But there is a lot behind the scene that remains unseen for the audience – all the hours (and even years) spent in acquiring and practicing these skills that turn the cook into a chef. The chef is not just an excellent cook, he is also a manager and like all managers he supervises his collaborators and manages the kitchen and the staff.
This is why he has to be constantly trained, to understand economy, finances, marketing, management and most of all - to know the best practices and the latests trends of the moment in order to bring innovation. In addition, the chef needs to posses extensive knowledge of all aspects of the surrounding environment in which he works – to know the legislation, the specifies of the markets, the eating culture and customers’ preferences, etc.
But who trains chefs to make them real managers and “heads of the kitchen”?
In some countries, considered as traditional gastronomic destinations (such as Italy or France for example), there are specialized schools that prepare the students for taking up the position of a chef. In others, there are no such options and to become a chef takes years of hard work to even the experienced cooks.
Here comes the CULINART project addressing the need of improvement of the quality of the training offer in the culinary arts. Under the project a new VET qualification was developed designed to prepare “Chefs” as culinary professionals with a flair for creativity and innovation to provide a unique gastronomic experience.
The developed qualification is a result of the joint work of the international consortium implementing the CULINART project and was designed taking int account the needs of the labour market and the changes that innovation is bringing to the sector.
The qualification is composed of a set of documents available on the project website in all partner languages as follows: