A pop-up restaurant in a classroom: a graduation project for culinary students

2023-03-22

One university in Taiwan prepares culinary students for the world of work by producing pop-up restaurants! The students of culinary arts at National Kaohsiung University of Hospitality and Tourism must open a themed restaurant in a classroom before they can graduate. As well as a big challenge, it’s also a celebration of just how much they’ve learned. Professors say it introduces them to lots of aspects of entrepreneurship before they enter the workplace.

Students present their dishes to the university’s president. This inviting restaurant is a graduation project.

Chen Tun-chi
National Kaohsiung University of Hospitality and Tourism
They come up with four different themes each year. The four themes are all very creative, and highlight the quality of the food and its flavors, as well as the distinctive qualities of the ingredients.

Chicken is drizzled with pollock roe sauce and then blow-torched. This is an upgrade on the classic guabao. The students take the utmost care with every step of the project, from designing the menu and handling the front-of-house and running the business, to create this mini pop-up restaurant in the university.

Lin Kuan-hsun
NKUHT culinary arts student
At first our ideas didn’t totally fit together, and it was quite difficult to coordinate and communicate. But later on, earning lots of money became everyone’s objective, and we completed this project presentation together. You can actually learn a lot in the planning process – about starting a business and stuff like that. It was an experience.

Lin Shu-ying
NKUHT culinary arts professor
Basically, we get the students to try out the whole process of starting a business, before they graduate, and they get to know all the various aspects of that process.

Four teams of students produce four restaurants with different themes, and simulate the running of a real business in their classrooms. The university hopes they will take those skills off campus and thrive with them in the big wide world.

打破傳統畢業製作! "餐飲廚藝科"微型創業開餐廳

2023-03-22

高餐大餐飲廚藝科的學生，畢業製作的作品很特別，是讓他們自己組團隊來"微型創業"開餐廳，從零開始，發想主題、設計菜單、規劃流程等，結合五年來在學校學到的內、外場經營技能，在校內打造出四間不同主題的期間限定餐廳，也吸引不少同學師長一起來嘗鮮。

校長聽著學生介紹餐點，這間有模有樣的餐廳，可是學生的畢業製作作品。

[[高餐大校長陳敦基]]
“每年他們都有推出不同的主題，而且一次都推出四個主題，這四個主題都非常有創意，而且能夠把這個食物的鮮美跟它們的味道，以及食材的特色，都能夠去把它凸顯出來”

在雞肉上面沾上明太子醬，再用噴槍去炙烤，或者這一道把大家習慣的刈包做了改良，就算是畢業製作，同學們從菜單發想烹飪、前台服務到餐廳經營，全都不馬虎，在校內打造期間限定的小型餐廳。

[[高餐大餐飲廚藝科學生林莞薰]]
“一開始可能理念會有一點不合，協調上面，溝通上面就比較困難，然後後來就是大家也都是以賺大錢為目標，然後一起完成了這個成果展，在籌備(plan)過程中其實可以學到滿多，關於創業的一些知識還有什麼那類的，也是算一個經驗這樣”

[[高餐大餐飲廚藝科副教授林淑瑛]]
“基本上我們就是讓同學在畢業之前，可以真正地去嘗試他的創業的整個的過程，然後也去了解創業的整個不同的面向”

四組團隊打造出四間不同元素的餐飲品牌，把課堂模擬變成真實經營，校方也期許他們帶著這樣的經驗，走出學校後能發揮一技之長。