. Pandemic left us without an opportunity to continue with these activities because all of our partners had to overcome the inconvenience of this collective obstacle.Travelling was absolutely impossible with the critical area of spread of infectious disease all across Europe and beyond.

The European Vocational Skills Week 2020 took place in Berlin and across Europe in the period 09-13 November. The fifth edition of the Week was a 100% online event organised by the European Commission in cooperation with the German Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

VET is a path that people decide to take on due to their inner urge for more fulfillning personal and professional life and European Vocational Skills Week is a platform to make VET’s potential more widely known, and an opportunity to exchange information and good practice across Europe and beyond.

Discover Your talent.

Your journey.

Your choice.

This year event accommodated more than 1000 activities and events to showcase excellence in vocational education and training in the partner countries involving more than 3.5 million participants.

We have the pleasure to announce another state-of-the-arts initiative provided by our partners and friends in Spain – GastroAlianza!

INNO GASTRO project aims to promote at a national and international level the innovation and quality of the traditional Aragonese gastronomy but adapted to the current times, with didactic videos of innovative dishes, menus, tapas, meals, etc., prepared by chefs from Aragonese establishments.

You can access here the online school and video library with 20 didactic video-workshops on line about cooking and food from Aragon (with support in Spanish, English and French), which can be prepared by professionals and amateurs in other countries.

The INNO GASTRO delicious “virtual cookbook” accommodates over 50 recipes of innovative or updated original Aragonese cuisine. Along with the showcase of 25 innovative and high quality restaurants throughout Aragon, by accessing the INNO GASTRO platform you could also “examine” the local chefs, gastronomy experts and other professionals in the field of gastronomy, learn the latest news and events, etc.

If you are still not hungry … you will be soon when you look at this  ...

On 12th November our partner Proandi also joined the celebrations in the frame of the European Vocational Skills Week 2020 organizing "Sustainable Culinary Workshops". The aims to raise awareness of training and skills, at local and European level, to promote professional skills, share their examples of excellence and interact with European and international networks.

The trainees of the cooking/pastry and restaurant/bar courses prepared several sustainable menus, promoting the sustainable use of food, in order to reduce food waste.

The trainees of cooking /pastry III course, under the guidance of instructor Arminda Campos, made chicken leftover wraps with ripe avocado, pumpkin peel tart, fried rice and leftovers.

Congratulations! Everything was delicious!

One of the main goals of the CULINART project is to seek for a pathway to further studies - out of the developed joint VET qualification for Chef - aligned with the career development prospects.

A new opportunity in this direction was recently provided by Varna University of Management (VUM) by launching a brand new bachelor degree in Culinary Science.

Culinary Science is an innovative educational program that blends knowledge and competences in three areas: 1) Food science and Technologies, 2) Culinary arts and 3) Business skills.

The curriculum for the new program was inspired by the CULINART project concept and designed by building upon the learning outcomes set out in the Chef qualification and developing further the scientific aspects in food preparation and the culinary processes.

This is alsready the third option provided by VUM for the CULINART joint qualification graduates’ to continue their education at tertiary level - together with the Gastronomy and Culinary Arts (3 years) and Hospitality and Culinary Arts (4 years) BA programs, also offered by the University (both available in English).

As of now the new Culinary Science Program is delivered only in Bulgarian language, but the University plans for making it accessible also for international students by offering it in English starting from the next year.